Need some tractor 101 info please!

prof.fate · Nov 9, 2017

Been mowing/pulling trailers with garden and lawn type tractors for 45 years, but just bought my first 'real' tractor, first with a 3 point hitch, gear ranges, first diesel engine...so need some 'tractor 101' basic info.

tractor is a 72 Kubota L175, 1340 hours, everything works just fine, no leaks or issues, always garaged. (paid a whole $700 and drove it 4 miles home).

Came with a L59 woods finish belly mower, and no belt for it.

Planned use is a mix of finish mowing and brush hogging horse pastures (weeds that they don't eat..nothing woody/tree/tall weeds).

Also have a lot of fence to move - so pulling posts and pounding them back in (neighbor has the fence pounder I can borrow).

Thinking also a box blade and snow blade.

Would love to have a bucket and backhoe too..but that's a ways off I'm thinking.

So...care and feeding of a kubota diesel? I know gasoline doesn't store well, and doesn't gel or collect water like diesel...so what do I need to know about diesel? (filter change interval? water separator? stabilzer? summer/winter fuel?)

It came with turf tires...figure for mowing this may work..for box blade or snow work probably not...chains sufficient or should I change the tires to something else (and what?). And I'm not made of money! LOL

Any 'basic' implements that are really useful around a 25 acre horse farm?

*(backstory)* got a new girlfriend and she's been paying for snow plowing and brush hogging and other misc 'tractor' jobs, she didn't want to invest in the equip and old stuff needs 'work' she isn't knowledgable/skilled enough to do. I've got 15-20 years as a pro mechanic/parts/etc plus another 20 as a shade tree mech/hobbyist.

PS: I have the PDFs for service and parts..can't find one for owner/operator manual for this machine..any links?

Thanks
Chris

skeets · Nov 9, 2017

Gezzz 700 bucks,, you know you got took,, you better let me take it so you wont have to be bothered with it laying around the barn. I mean thats what friends do,,,right

Sounds like you got a pretty fair deal, the belt shouldnt be much of an issue. A BH might be a bit of a problem but the box blade and rear blade would work well. As far as tires a lot of guys run turf's and have no problems.
NOW first off, unless you have all the records on it I would change motor oil, and hydo oil as well and fuel filters and of course oil and hydo filters.
Diesel is best treated with a conduitonr like power stroke white jug, just a couple oz to 5 gallon. Keep the fuel out of direct sun light, yes algae will grow in diesel. Make sure tire pressure is correct, and Im sure others will come up with some other things.
And WELCOME to the orange, you got the questions ,somebody in here has got the answer.
You aint around raccoon park are you?

Kubota Newbie · Nov 9, 2017

Yep, $700 is a deal (or was that steal, belonged to a little old widow lady right?).
Will diesel go bad? I suppose, but it takes a loooong time. When I bought my M4500 a few years ago it had sat in one place for 5 years and not been started or moved. We put a battery in it, heated the glow plugs a few seconds and vroom, started right up. If that had been a gas motor, well, I might still be working on it.
I use an anti-gel in the winter and a conditioner/lubricant in the summer just cause it wasn't really designed for low sulfur diesel.
Chains will be helpful for snow but are pricey and will beat-up asphalt and concrete. I find on my cub cadet/snow blower that chains are necessary even with plenty of ballast and bar tires. On my M4500 the Goodyear Dyna-torque II's are of course far better than a turf type would be for snow. But not all that great when the ground is frozen.

sheepfarmer · Nov 9, 2017

A good deal is what I was thinking...

For general reading and to locate an owner's manual, check at the top of the subforums here for "stickies" which are threads saved because they have useful links etc in them. E.G. must have items. Kubota's main website, any dealer or Messick's have manuals for sale, but your machine is old enough there might be a free copy available somewhere.

The search function on the forum will turn up previous threads with discussions on topics you mentioned, e.g. best anti gel additive etc. At the top of your screen you should see a line of tab titles like New Posts, and one of these is Search. Click on Search, then choose Advanced Search, and enter a topic into the first box Keywords and then hit the button Search Now at the bottom.

On your new tractor, do you have and know how to work the 4 wheel drive and the differential lock? Are the rear tires loaded? Sounds like you don't have a front end loader on it? If not a rear blade would be handy for winter.

Welcome aboard. Lots of nice folks here.

Stmar · Nov 9, 2017

"It came with turf tires...figure for mowing this may work..for box blade or snow work probably not...chains sufficient or should I change the tires to something else (and what?). And I'm not made of money! LOL"

I have been looking at rubber chains that another member suggested, he has been using them for years plowing snow with his Kubota.
http://www.rubbertirechains.com/

There were a couple of fuel and additive discussions earlier so if you look at previous posts you will find all kinds of info. My first diesel also so I went a bit overboard and went with Power Service White anti gel lubrication additive and #1 diesel now that it is cold. In the warmer weather I use Power Service Gray with #2.

prof.fate · Nov 9, 2017

brady's run park area.

BH an issue...hmm, why? HP?

skeets said:
Gezzz 700 bucks,, you know you got took,, you better let me take it so you wont have to be bothered with it laying around the barn. I mean thats what friends do,,,right

Sounds like you got a pretty fair deal, the belt shouldnt be much of an issue. A BH might be a bit of a problem but the box blade and rear blade would work well. As far as tires a lot of guys run turf's and have no problems.
NOW first off, unless you have all the records on it I would change motor oil, and hydo oil as well and fuel filters and of course oil and hydo filters.
Diesel is best treated with a conduitonr like power stroke white jug, just a couple oz to 5 gallon. Keep the fuel out of direct sun light, yes algae will grow in diesel. Make sure tire pressure is correct, and Im sure others will come up with some other things.
And WELCOME to the orange, you got the questions ,somebody in here has got the answer.
You aint around raccoon park are you?

armylifer · Nov 9, 2017

Here is a link to the WSM for your tractor. This opens as a .pdf file.

http://kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/in...df&AutoIndex=38e34910ad9a18739c06b56267ef0cb5

bucktail · Nov 10, 2017

You got a good deal. Nothing works very well pushing snow; I'd just get chains for what you have and load the tires if they aren't already. The new style turfs grab better on ice since they have a lot of sipes or kerfs and have soft rubber, but you probably have the old style with the big triangle shaped lugs with no kerfs or sipes.

I would expect the front end loader to cost you 2-3 times what you paid for the tractor, but you paid, but I would have expected you to pay 2-4 times what you paid for the tractor for the tractor, so maybe you'll do better. With 2wd on a compact tractor, you're limited on what you can do with one anyway. I have an L1500DT which is the 4wd gray market version of your tractor, and I keep an eye open for a loader on the cheap, but I'm having trouble pulling the trigger on a loader. You'll need to take really small bites on dirt work. Horse manure is pretty light, so you may have better luck with that.

I haven't gotten a chance to use my box blade yet, but I'm expecting it to work well. With your turfs, you may have issues in the softer dirt, but I would expect it to do well on driveway maintenance and such.

The woods mower that came with it should do fine with the weeds in the pasture. My brother has a C Allis with a belly mounted woods finish mower that he used to use for that purpose and it did a fine job on goldenrod, thistle and buck brush.

Your hydraulics put out a hair under 3 gpm. I'm not entirely sure what you need for a backhoe, but I think that's a little low. Do the research on what you need before you buy, but you may need to run a PTO pump for the backhoe. Given the cost of a backhoe, most folks are better off hiring out the work or renting a mini ex.

prof.fate · Nov 10, 2017

haven't pulled the cover off the PTO yet - I know there's a belt pulley under there for the mower deck.

Looked at the front of the engine - there's a splined PTO shaft there as well - and 'space' for a shaft to come out the front. I assume this runs at crankshaft speed...

So two questions - are splines all teh same (for rear pto/brush hogs, etc)?

And I saw mention in an ad of a front PTO being rare..and that one can run a snow blower...I also saw talk of for a back hoe using teh PTO to run the backhoe's own hydro pump.

Anyone know more about this stuff?

BravoXray · Nov 10, 2017

I am a believer in the Mister Funnel diesel filter funnel. I had some fuel that turned out to have a little water in it, and the funnel trapped it. I am on my original fuel filter on the tractor, so I consider the Funnel cheap insurance. Amazon delivered it right to the door in two days.

Jerry

Daren Todd · Nov 10, 2017

prof.fate said:
haven't pulled the cover off the PTO yet - I know there's a belt pulley under there for the mower deck.

Looked at the front of the engine - there's a splined PTO shaft there as well - and 'space' for a shaft to come out the front. I assume this runs at crankshaft speed...

So two questions - are splines all teh same (for rear pto/brush hogs, etc)?

And I saw mention in an ad of a front PTO being rare..and that one can run a snow blower...I also saw talk of for a back hoe using teh PTO to run the backhoe's own hydro pump.

Anyone know more about this stuff?

The splined shaft on the front of the engine is different from the rear pto shaft. One on my tractor is an 1" shaft by 18 spline near as I can tell. Planning tomorrow to try and get better picture's of it to count the splines again to make sure. I'm fixing to use the shaft to run a auxiliary hydraulic pump to run a loader. Need the exact count for an adapter and shaft extension

The existing hydraulic pump on your tractor puts out around 2.5 gallons per minute. Backhoes usually need a bit more flow or they will be super slow. To get around that, some backhoe attachments for tractors use a pto driven hydraulic pump.

prof.fate · Nov 11, 2017

today it started in 22F temps..

Started on one cyl it seemed like..so how does one test/check glow plugs?

Second, the steering (all manual)..till it warmed up it would not turn left..at ALL.

Gonna add cleaning and lubing the steering box to the to-do list when I have time.

With work, the tractor at the farm and me at the house (10 minutes apart), my son's car apart in the driveway, darkness desending at 5pm...can't seem to get more than 10-15 min of time to do anything. Hopefully this week I can get is cleaned and greased..should get into the upper 50s by midweek.

Have a belly mower belt ordered, got the toplink yesterday, the receiver hitch shoudl arrive by next weekend..so hopefully it will be a working tractor by then!

Think I'll get a cargo carrier at HF - solves the issue of carrying stuff (hay, tools, wood, etc) and it folds so can stay on the tractor.

https://www.harborfreight.com/750-lb-capacity-heavy-duty-folding-cargo-carrier-62660.html

Tomorrow I'll pick up a 48" wheelhorse snow blade and 2 frames..should be able to fab up a snow blade from it using the belly mower lift chains I think (weight / leverage may be an issue) Worst case a winch in the front will do it.

https://www.harborfreight.com/2500-...winch-with-wireless-remote-control-61840.html

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Need some tractor 101 info please!

prof.fate

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skeets

Well-known member

Kubota Newbie

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sheepfarmer

Well-known member

Stmar

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prof.fate

New member

armylifer

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bucktail

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prof.fate

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BravoXray

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Daren Todd

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prof.fate

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