New here. I have a B7000 I bought about 15 years ago. I've named it Little Sumo because it's Japanese and little with a big Sumo's heart. When I bought it, it came with the 36 inch tiller and I had the guy I bought it from (a gray market dealer, long gone now) put on a front end loader and 3 point hitch with a back blade. It looked to have brand new rear rice paddy tires which really helped in my gooey clay. I have work the hell out of it.
When I move into my house it was in the middle of the forest. I had trees right up to the back and sides and and no light and no yard and no open space or place to put a barn. So I logged around the house to give some light and fire break and back yard and put in some kind of open space for a barn. I had the root balls pulled out and they piled them up in the field with the cat and skidder. I must have had a 100 Douglas Fir root balls and tons of branches piled up.
So there I was, a newbie land owner with mountains of mud encrusted root balls. I bought my little tractor figuring that I'd probably burn it out disposing the root balls and for what I paid for it I thought it would be OK. It took a couple of years. But it did the job of knocking off the dirt and pushing and piling the roots up for burning (on the side of a hill) and is still running and looking for more things to do. I use it to till lawn area and the garden and move dirt for landscaping. Moved tones of dirt to make flat areas for a barn, moving bricks, rocks, and gravel grading the drive way, pulling logs, pulling engines. Dug and filled a pond. I've turned it on it's side a couple of times on the side of a hill. I've trashed the radiator when the bucket slipped over the top of a root ball as I was pushing up hill and it rolled back and pushed it into the fan. Local radiator shop rebuilt it with out a blink. I think I toasted the voltage regulator when I put the new battery in backwards and freed a lot of loose smoke. (can't believe I did that) Went to the local Kubota dealer and said I need a regulator for a B7100 and they had it in stock. When I put it in I found the wires that went to the regulator were fried and maybe the regulator was still OK but didn't test it. After all the stupid ham handed things I've done to it/with it it still starts right up ready to go. The only real good thing I've done to it is change the oil every spring with good oil.
When I go out to use it most times the front tire is flat. What do you expect for a 30+ year old tires. This year when I put some air in them I noticed the cord was hanging out of the checking. I didn't feel safe inflating them all the way. OK, time to buy some new shoes for Sumo. Spent several nights after my bed time going through the posts here and other placed on the WEB to figure out what I needed to get new tires. Something clicked in my mind and Saturday I just took the tires down to the local Northwest tire shop Les Schwab's Tire Center and showed them the tires and said I need some rice/cane R2 tires for 6-12 rims for my tractor and they said "OK, we've two in stock, $71 each." You know when your ready for a big long drawn out hassle with convoluted explanations to an air head tire dude that has no idea of what your talking about when you say rice paddy (here in the PNW) gray market import tractor and he says "no problem?" I think I said something intelligent like "Is that mounted and spin balanced?" OK so I spent 175 bucks for new tires with new inner tubes mounted and out the door but but what the hell, I might have found them for less on the net but figuring shipping and paying some one to mount them could have cost as much and still not have them on the tractor for a couple of weeks. But I took home two new tires that look like they were original equipment. I spent the rest of the day topping off the gear oils and greasing the links.
It's like a good ole faithful mule.
When I move into my house it was in the middle of the forest. I had trees right up to the back and sides and and no light and no yard and no open space or place to put a barn. So I logged around the house to give some light and fire break and back yard and put in some kind of open space for a barn. I had the root balls pulled out and they piled them up in the field with the cat and skidder. I must have had a 100 Douglas Fir root balls and tons of branches piled up.
So there I was, a newbie land owner with mountains of mud encrusted root balls. I bought my little tractor figuring that I'd probably burn it out disposing the root balls and for what I paid for it I thought it would be OK. It took a couple of years. But it did the job of knocking off the dirt and pushing and piling the roots up for burning (on the side of a hill) and is still running and looking for more things to do. I use it to till lawn area and the garden and move dirt for landscaping. Moved tones of dirt to make flat areas for a barn, moving bricks, rocks, and gravel grading the drive way, pulling logs, pulling engines. Dug and filled a pond. I've turned it on it's side a couple of times on the side of a hill. I've trashed the radiator when the bucket slipped over the top of a root ball as I was pushing up hill and it rolled back and pushed it into the fan. Local radiator shop rebuilt it with out a blink. I think I toasted the voltage regulator when I put the new battery in backwards and freed a lot of loose smoke. (can't believe I did that) Went to the local Kubota dealer and said I need a regulator for a B7100 and they had it in stock. When I put it in I found the wires that went to the regulator were fried and maybe the regulator was still OK but didn't test it. After all the stupid ham handed things I've done to it/with it it still starts right up ready to go. The only real good thing I've done to it is change the oil every spring with good oil.
When I go out to use it most times the front tire is flat. What do you expect for a 30+ year old tires. This year when I put some air in them I noticed the cord was hanging out of the checking. I didn't feel safe inflating them all the way. OK, time to buy some new shoes for Sumo. Spent several nights after my bed time going through the posts here and other placed on the WEB to figure out what I needed to get new tires. Something clicked in my mind and Saturday I just took the tires down to the local Northwest tire shop Les Schwab's Tire Center and showed them the tires and said I need some rice/cane R2 tires for 6-12 rims for my tractor and they said "OK, we've two in stock, $71 each." You know when your ready for a big long drawn out hassle with convoluted explanations to an air head tire dude that has no idea of what your talking about when you say rice paddy (here in the PNW) gray market import tractor and he says "no problem?" I think I said something intelligent like "Is that mounted and spin balanced?" OK so I spent 175 bucks for new tires with new inner tubes mounted and out the door but but what the hell, I might have found them for less on the net but figuring shipping and paying some one to mount them could have cost as much and still not have them on the tractor for a couple of weeks. But I took home two new tires that look like they were original equipment. I spent the rest of the day topping off the gear oils and greasing the links.
It's like a good ole faithful mule.
