Kubota gas generator

[OldeEnglish]

hello everyone,

I've been looking for a generator for backup power. I came across two kubota gas generators, one is a a5000 and the other is a 5500. Both are electric start which I think would be handy to have if the wife needs it if I'm not around. Both are priced reasonably under $500. At that price they are tough to pass up. I don't need a ton of power just enough to run my fridge and heating system. The heating system is fairly new high efficiency that draws very little power.

I know a few guys who have Kubota gens and they have used them for a very long time for construction. Anyone out there have one that could give me some feed back on their performance and any problems they had?

 

[OldeEnglish]

I'm surprised with all of the kubota lovers in here nobody owns one of their generators... I've searched the inter web long and hard but didn't find much information on them. The only way to source a manual for one is eBay for 10-$20. The only issues I found with them is basic carb problems that just need a good cleaning. They do make a LP/NG conversion kit for all of their gas models which I found interesting. The A5000 model is fairly old, from the late mid 80's to the 90's, but for $300 I think I'll take the chance on it. I wonder why kubota doesn't make gas equipment anymore.....

 

[85Hokie]

I'm surprised with all of the kubota lovers in here nobody owns one of their generators... I've searched the inter web long and hard but didn't find much information on them. The only way to source a manual for one is eBay for 10-$20. The only issues I found with them is basic carb problems that just need a good cleaning. They do make a LP/NG conversion kit for all of their gas models which I found interesting. The A5000 model is fairly old, from the late mid 80's to the 90's, but for $300 I think I'll take the chance on it. I wonder why kubota doesn't make gas equipment anymore.....

I have seen a few gassers via kubota , but not many - I think they said - we build a damn nice diesel, gasoline is much harder to stay running and more complicated than diesel......

 

[OldeEnglish]

Once in a while I come across a kubota push mower and a few generators but they are not that common to see. I know of two different guys that used their generators for 15+ years so I know they are of good quality. Diesels definitally last longer and use less fuel but I never have any problems with gas equipment. Today's gas is garbage with all of the ethanol in it and causes a lot of people problems but I've never had any major issues. I'm not a fan of gas stabilizer never found a good reason to use it. I used it once in my snowblower when I first got it, the next winter that thing ran like garbage until it burned all of that stabilizer out. I always park it with very little fuel in the tank, once a month give it a splash of fuel, and let it run for 20 mins. Haven't had to clean any carbs and everything fires right up with no effort. Same goes with 2 stroke snowmobiles and power equipment. The people that have problems let the equipment sit for months on end without firing it up and letting it run once in a while.

 

[D2Cat]

Grasshopper zero turns have a Kubota gas option. Ours in 29HP.

 

[OldeEnglish]

Grasshopper zero turns have a Kubota gas option. Ours in 29HP.

I bet that is a nice mower! I notice a lot of lawn guys around here run Scags, Toros, and a few kubotas. My buddy has a toro zero turn and says he could never go back to anything else cutting grass. All I know is they are all big $$$

 

[D2Cat]

Can't tell you much about it. I honestly only been on it about 5 minutes! My wife does all the mowing. I make sure fuel is available, grease it. She checks radiator and oil before each use. Hooks up battery tender when back in the shed.

She mows a couple acres at the house. Offers to do the neighbors and we have another property a mile up the road she does also. Hey, she does all the fertilizing, leaf raking or anything else needed with the yard.

Cost isn't a factor if you can get something they feel comfortable, safe and proud of and WANT to use.

It looks like a bumble bee going across the yard at times. It'll probably mow at 10MPH and does an excellent job. Out front deck eliminates almost all weed eating.

I push snow!

 

[OldeEnglish]

I have a good question for the electricians in the house.....

I've been researching and scratching my head about what to get for a generator.... One thing that was pointed out to me in an add for a used Honda inverter generator was that they stated.... Produces clean power for electronics and the newer High Efficacy Boilers..... Now that made me think....my boiler is basically computer controlled.....I don't want a generator to cook the controls $$$.... But at the same time I've gas piped a few Generac, Honeywell, Briggs, and Kohler stand by generators. I know for sure that the generac and Honeywell (generac motor) were backing up high efficacy boilers.... I'm not sure if they are inverter generators.....but we never got a call back saying the control board is fried.... Electricians purchased the generators, I just gas piped them so honestly I don't know much about the electricity part of it... Except size it properly taking in consideration the size of the central AC units! They draw a serious amount of power and had an electrician under size a 20KW, wouldn't fire the Two AC units at the same time

Anyone have any knowledge of inverter gens? Is it possible to make a regular gen an inverter type if I have a large inverter from a 40' class A RV? Should I honestly even worry about it? It's my understanding that an inverter inverts dc to ac?

 

[skeets]

When they say clean what they mean is a pure sine wave most likely generated by a solid state wave generator. Most if not all generator heads make a lot of noise if you put the out put on a scope the sine wave output looks all jittery (though some units use a capacitor bank to clean it up). And in some cases that will make some very sensitive computer equipment do some strange things. Every generator I have been around will cause some wave form distortion and that is simply due to the nature of the beast. And the portable one are just about the worst and some have a frequency problems which is worse than having noise on the sine wave. Though I feel most equipment out there is a whole lot more forgiving than some companies would lead the public to believe. Point in fact is I have an OLD 5kv gen set and if you put a scope on the out put, well anybody with an electronics back ground wouldn't want to use it for a soldering iron let alone a TV and puter and stuff. When I worked at the VA we installed a new Cat and if I remember it was like a 125kv ( we had 6 backup units for the compound each isolated from the other)and since it was to be used as back up in a hospital, it had to be a super clean out put, on a scope the out put was as pure as the driven snow,, Ok Im all done

 

[Sterno]

I own a little Kubota A450 genset, it's reliable, fairly quiet and reasonably easy on fuel (it's only 450 watt after all).
I have plugged all sorts of "sensitive" electronics into this old beast without ill effect. One of these days I'll hook a scope up to it and see how noisy the thing is.

If the generators in question are in good shape (not burning oil, starting quickly) I'd go for it and maybe look into a low-power line conditioner for your heating system, for peace of mind.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[OldeEnglish]

Very interesting guys, thank you for the run down skeets it is something I've honestly never thought about. At my place, in the past 5 years we have been lucky not to lose power that often with all of the hellacious weather we've had. Although, this past summer a major transfer station had some old transformers melt down and we didn't have power for a day. Few weeks later, happened again.... They blamed it on aging equipment.... Maybe thats part of the reason why my electric bill went up 37%!

Having a back up generator has always been in the back of my mind. Never really needed it but that's one of the things you never say never to! I really like the old kubota gens, wish they still sold them. I snoozed too long on one I liked, it's gone now. The other one that was for sale the guy wants too much for it, looks like it fell off a roof a few times, but it still runs!

I always wanted a stand by until I worked with a gen tech on a monster kohler diesel with a Deere engine at a college. It was a big girl, had to pipe a 10" SCH 80 exhaust up the side of a building for it! He told me to stay away from the residential units, a lot of problems and the parts cost as much as the gen is new. He told me the kohlers were the best and that they sell and service all brands.

If I buy a new one, I'll either go with a kubota GL series or a Honda inverter type LP powered. I have to do some more research on the GL's to see how clean the power is, if something can be added to scrub the power clean my question is how much are they? If the kubota comes in a LP model I would opt for that but I don't believe they do but I don't know for sure.... Tie it into a couple snow man tanks along with my BBQ, life is good

 

[OldeEnglish]

I should also mention..... For you folks that live in the frigid weather..... When running a LP generator off of propane, a underground LP tank is the only way you can achieve the proper ambient fuel temperature to maintain a constant fuel pressure. Above ground tanks lose pressure as the outside temp drops. Two snowmen tanks at 50% volume at below freezing tems won't even have enough gas to fire a 20kw standby gen set.

Underground tanks are insulated by the ground and hold more of a constant pressure.

The price difference between a 500 gal and a 1000 gal tank is about $1000. Under the whole scope of the project of installing one, that is about 15% more money for twice the volume. And a KX1213 will pick up a 1000 gal tank with an operator that weighs 350+ as little extra counter weight If he's skinny throw a back pack of sand on him

I almost dropped a tank in when the Nat gas company was putting me off to hook me up to the street. Had to pay them $2000 in advance.... Called them up and told them to give me my money back and that I was going to sink a tank instead.... They got their ass in gear and hooked me up in 2 days...kind of wish I went with the tank instead now

 

[OldeEnglish]

A setup like this would be ideal.....

Solar is starting to get popular around here....they sell the power to the power company and buy it back at night for a more expensive rate....That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, battery storage would be ideal but $$$$