I've had a "like new" B7100HST-D with only 600 hours on it for about a year now, and absolutely love it. Even bought a brand new FEL for it. Was looking around on Craigslist and found another one so I went to take a look at it. Seemed like a good deal so I bought it. It has about 2800 hours on it, and the paint looks a little rough, but overall I would say its a decent tractor. It has a mid-mount mower- RC60-71B (which is now for sale, by the way),and was used by a church to mow grass. I feel pretty confident in saying that it has probably never pulled an implement, and if it has, it was very infrequent. That being said, I don't think the tractor has really been worked hard, it's just spent a lot of time rolling around a church yard cutting grass.
1) ENGINE- It starts easily, idles smoothly, and runs good, but if you go full throttle it will sputter just a little, and every now and then you will see a small puff of white smoke. I'm going to run it some more around my place and see how it does. I guess I'm wondering two things:
- Does it sound like it needs rings, and if so can they be installed with the engine in the tractor or does it have to be removed?
- Are these tractors worth doing a full overhaul on? They go pretty cheap around here. You can find them for $2k-$3k, and I actually have less than that in this one. If it costs $1k+ to have one overhauled, it doesn't hardly seem worth spending that kind of money on it. How much are overhaul kits?
2) TRANSMISSION- The other thing I've noticed about it (and I only noticed this b/c I have my other B7100 to compare it to) is that when it's in a "bind", you can press the hydro pedal, and it will give you the customary "Kubota hydro trans whine", but struggles to spin the tires- even on dirt. My other "like new" B7100 will spin all 4 tires on concrete. The engine doesn't really seem to bog down that much, it just seems like maybe the transmission has lost power.
- Could this mean a pump overhaul is due? Again, since this tractor probably hasn't been worked that hard, I would think that the tranny itself is ok, but with 2800 hours on it, I'm thinking the pump may be tired. What is involved in a pump overhaul?
I know this is a long post. Thanks for the help.
1) ENGINE- It starts easily, idles smoothly, and runs good, but if you go full throttle it will sputter just a little, and every now and then you will see a small puff of white smoke. I'm going to run it some more around my place and see how it does. I guess I'm wondering two things:
- Does it sound like it needs rings, and if so can they be installed with the engine in the tractor or does it have to be removed?
- Are these tractors worth doing a full overhaul on? They go pretty cheap around here. You can find them for $2k-$3k, and I actually have less than that in this one. If it costs $1k+ to have one overhauled, it doesn't hardly seem worth spending that kind of money on it. How much are overhaul kits?
2) TRANSMISSION- The other thing I've noticed about it (and I only noticed this b/c I have my other B7100 to compare it to) is that when it's in a "bind", you can press the hydro pedal, and it will give you the customary "Kubota hydro trans whine", but struggles to spin the tires- even on dirt. My other "like new" B7100 will spin all 4 tires on concrete. The engine doesn't really seem to bog down that much, it just seems like maybe the transmission has lost power.
- Could this mean a pump overhaul is due? Again, since this tractor probably hasn't been worked that hard, I would think that the tranny itself is ok, but with 2800 hours on it, I'm thinking the pump may be tired. What is involved in a pump overhaul?
I know this is a long post. Thanks for the help.