armylifer
Well-known member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
BX1860, FEL, RCK54P MMM, BB1548 Box Scraper, Quick Hitch, Piranha Bar, BX6315
RTVX1140 will only move in 4WD!
- Thread starter TWP1954
- Start date
JD quality has gone down to like.... so bad so. Yes avoiding deere is smart! Idk much about the rest but yes to avoiding deere.
armylifer
Well-known member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
BX1860, FEL, RCK54P MMM, BB1548 Box Scraper, Quick Hitch, Piranha Bar, BX6315
But my comment was concerning post #9. His post in #17 was clarification of his previous post, which I took to mean that it happens often enough for it to be accurately diagnose. One member even went so far as to post a diagnostic procedure to verify the problem.
But others have also posted that similar issues arise with other brands. So at best it is a crap shoot it seems. (As in the case of rolling dice)
whitetiger
Moderator
Staff member
Equipment
Kubota tech..BX2370, RCK60, B7100HST, RTV900 w plow, Ford 1100 FWA
How's this, we service several hundred RTVs a year and see a striped hub once or twice a year. Many of the units we service are Railroad, police, farm use with many having over 3000- 5000 hours on them. A good share of them also has snow blades on them.
When one comes in only moving in 4X4, it is commonly a striped hub, usually the LH side. This occurs on a very small percentage of the units overall.
the hub is softer than the axle
the axle is pretty soft, it has to be in order to "spring" a little, to dampen torsional loading. Otherwise it would just break off.
they could make the hub harder than the axle and then there's a chance that the next gripe is that the hub is too hard and takes out the splines on the axle, hey let's sue kubota for making an inferior product it's a factor defect, take it back and demand a new machine, etc etc.
think about how the hub is made and what it does. It's gotta hold up to dirt/grime/mud/poo/pee/typical farm use among other things, and it's gotta endure that--in combination with the WEIGHT of the machine (1100's are what? 2500 lbs?). And it's got a manufacturing aspect too, in that it has to be made strong enough to get through a reasonable length of time without failure in reasonable operating conditions yet still be inexpensive enough not to pose a significant price increase in the overall machine's cost when new, so that the manufacturer and dealer can turn a profit without excessive warranty costs.
similar to whitetiger I serivced TONS of RTV's over the years, hundred or so a year on average. Out of those I put maybe one or two hubs on per year and those were generally 'obvious' as to how they were taken care of (nonexistent maintenance). Most of the time the hub jobs had MUD packed in to the wheel dish so thickly that you couldn't see the lug bolts, and on the back side there was a hole in the mud/poo that the axle ran through and that was it. Ya know if people would take better care of their stuff us techs would have less to do, and these forums would be a whole lot less active.
I actually quit kubota dealer work because of stupid stuff like that. As a kubota tech, you are always: too expensive, too slow, too ugly, too stinky, whatever. It was very very rare to have a customer show up with a smiling face and I certainly didn't forget those. In one day, it wasn't uncommon to have to answer 40-50 phone calls about people mad because they read online that there was some factory defect (hub, or whatever), and about 25 or so in person visits, very rare for any of them to not be in a pissy mood. It wears on you. It is depressing.
Shop I work in now does not see one single customer in the shop, nobody smokes (thank goodness), it is heated and air conditioned, it is clean, quiet, and best of all NO KUBOTA'S
the axle is pretty soft, it has to be in order to "spring" a little, to dampen torsional loading. Otherwise it would just break off.
they could make the hub harder than the axle and then there's a chance that the next gripe is that the hub is too hard and takes out the splines on the axle, hey let's sue kubota for making an inferior product it's a factor defect, take it back and demand a new machine, etc etc.
think about how the hub is made and what it does. It's gotta hold up to dirt/grime/mud/poo/pee/typical farm use among other things, and it's gotta endure that--in combination with the WEIGHT of the machine (1100's are what? 2500 lbs?). And it's got a manufacturing aspect too, in that it has to be made strong enough to get through a reasonable length of time without failure in reasonable operating conditions yet still be inexpensive enough not to pose a significant price increase in the overall machine's cost when new, so that the manufacturer and dealer can turn a profit without excessive warranty costs.
similar to whitetiger I serivced TONS of RTV's over the years, hundred or so a year on average. Out of those I put maybe one or two hubs on per year and those were generally 'obvious' as to how they were taken care of (nonexistent maintenance). Most of the time the hub jobs had MUD packed in to the wheel dish so thickly that you couldn't see the lug bolts, and on the back side there was a hole in the mud/poo that the axle ran through and that was it. Ya know if people would take better care of their stuff us techs would have less to do, and these forums would be a whole lot less active.
I actually quit kubota dealer work because of stupid stuff like that. As a kubota tech, you are always: too expensive, too slow, too ugly, too stinky, whatever. It was very very rare to have a customer show up with a smiling face and I certainly didn't forget those. In one day, it wasn't uncommon to have to answer 40-50 phone calls about people mad because they read online that there was some factory defect (hub, or whatever), and about 25 or so in person visits, very rare for any of them to not be in a pissy mood. It wears on you. It is depressing.
Shop I work in now does not see one single customer in the shop, nobody smokes (thank goodness), it is heated and air conditioned, it is clean, quiet, and best of all NO KUBOTA'S
7:43AM Lugbolt? Did you awaken too early?
(Seems to me that if you are a service-tech at a dealership...your main function is to see failed in equipment in-need of service... Should be no surprise, ..after-all that’s what the service shop industry is FOR... otherwise there’s be no need for techs...heh?)
Does sound like your previous workplace was an unhappy place. Hope the new one works out for you.
Armylifer:
The Kubota RTVs as a group are hardier than all the others, IMO, unless you want to go fast (greater than 25 mph). The Kubotas are derivations of their small tractor units and are strong, hard-pullers... real work horses. The Kawasaki Mules and Polaris are faster... but Beware: All these type vehicles are not safe at higher speeds regardless of their capabilities, and I can promise you that 20-25 mph is exhilarating enough!
The RTVs have anti-sway-bar suspensions while the Mules, etc do not. This makes the RTVs much more stabile on terrain. Our family has both a Kawasaki Mule And a Kubota RTV-X900 and the Kawasaki is “OK”... but it has a belt-drive tranny while the RTV has a small tractor HST drive. Big difference in sturdiness and utility (and of course, the RTV is diesel... the Mule is gas.)
The two Polaris dealers I shopped had burned-out hulks hidden behind their shops. Investigating further... it’s not uncommon for them to catch fire due to wiring issues (according to one dealer) and the other dealer would not comment, feigning (IMO) ignorance of the subject.
If you are in the western desert or plains and need to travel miles and miles down dirt roads and/or open-prairie to get where you’re going... the Mule/Polaris will do that and the Kubota driver will be eating their dust. But after a long day running around (170 mile hunting-property inspection) in rugged west Texas, the Kubota is what we all rode home in. (The Mule burned it’s drive belts. The Polaris would not start. They had to be retrieved with a trailer.)
Guess who had the smug smile on his face?
(Seems to me that if you are a service-tech at a dealership...your main function is to see failed in equipment in-need of service... Should be no surprise, ..after-all that’s what the service shop industry is FOR... otherwise there’s be no need for techs...heh?)
Does sound like your previous workplace was an unhappy place. Hope the new one works out for you.
Armylifer:
The Kubota RTVs as a group are hardier than all the others, IMO, unless you want to go fast (greater than 25 mph). The Kubotas are derivations of their small tractor units and are strong, hard-pullers... real work horses. The Kawasaki Mules and Polaris are faster... but Beware: All these type vehicles are not safe at higher speeds regardless of their capabilities, and I can promise you that 20-25 mph is exhilarating enough!
The RTVs have anti-sway-bar suspensions while the Mules, etc do not. This makes the RTVs much more stabile on terrain. Our family has both a Kawasaki Mule And a Kubota RTV-X900 and the Kawasaki is “OK”... but it has a belt-drive tranny while the RTV has a small tractor HST drive. Big difference in sturdiness and utility (and of course, the RTV is diesel... the Mule is gas.)
The two Polaris dealers I shopped had burned-out hulks hidden behind their shops. Investigating further... it’s not uncommon for them to catch fire due to wiring issues (according to one dealer) and the other dealer would not comment, feigning (IMO) ignorance of the subject.
If you are in the western desert or plains and need to travel miles and miles down dirt roads and/or open-prairie to get where you’re going... the Mule/Polaris will do that and the Kubota driver will be eating their dust. But after a long day running around (170 mile hunting-property inspection) in rugged west Texas, the Kubota is what we all rode home in. (The Mule burned it’s drive belts. The Polaris would not start. They had to be retrieved with a trailer.)
Guess who had the smug smile on his face?
Last edited: