Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Well I say i take the cake and trophy for hemming and hawing. I think i have nearly driven a few here crazy and definitely Linda is at her wits end with my recent behavior related to buying a tractor.
If i say i have gone from pillar to post then i am not kidding. At one stage I was settled on buying a 18hp used Ariens tractor I found on kijji, but after pre determining where i was on price, there was no deal to be had. Then after much nagging i relented and when i went to actually buy it , well my condition was that it run around (guy had it in his industrial condo unit that was 5 ft off the ground so we could start but not run it around. Sure enough when it was made to run all sorts of noises came from HST transmission. He claimed it was just the belts playing up so we loaded it in the trailer i had rented for the day and took it to the local repair guys , they said line up was 10 days so i said bye.
That experience did it for me, and i thought of the advise JIm D had given me and was off to the local JD agent. Well reception there was cool, guess i was not spending 30K lol and i looked at what they wanted for the units they had in stock and then went home again.
My heart belonged to Kubota, and a 3 point hitch. Yeah wanna be farmer , might have been a farmer had i lived in a different country from birth. Dont think there is a more honorable profession than that of being able to provide the most basic sustenance in life.
So i was back at the puter checking out the used Kubotas for sale, then this one unit that had been teasing me all winter, kept calling me ....Rob oh Rob
Then i set up to go see a unit that was twice the distance away out where Art stays, but before doing this i decided to call the one close that had been calling me all winter.
Managed to get the guy down from 7K CDN to $5500 CDN and decided to take a day off and go see it yesterday. Well it was love at first sight. LOL
Its a bit of a ugly duckling in that its old but been cared for like one of the guys kids. He had a full record of all he had done to it, in the way of having it serviced and repaired at the dealer ( it was second hand when he got it), had workshop manuals operator manuals and had installed a home grown canopy made from golf cart and had soft sides made up to clip on the roof frame.
All the checks and balances i had on my list checked out so i pulled the trigger and cut the deal. Then came how to get it home. Had to schlep to a Uhaul half an hour away and when i got half way back with their trailer (was one of their 6x12 box trailers with double axle) i realized i never checked if the box had a ramp. Well Keeblistis said i did not need to I knew, but i stopped and checked and sure enough no ramp. Well turned around and headed for the Home Depot i had just passed and picked up some 2x12 lengths to act as a ramp.
Well everything turned out better than i had expected and we loaded the tractor in the box and got it home and then Linda said ok get it out the trailer. Well i wish i had pics of myself folded up over the steering wheel between the roof and the seat on the tractor driving it back down the home improvised ramps.
Then we had to pull the deck out and man this deck on its own weighs more than the Ariens i was looking at but this is serious steel 60 inch mower deck.
We got that down the ramp and the fun started trying to get the mower hooked up to the tractor in the now evening getting real dark.
On this tractor the forward facing PTO drive to the mower deck is a shaft with two universal joints. One on the deck and one on the HST transmission. Well you got to get the splines of the shaft to couple and what a mission. And just in case any of you ever have to do this, you also need to make sure that the universal joints are "in phase" a new concept to me.
Well we gave up and hauled the mower deck round back and i drove tractor round back and parked it for the night.
Tonight when i came home from a day out at clients place, i got work on hooking it up. Put down a sheet of OSB i have and drove tractor over the deck which i positioned on the osb. Now we had a level base to float the deck around on it went on in no time.
Then did the first test run with the new tractor and mower deck hooked up. So all tickity boo.
Now for tractor specs
B6200 HST 4WD (4wd factor fitted)
PTO has two speeds
4WD has diff lock for when one gets into tight spots thats foot activated.
Can also run in 2WD
3 cyclinder diesel the D850 i think
Also has a front power take off ports on side of engine for other attachments like snowblower.
Tires are a write off they are filled with windscreen washer fluid but they shot and i mean cracked badly , we had a bit of discussion on that but i was not going to grind him into the ground.
You cannot buy a piece of plant this old and expect everything to be new.
Found a leak of fluid tonight at the rear above right rear axle some joint is leaking hydraulic fluid so going to have to check that out.
Will need a bit of tlc to get it my standard but he did do a heck of lot of proper maintenance on the unit.
So here are some pics
Will get some better pics tomorrow these are from web listing and my cell phone text to Linda when i was in front of the tractor before buying.
Well now i am finally settled and owner of a tractor with a 3 point hitch. LOL
Fun times ahead. Hope it does not turn into a huge mechanical project I got enough projects to last for a few years.
Wish me luck and hold thumbs. Now i need to learn to drive it and cut the grass.
If i say i have gone from pillar to post then i am not kidding. At one stage I was settled on buying a 18hp used Ariens tractor I found on kijji, but after pre determining where i was on price, there was no deal to be had. Then after much nagging i relented and when i went to actually buy it , well my condition was that it run around (guy had it in his industrial condo unit that was 5 ft off the ground so we could start but not run it around. Sure enough when it was made to run all sorts of noises came from HST transmission. He claimed it was just the belts playing up so we loaded it in the trailer i had rented for the day and took it to the local repair guys , they said line up was 10 days so i said bye.
That experience did it for me, and i thought of the advise JIm D had given me and was off to the local JD agent. Well reception there was cool, guess i was not spending 30K lol and i looked at what they wanted for the units they had in stock and then went home again.
My heart belonged to Kubota, and a 3 point hitch. Yeah wanna be farmer , might have been a farmer had i lived in a different country from birth. Dont think there is a more honorable profession than that of being able to provide the most basic sustenance in life.
So i was back at the puter checking out the used Kubotas for sale, then this one unit that had been teasing me all winter, kept calling me ....Rob oh Rob
Then i set up to go see a unit that was twice the distance away out where Art stays, but before doing this i decided to call the one close that had been calling me all winter.
Managed to get the guy down from 7K CDN to $5500 CDN and decided to take a day off and go see it yesterday. Well it was love at first sight. LOL
Its a bit of a ugly duckling in that its old but been cared for like one of the guys kids. He had a full record of all he had done to it, in the way of having it serviced and repaired at the dealer ( it was second hand when he got it), had workshop manuals operator manuals and had installed a home grown canopy made from golf cart and had soft sides made up to clip on the roof frame.
All the checks and balances i had on my list checked out so i pulled the trigger and cut the deal. Then came how to get it home. Had to schlep to a Uhaul half an hour away and when i got half way back with their trailer (was one of their 6x12 box trailers with double axle) i realized i never checked if the box had a ramp. Well Keeblistis said i did not need to I knew, but i stopped and checked and sure enough no ramp. Well turned around and headed for the Home Depot i had just passed and picked up some 2x12 lengths to act as a ramp.
Well everything turned out better than i had expected and we loaded the tractor in the box and got it home and then Linda said ok get it out the trailer. Well i wish i had pics of myself folded up over the steering wheel between the roof and the seat on the tractor driving it back down the home improvised ramps.
Then we had to pull the deck out and man this deck on its own weighs more than the Ariens i was looking at but this is serious steel 60 inch mower deck.
We got that down the ramp and the fun started trying to get the mower hooked up to the tractor in the now evening getting real dark.
On this tractor the forward facing PTO drive to the mower deck is a shaft with two universal joints. One on the deck and one on the HST transmission. Well you got to get the splines of the shaft to couple and what a mission. And just in case any of you ever have to do this, you also need to make sure that the universal joints are "in phase" a new concept to me.
Well we gave up and hauled the mower deck round back and i drove tractor round back and parked it for the night.
Tonight when i came home from a day out at clients place, i got work on hooking it up. Put down a sheet of OSB i have and drove tractor over the deck which i positioned on the osb. Now we had a level base to float the deck around on it went on in no time.
Then did the first test run with the new tractor and mower deck hooked up. So all tickity boo.
Now for tractor specs
B6200 HST 4WD (4wd factor fitted)
PTO has two speeds
4WD has diff lock for when one gets into tight spots thats foot activated.
Can also run in 2WD
3 cyclinder diesel the D850 i think
Also has a front power take off ports on side of engine for other attachments like snowblower.
Tires are a write off they are filled with windscreen washer fluid but they shot and i mean cracked badly , we had a bit of discussion on that but i was not going to grind him into the ground.
You cannot buy a piece of plant this old and expect everything to be new.
Found a leak of fluid tonight at the rear above right rear axle some joint is leaking hydraulic fluid so going to have to check that out.
Will need a bit of tlc to get it my standard but he did do a heck of lot of proper maintenance on the unit.
So here are some pics
Will get some better pics tomorrow these are from web listing and my cell phone text to Linda when i was in front of the tractor before buying.
Well now i am finally settled and owner of a tractor with a 3 point hitch. LOL
Fun times ahead. Hope it does not turn into a huge mechanical project I got enough projects to last for a few years.
Wish me luck and hold thumbs. Now i need to learn to drive it and cut the grass.