What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

Old_Paint · Apr 19, 2024

NCL4701 said:
Once in a while, usually after doing a bunch of chipping or something where the hydraulic top and side link are no more useful than the original manual links, I kind of have a little thought that as nice as they are, I probably shouldn’t have spent that much money on something I’m not making money with. Well, today reminded me why I got them. No pics because just a little minor trail maintenance. Nothing exciting, so I hadn’t planned to post. But…

I have the original turnbuckle side link on the left and hydraulic on right. Level is hydraulic full up. So it normally tilts just one way and I like that because it makes it very easy to reset to level.

Today, the first little wallowed out muddy spot that needed fill and a bit of reshaping so it would drain was oriented such that the box blade had to tilt opposite the way it normally does. So I had to unlock the lock nut on the manual side link and adjust it manually. Not something I haven’t done hundreds or thousands of times in the past, but good grief! I had somehow gotten so used to tilting on the fly, moving it full range of motion in a couple seconds with a flick of a wrist; I had forgotten how slow and tedious the manual adjusters are.

If you EVER do any grading the hydraulics on the 3 point are worth every penny.

Yeah, considering rear remotes for my LX. Most of the work I have left on my property is moving dirt and converting old erosion ditches to smooth swales. The current plan is A.get a rear blade, B. get a boxblade wider than the LX(need at least 60” blade), and a top/tilt package for the 3-point.

mcmxi · Apr 19, 2024

Finally done with the wood burning stove for this winter, so time to move the trailer to its summer home.

mcmxi · Apr 19, 2024

S-G-R said:
More dirt work and I picked up a couple of IBC totes to use for watering trees. I'll keep one in the trailer and another hooked to a downspout.

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Quit showing all of that wonderful dirt!

All I have is about 6" of nice dirt, then 24" of crushed and powdered rock and then rock! But I suppose the upside is that I know I'll never drown in a flood or be ripped apart by a tornado.

Mrlunchbox · Apr 19, 2024

Trimley said:
I use the G6 blades on my RCK54-23BX. They seem to cut wet/heavy grass, leaves and the dry real well for me. Where the grass is real thick, I start high and make several passes. I mulch everything.

Excellent thank you! When I got my new 2380 the bagger wasn't in stock so I opted for the mulching kit. Not bad but I don't think it mulches as good as it could. Since I had the G5s on my old 1880 with a bagger im curious to see how the G6 will do just mulching. I'm thinking it'll be just fine.

Trimley · Apr 19, 2024

Mrlunchbox said:
Excellent thank you! When I got my new 2380 the bagger wasn't in stock so I opted for the mulching kit. Not bad but I don't think it mulches as good as it could. Since I had the G5s on my old 1880 with a bagger im curious to see how the G6 will do just mulching. I'm thinking it'll be just fine.

The G6 blades do what they can. The "mulch kit" Kubota has for these decks is a joke. A bunch of tin, in all the wrong places. I posted an image of a John Deere decks underside, last year. It's here somewhere. If you search for posts started by me, you'll likely find it. It shows how the baffles "need to be" to truley mulch the best.

NCL4701 · Apr 19, 2024

Old_Paint said:
Yeah, considering rear remotes for my LX. Most of the work I have left on my property is moving dirt and converting old erosion ditches to smooth swales. The current plan is A.get a rear blade, B. get a boxblade wider than the LX(need at least 60” blade), and a top/tilt package for the 3-point.

When I bought mine, I had enough left in the budget to get the three rear remotes and top/tilt with the original delivery, but I couldn’t justify the expense to myself so I skipped them. I knew I could really use them on my first project, renovating the driveways and common private road neglected for at least 25 years, but I didn’t think I’d use them enough after that to justify the cost.

Several months past the road rehab, I realized I was wrong. With the road, a couple miles of trails, creek crossings, etc. I started to understand after doing some heavy rehab, they needed routine minor touch ups to keep them draining correctly and in good condition. It’s awfully quick and easy to be tooling down a trail using the boxblade for nothing other than ballast, see a ditch that’s getting silted in, throw the blade off at an angle, clear the ditch, level up, and keep going without ever stopping.

No telling how many hours they’ve saved me. That and there are things you can do when you can adjust on the fly that you can’t do turning turnbuckles while stationary.

Only downside I’ve seen is they ain’t cheap. And, as you know, there are plenty of options. You’re a smart guy so I’m sure you’ll figure out what you want/need.

dirtydeed · Apr 19, 2024

fried1765 said:
New

New "Spruce"(?) look great!

Picked up a load of Norway's for a job tomorrow. They are about the only spruce that make it around here.

forky · Apr 19, 2024

dirtydeed said:
Picked up a load of Norway's for a job tomorrow. They are about the only spruce that make it around here.

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Nice looking Norway spruce. I have 100's of them I planted prolly for the last 30 years. They need a lot of spacing and grow to huge beautiful specimens. Good choice and they grow well in heavy soil where some pines don't ever become nice trees like they should.

S-G-R · Apr 19, 2024

fried1765 said:
Which direction is your water view,.... and where are you on the Island?

I'd say west. In front of me is Malpeque Bay and two miles to my right is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

S-G-R · Apr 19, 2024

mcmxi said:
Quit showing all of that wonderful dirt! All I have is about 6" of nice dirt, then 24" of crushed and powdered rock and then rock! But I suppose the upside is that I know I'll never drown in a flood or be ripped apart by a tornado.

I did find a couple of rocks during my digging

S-G-R · Apr 19, 2024

Old_Paint said:
Yeah, considering rear remotes for my LX. Most of the work I have left on my property is moving dirt and converting old erosion ditches to smooth swales. The current plan is A.get a rear blade, B. get a boxblade wider than the LX(need at least 60” blade), and a top/tilt package for the 3-point.

I had two sets installed primarily for my former rear mounted blower for the chute and deflector. Now I use them for the rear blade and hydraulic top link. Expensive up front but worthwhile in the long run.

D2Cat · Apr 19, 2024

Razorback007 said:
Wow! Thank you! I’ll let you know how this turns out!

Are you in or near Lee's Summit?

fried1765 · Apr 20, 2024

S-G-R said:
I'd say west. In front of me is Malpeque Bay and two miles to my right is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Beautiful place/island !
....and lotsa spuds!

RCW · Apr 20, 2024

dirtydeed said:
Picked up a load of Norway's for a job tomorrow. They are about the only spruce that make it around here.

View attachment 126708

forky said:
Nice looking Norway spruce. I have 100's of them I planted prolly for the last 30 years. They need a lot of spacing and grow to huge beautiful specimens. Good choice and they grow well in heavy soil where some pines don't ever become nice trees like they should.

Norways are a good choice.

There’s 10’s of thousands of acres of Depression-era CCC plantations in our area, much of it Norway.

They are a common yard tree. I have quite a few on our lot.

I used to cut Norway Spruce for pulpwood 30+ years ago. Often got 16-4 foot marketable sticks from a tree, so maybe 85-90 feet tall.

Seldom saw tree failures . Very hearty.

ctfjr · Apr 20, 2024

I started my 'woods cleanup' yesterday. Took the two standing dead trees down and bucked them. One was a decent sized cedar. I don't burn firewood but our neighbor does. I loaded one bucketful and brought it over to his house.
Turned out to be more of an adventure than I planned. It has been raining forever here. Finally stopped a couple of days ago. Too bad the slope into the woods was still super slick under all those leaves.
I first chipped all the branches with the WC88 then I drove down into the woods to load. Not so easy backing out

I thought the chipper weight (abt 1000lbs) would make backing out easy. Even in 4wd and diff locked it took several tries, moving over a few feet every time so I didn't dig a hole I'd never get out of.

Of course it rained again last night so the balance of the logs will have to wait. . .

Old_Paint · Apr 20, 2024

NCL4701 said:
When I bought mine, I had enough left in the budget to get the three rear remotes and top/tilt with the original delivery, but I couldn’t justify the expense to myself so I skipped them. I knew I could really use them on my first project, renovating the driveways and common private road neglected for at least 25 years, but I didn’t think I’d use them enough after that to justify the cost.

Several months past the road rehab, I realized I was wrong. With the road, a couple miles of trails, creek crossings, etc. I started to understand after doing some heavy rehab, they needed routine minor touch ups to keep them draining correctly and in good condition. It’s awfully quick and easy to be tooling down a trail using the boxblade for nothing other than ballast, see a ditch that’s getting silted in, throw the blade off at an angle, clear the ditch, level up, and keep going without ever stopping.

No telling how many hours they’ve saved me. That and there are things you can do when you can adjust on the fly that you can’t do turning turnbuckles while stationary.

Only downside I’ve seen is they ain’t cheap. And, as you know, there are plenty of options. You’re a smart guy so I’m sure you’ll figure out what you want/need.

Ain't cheap might be a little bit of an understatement. Kubota's proud of their kit. REAL proud.

I put the 3rd function valve on my LX. I got the Summit kit, which all in all was a good kit, but they could have done better with some things. My loader valve is mounted on the side of the transmission under the op deck, not up near the steering wheel/cowl. Long hoses involved in supplying the loader valve now where there was a short (about 8 inches) steel tube. That's the first thing I didn't like. Not being a power-beyond valve, it creates some issues being in series with the loader. It doesn't bypass on stall, ergo, starves the loader valve when the grapple stalls. From the very beginning, it seemed odd to me that it had to be in series with the loader valve, and still does. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Stall any part of the boom or bucket, no power to the grapple. Stall the grapple, boom/bucket cease to function. Makes it really hard to roll the grapple and close it at the same time, which I think most will agree is the best way to fill up a grapple with brush. It's also a bit herky jerky while holding down the 3RD and jiggling the loader stick. An extended banjo bolt to leave the original line in place for the loader valve would have made much more sense to parallel the loader and 3rd function. That's how the Kubota rear remotes work. I've looked at several third party kits, that also tie into the loader circuit rather than getting into the PB circuit with the 3-point lift, and can see that turning into a real PITA with the loader. But, when would I be trimming something on the rear and using the bucket/grapple on the front? Meh, jury's still out, but I'm still leaning toward a Kubota OE rear remote set.

Old_Paint · Apr 20, 2024

mcmxi said:
Quit showing all of that wonderful dirt! All I have is about 6" of nice dirt, then 24" of crushed and powdered rock and then rock! But I suppose the upside is that I know I'll never drown in a flood or be ripped apart by a tornado.

I'm pretty jealous of anyone that has more than 2 inches of topsoil. I'll see your powdered rock , and raise you an old dump site full of broken glass and who knows what else. I've dug some really weird stuff up out there including shoe heels, body parts from dolls (creeped out my granddaughter pretty bad), and some stuff that simply was no longer identifiable and served who knows what purpose. If only I could dial the clock back a century or two, just to see what was dumped here.

Old_Paint · Apr 20, 2024

mcmxi said:
Finally done with the wood burning stove for this winter, so time to move the trailer to its summer home.

View attachment 126699

Am I to understand that trailer is dedicated to storing your firewood through the summer? Now I AM jealous. That looks like a nice dump trailer from this angle.

Mrlunchbox · Apr 20, 2024

Trimley said:
The G6 blades do what they can. The "mulch kit" Kubota has for these decks is a joke. A bunch of tin, in all the wrong places. I posted an image of a John Deere decks underside, last year. It's here somewhere. If you search for posts started by me, you'll likely find it. It shows how the baffles "need to be" to truley mulch the best.

Thanks man! Makes perfect sense. The baffles leave a lot to be desired for sure... Ill check out your post!