B3200 Pulling Power

[mowmow]

Hey everyone - I'm a new Kubota owner and new to the forum. I already took my first online steps by joining this forum and adding "Kubota" to my Firefox browser's spell checker so it stops suggesting "Bogota", so I'm ready for my first forum post!

I recently purchased by B3200 used and it has about 370 hours on it. I've been though it pretty thoroughly now, with the exception of changing out the hydro fluid and filters, as the dealer said it's not due until 400 hours, even given its age. It looks like clean Super UDT2 though. Anyway, I've been using the tractor for a month or so now, and have a pretty good feel for it. A couple of days ago I tried to pull a 4x6 post out of the ground, which was concreted in. I wrapped a chain around the post and around the ball on the draw bar. The post was down a bit on a slope, so the chain was probably angled at 45 degrees or so, so this was an upward pull. I put the tractor in 4WD, low range, brought the engine up to speed and proceeded forward. Initially, I spun one rear and one front wheel on the lawn, so I locked the rear diff and continued. To my surprise, the tractor didn't move this time. I believe it was a hydraulic "slip" or relief, but I can't be sure. The engine RPMs didn't drop, but my recollection was that I then turned around and used the bucket and was able to remove the post and concrete vertically.

Having owned a D**re 855 for nearly 20 years, I feel like that tractor would have spun all four tires into the ground, or stalled the engine in trying to perform that pull. Does this seem like normal behavior for the B3200? I know the mechanics of the pull were not ideal, but I want to make sure the slip is OK. Medium and Low range did the same thing, and I didn't leav it slipping for more than a couple of tenths of a second. I have no other issues with this tractor as far as questionable performance. I have mowed very heavy lawns with the 60" mid-mount to the point of engine RPM drop, and the tractor easily (accidentally) will lift it's front (R4) tires off the ground with the LA504 loader bucket.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[johnjk]

Does your B3200 have a FEL? I did bucket hooks on mine and with a chain, pull straight up. Ballast is your friend as well loaded tires, front weights and FEL are great ways to add more punch to the pull. Watch with pulling via the drawbar especially if that force is more down than straight. I found that mine didn’t stall but either lifted the front end off the ground or caused the rear to hop. Adjust what you do to your desired pucker level

 

[SDT]

Hey everyone - I'm a new Kubota owner and new to the forum. I already took my first online steps by joining this forum and adding "Kubota" to my Firefox browser's spell checker so it stops suggesting "Bogota", so I'm ready for my first forum post!

I recently purchased by B3200 used and it has about 370 hours on it. I've been though it pretty thoroughly now, with the exception of changing out the hydro fluid and filters, as the dealer said it's not due until 400 hours, even given its age. It looks like clean Super UDT2 though. Anyway, I've been using the tractor for a month or so now, and have a pretty good feel for it. A couple of days ago I tried to pull a 4x6 post out of the ground, which was concreted in. I wrapped a chain around the post and around the ball on the draw bar. The post was down a bit on a slope, so the chain was probably angled at 45 degrees or so, so this was an upward pull. I put the tractor in 4WD, low range, brought the engine up to speed and proceeded forward. Initially, I spun one rear and one front wheel on the lawn, so I locked the rear diff and continued. To my surprise, the tractor didn't move this time. I believe it was a hydraulic "slip" or relief, but I can't be sure. The engine RPMs didn't drop, but my recollection was that I then turned around and used the bucket and was able to remove the post and concrete vertically.

Having owned a D**re 855 for nearly 20 years, I feel like that tractor would have spun all four tires into the ground, or stalled the engine in trying to perform that pull. Does this seem like normal behavior for the B3200? I know the mechanics of the pull were not ideal, but I want to make sure the slip is OK. Medium and Low range did the same thing, and I didn't leav it slipping for more than a couple of tenths of a second. I have no other issues with this tractor as far as questionable performance. I have mowed very heavy lawns with the 60" mid-mount to the point of engine RPM drop, and the tractor easily (accidentally) will lift it's front (R4) tires off the ground with the LA504 loader bucket.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Always use low range when attempting to perform such (abusive) tasks.

In low range both rear tires should have slipped with differential locked and one or both front tire(s) should have slipped.

 

[D2Cat]

Welcome to the forum. Where you located.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

What where the RPM's?
Did the transmission make any noise?

Trying to pull a cemented imbedded post out of the ground horizontally is not easy task, period.

 

[Russell King]

I have no idea about your pulling problem but want to warn you of potential consequences when engaging the differential lock. If you try to engage the differential lock when you are spinning one rear wheel you have a potential to break a pin or locking mechanism in the differential case of the tractor. So you should stop the tractor from spinning wheels, press on the lock mechanism and then slowly rotate the wheel until you know that the differential is locked. Also don’t try to turn when the differential is locked. Once you are done you can stop tractor, release the lock mechanism and drive a few feet in reverse to get it to pop loose if it doesn’t unlock immediately.

And you probably already know all this, I am just stating it for anyone that reads this thread and doesn’t know.

 

[mowmow]

Wow, so many responses! I'll try to reply to each here:

1) By FEL you mean front end loader, yes, that's how I eventually pulled it. My rear tires are fluid-filled BTW
2) Always use Low range for this. Yes - I only tried Medium to briefly see if there was any difference in behavior.
3) Both rears should have slipped. That's what I was expecting, but what it felt like was a hydrostatic pressure relief.
4) I am in NW Ohio
5) Differential Lock use. Yep - that's the way I try to use it. I have noticed that the rubber floor mat interferes with fully engaging the lock lever. I need to have a look in there to make sure nothing's out of place.
6) Transmission noise? Nothing unusual - if it was a hydro pressure relief, it was very, almost too, graceful.
7) Pulling the post is a big job. I should add that the post was very near water level in a pond, and water immediately started seeping into the hole through the clay-like bank. So my thought was to take it slow and steady if it didn't come right away, but with the unknown slippage, I quickly shifted away from using the draw bar.

Maybe with the math on the angle, pull force and friction, it was simply a correct hydraulic pressure relief and the engine just didn't sound like it. That is one difference that I definitely noticed in my Kubotas vs my Yanmar engines: The Kubotas seem to have a much sharper governor, hardly dropping in RPM until they are overloaded, where the Yanmars progressively drop in RPM with load. So I may be misinterpreting the load conditions on this B3200.

 

[Shawn T. W]

Doesn't sound like anything wrong with it to me, just too big of a job asked for the situation ...

While the FEL did the job, the 3pt arms tend to be stronger, while have less height movement ...