Picked up this Kubota ZD326 today. I rolled the dice a little, so I'm here to hear what a sucker I am.
Guy said his wife's grandfather owned it and used it on a couple of acres at his house. Year? No idea. Receipt for purchase? Manual? Sorry.
The ad said 229 hours, and he was asking $6500, so you can imagine why I wanted this mower. I had him fire it up and run it for a few minutes, and the hour meter...did not move.
So now I was in gambling territory.
I looked it over. The paint is good. The guts look good. It runs perfectly. No serial number, however. It's not a 229-hour mower, but it's not a dying discard from a landscaper.
There was damage by the chute, and a globby weld on top of the deck suggested someone had done a repair. I don't think Kubota would have left a weld like that, but it looked solid, and if it wasn't, it was nothing I could not fix.
I had him lift the deck so I could look under it, and there were still bits of paint on the underside. Everything looked good. Then I saw the oil spots under the mower.
I looked back at what I assume is the crankcase, and oil was dripping off on the driveway. Time for me to drive home?
This poor guy had just changed the fluids, and he had gotten oil on top of the engine. When he jacked it, the excess oil ran down off the crankcase. There were no drips when we ran it to check the meter, and there were no drips after he cleaned the oil off, so I felt better.
I noticed the front scalping assemblies were missing. I tried to look them up quickly in the sun, and I thought I saw $258 each. I was a little freaked out, so I told him. I thought I was looking at $600 with tax and shipping. He said he would take $5500.
I was feeling lucky, so I bought it. If it's under 1000 hours, in my area, this is a very good deal.
Looks like I got the parts cost wrong. At Messick's, the actual parts cost $210 total, and the seller gave me a bag of new parts which may include some of it.
Everything worked. Based on the appearance of the Kubota L3710 I bought with 1100 hours, I figured this mower was between 500 and 1000.
I ran it a few yards on my lawn (rainy day, so that's all), and compared to my JD 430, it's a new universe. Incredibly smooth. The RPM's sound a lot higher. It evaporated the grass. I was concerned about the power, but I feel sure I can make it work with mulching blades. The deck has partitions under it which look like a mulch kit, but they're more open than the Kubota kit I've seen. It should be good enough with mulching blades. I just need to cut leaves up small enough to rot.
The cut was perfect by my undemanding standards. Just flat grass. Not like the ridges and valleys the JD leaves.
Question: do I need to replace the scalp wheels? He put new tires on this thing as well as filters and fluids, and he says the dealer told him not to bother with the front scalp wheels on the corners. Weird thing for a dealer to say.
Guy said his wife's grandfather owned it and used it on a couple of acres at his house. Year? No idea. Receipt for purchase? Manual? Sorry.
The ad said 229 hours, and he was asking $6500, so you can imagine why I wanted this mower. I had him fire it up and run it for a few minutes, and the hour meter...did not move.
So now I was in gambling territory.
I looked it over. The paint is good. The guts look good. It runs perfectly. No serial number, however. It's not a 229-hour mower, but it's not a dying discard from a landscaper.
There was damage by the chute, and a globby weld on top of the deck suggested someone had done a repair. I don't think Kubota would have left a weld like that, but it looked solid, and if it wasn't, it was nothing I could not fix.
I had him lift the deck so I could look under it, and there were still bits of paint on the underside. Everything looked good. Then I saw the oil spots under the mower.
I looked back at what I assume is the crankcase, and oil was dripping off on the driveway. Time for me to drive home?
This poor guy had just changed the fluids, and he had gotten oil on top of the engine. When he jacked it, the excess oil ran down off the crankcase. There were no drips when we ran it to check the meter, and there were no drips after he cleaned the oil off, so I felt better.
I noticed the front scalping assemblies were missing. I tried to look them up quickly in the sun, and I thought I saw $258 each. I was a little freaked out, so I told him. I thought I was looking at $600 with tax and shipping. He said he would take $5500.
I was feeling lucky, so I bought it. If it's under 1000 hours, in my area, this is a very good deal.
Looks like I got the parts cost wrong. At Messick's, the actual parts cost $210 total, and the seller gave me a bag of new parts which may include some of it.
Everything worked. Based on the appearance of the Kubota L3710 I bought with 1100 hours, I figured this mower was between 500 and 1000.
I ran it a few yards on my lawn (rainy day, so that's all), and compared to my JD 430, it's a new universe. Incredibly smooth. The RPM's sound a lot higher. It evaporated the grass. I was concerned about the power, but I feel sure I can make it work with mulching blades. The deck has partitions under it which look like a mulch kit, but they're more open than the Kubota kit I've seen. It should be good enough with mulching blades. I just need to cut leaves up small enough to rot.
The cut was perfect by my undemanding standards. Just flat grass. Not like the ridges and valleys the JD leaves.
Question: do I need to replace the scalp wheels? He put new tires on this thing as well as filters and fluids, and he says the dealer told him not to bother with the front scalp wheels on the corners. Weird thing for a dealer to say.
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