I posted about how I got my Homestead Pinnacle Grapple last week and then found out the Kubota L2265 3rd function I had on order doesn't even have a manufacture date set in the Kubota parts system... I then struggled with a bunch of 3rd party options - and there's a lot of confusion around the throttle advance button on the Grand L60 series and the WR Long kits... and I didn't want to lose that - some guys say you don't some guys say you do... even dealers were split. Also - I have the front blower connectors on my tractor as well and nobody could tell me where the WR Long solenoid mounts on a HSTC 4760... just didn't get the warm fuzzies... but was considering it.
I even found a loader + 3rd function they had ripped off a tractor on TractorHouse... looked pretty beat up in the pictures and the whole combo was overpriced... but I emailed them anyhow to see if they would sell the 3rd function kit - figured if hoses or something were busted I could get those. Never head from them.
So - last Friday, with my sights on the L2265 as the option I wanted - I formulated a plan.
I pulled up Google maps and searched for Kubota dealers. Starting with one I HATE right down the road and spiraling out based on distance I started calling - asking if they had, in stock, on a shelf, a wholegoods part L2265 - hoping that someone got the kit in and never received the Grand L it was for... and the kit was juts collecting dust.
Spiral kept getting larger and farther away - nobody had one. One dealer thought he did - it was showing on his inventory sheet... only to go look in parts and tell me it's not there. 30 dealers called... now the spiral is moving well outside of my home state... still calling...
On my 43rd call at 4:45 on Friday - the dealer I called said no - he's got negative in inventory, he knows he's been ordering them and Kubota isn't even sure if/when they will be making them... but then he said something funny "I do show my other location with one in stock".
"Give me the number!"
My 44th dealership call over 350 miles away at 4:48pm on a Friday -
"Hi - I was told by your other location that you guys have, physically in stock, available for sale, wholegoods part number L2265"...
"Hummm... It says we do, let me go look"....
shitty / stress inducing hold music and ad all dealerships seem to play when you are waiting...
"Uhh, hello? You still there?"
(hard swallow)
"Yup - please tell me you have one?"
"Sure do - you want it?"
And that's the story of how awesome my Friday became.
Monday the dealer called, gave me my final cost including UPS to get it here... so I don't even have to go pick it up...
And today - UPS just left - and I have the big L2265 box to go unpack in the barn!
Tenacity and persistence pay off... I feel so lucky that I may have one of the very last L2265's in North America at this point! Just get on that phone and don't give up - there's gotta be another one out there somewhere...
