Hey everybody,
About me:
I am new to KUBOTA and pretty new to tractors. I grew up with access to all kinds of tractors in the late 70's and 80's. My dad always had fords. 9n and a 3000 with loader. Anyway I have bushawged a many an hour on these and done other stuff as well as helped maintain them.
Now I am 43 and have been living on 5 acres of wooded land for the last 5 years. I decided it would be nice to have something a little more powerful than a snapper to help out around here. So I found a pretty good deal on an old L185DT. It shows 600 hours (pretty low for this old a tractor and with the exception of lots of rust on the body work and loader everything else looks really good. I have yet to get this little jewel to the house but I should have it here in a day or two.
Ok so my question. I understand that this little tractor should have roughly 18 h.p It has a duel range transmission and 4 wheel drive. This one also has a 3 speed PTO (that is a first for me and so is the 4 wheel drive) When I test drove it there was a medium hill. I placed the tractor in high gear and made for the top (this was to put the engine and drive line under strain) I didn't notice any issues with the transmission or clutch, but I was surprised that the engine was easily overcome in high gear by this grade. (I am from Texas so never ran another tractor up a hill before. (do you think a medium hill would make this little tractor lug down in high gear is normal?
Ok so as I mentioned earlier this one has a loader. I am use to the sound one makes when it opens the bypass valve. (like when you bottom out the rams to their fully closed position. I hear this same sound when I curl the bucket and then try to lift the front of the tractor using only the rams on the log arms. This seems week to me. I am pretty sure the 3000 would do this easily (but then again it was a much more powerful tractor.) Anyone with a similar hp tractor tell me if their machine will lift its front using only the long arm rams?
So once I get it to the house I will be doing lots of maintenance on it to get it accustomed to being cared for. I'll be doing lots of reading here and looking to get all the necessary manuals in short order.
Thanks for any advice and all the warm welcomes.
David Grimes
Atlanta, GA
About me:
I am new to KUBOTA and pretty new to tractors. I grew up with access to all kinds of tractors in the late 70's and 80's. My dad always had fords. 9n and a 3000 with loader. Anyway I have bushawged a many an hour on these and done other stuff as well as helped maintain them.
Now I am 43 and have been living on 5 acres of wooded land for the last 5 years. I decided it would be nice to have something a little more powerful than a snapper to help out around here. So I found a pretty good deal on an old L185DT. It shows 600 hours (pretty low for this old a tractor and with the exception of lots of rust on the body work and loader everything else looks really good. I have yet to get this little jewel to the house but I should have it here in a day or two.
Ok so my question. I understand that this little tractor should have roughly 18 h.p It has a duel range transmission and 4 wheel drive. This one also has a 3 speed PTO (that is a first for me and so is the 4 wheel drive) When I test drove it there was a medium hill. I placed the tractor in high gear and made for the top (this was to put the engine and drive line under strain) I didn't notice any issues with the transmission or clutch, but I was surprised that the engine was easily overcome in high gear by this grade. (I am from Texas so never ran another tractor up a hill before. (do you think a medium hill would make this little tractor lug down in high gear is normal?
Ok so as I mentioned earlier this one has a loader. I am use to the sound one makes when it opens the bypass valve. (like when you bottom out the rams to their fully closed position. I hear this same sound when I curl the bucket and then try to lift the front of the tractor using only the rams on the log arms. This seems week to me. I am pretty sure the 3000 would do this easily (but then again it was a much more powerful tractor.) Anyone with a similar hp tractor tell me if their machine will lift its front using only the long arm rams?
So once I get it to the house I will be doing lots of maintenance on it to get it accustomed to being cared for. I'll be doing lots of reading here and looking to get all the necessary manuals in short order.
Thanks for any advice and all the warm welcomes.
David Grimes
Atlanta, GA
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