Been living on about an acre of land on the outskirts of Bendigo in the south-east of Australia for a bit over 3 years now. My parents have an MTD Yard Man ride on mower that they are perfectly happy with. I however thought we could use something that is actually worthy of being called a tractor, not some flimsy "lawn tractor" that can do little more than cut grass. On the other hand, I conceded that we needed something small enough to actually be useful on the amount of land we've got. A Kubota BX series would definitely fit the bill, but none of us have got 21 grand burning a hole in our back pockets. So I went looking for an older garden tractor, and managed to get my hands on a Kubota G5200H with just under 2100 hours on it, for the princely sum of A$1900.
The engine was getting a bit hot, but a good flush of the cooling system seems to have done the trick somewhat. The main problem I have now is that the engine really struggles when it's trying to drive the mowing deck, to the point where it will stall if you engage it too quickly or try to mow while driving at anything more than a crawl. I'm told that the engine should have enough torque to shred the belts running the PTO shaft if something did seize up. It's running a D600 diesel engine by the way. For now I've removed the deck while I try to find the problem. Also been repairing a worn king pin/PTO shaft housing in the front axle that was causing a lot of play in the steering.
I plan to build a small loader for it and add a 3-point linkage at the back so I can use it for various odd jobs around the yard like moving dirt and mulch, maintaining our gravel driveway among other things.
What are your thoughts? Any ideas on the problems I'm trying to sort out?
The engine was getting a bit hot, but a good flush of the cooling system seems to have done the trick somewhat. The main problem I have now is that the engine really struggles when it's trying to drive the mowing deck, to the point where it will stall if you engage it too quickly or try to mow while driving at anything more than a crawl. I'm told that the engine should have enough torque to shred the belts running the PTO shaft if something did seize up. It's running a D600 diesel engine by the way. For now I've removed the deck while I try to find the problem. Also been repairing a worn king pin/PTO shaft housing in the front axle that was causing a lot of play in the steering.
I plan to build a small loader for it and add a 3-point linkage at the back so I can use it for various odd jobs around the yard like moving dirt and mulch, maintaining our gravel driveway among other things.
What are your thoughts? Any ideas on the problems I'm trying to sort out?
