There are two chassis sizes in the B series, this is the larger of the frames that are offered in this size. Let's take a quick walk around here, we'll take a look at these models and see if this is a tractor that may be right for you. Kubota offers several different configurations of these tractors depending on exactly what your needs are.
They are all built on essentially the same chassis with the same rear end, the same front axles, but you'll find some striking differences between them depending on what your application may be. They offer two different engines on this size machine, either a 26 horse engine, which is right over here in this cab tractor, you'll notice that there's no hood scoop here on the front, or a larger 33 horsepower engine that is over the requirement for diesel particulate filter and engine emissions requirements and so you'll see a hood scoop up here on the top.
They also have a cab option available here as well, that can be had on either the 26 or 33 horse model. The cab is a really nice factory cab that includes either heat or air conditioning, as well as a lot of glass all around it to make it easy to see. There is one oddball configuration here that's not very common at our dealership, but is represented right here in this tractor, is a B3350SU and years have gone by, Kubota's offer deluxe and standard models, this is the standard model in this class.
This machine includes a little bit larger rear tire and no mid PTO, which would be features that are offered on the other tractors in this class. Not having a mid PTO prevents you from using a mid mount mower or front attachments, but it is a costly piece to have underneath the tractor, so there are some cost savings in this machine that can price this much lower than what some of the other configurations can be.
With so many options to choose from in different models in Kubota's product range, it can be difficult to know exactly what tractor is right for you. As we work up from the smallest tractors in the BX series, to a small frame B Series tractor and now this series here, the B2650 and B3350, which are large, frame B Series tractors. As you go up into a larger tractor, you'll use larger implements. You're not going to necessarily find that there's one thing that one tractor will do that another one won't, but you'll do things more quickly.
When we're into this chassis size, we're into typically 60-inch implements for mowers and snow blowers and those sort of things, or 72 inch implements for things that would angle, like landscape rakes, and rear blades, and front snow plows and those sorts of things. You would need right about 56 inches or so in order to cover the width of this tractor, and we're always looking to size our implements in order to cover the width of the machine. If you didn't need to go quite this large for your implements, moving down into the smaller B series tractor would give you a little bit smaller implement or up into the L series would give you a larger sized implement.
I'm sitting here in the factory cab which is a really nice option for the guys that need to blow snow in the winter time or out working in sweltering heat in the summer. Kubota has gone through a couple of iterations now of the small factory cab on these little tractors and this one has taken a big step forward from the older series. It's now isolated from the tractor itself which makes it a lot quieter, you'll notice a several DB reduction in noise from the older series that we're offered on these machines, or a dramatic difference from taking a cab from an aftermarket company and adding it onto an existing tractor.
They've also added things like air conditioner controls up here in the headliner and radios, just to make it a nice, finished, polished cab. It's a wonderful machine to work with. We'll step quickly here through all the controls on the tractor, just to give you an idea of exactly how this machine works and some of the different features that it has. Over here on our left hand side we have orange levers. Any of the orange levers that are in tractors are movement levers.
Right here we have a three range transmission for the rear end. Typically, we refer to these as low, medium, high or loader, mower and highway, that's what I’d like to say. It is nice to have a three range transmission in this size tractor, because the low gears really can give you a lot of pull that you don't get and when you simply have had a two range transmission in these in the past. Our yellow levers right here are always for our PTO and so we have two PTOs on this tractor, either a rear, a mid, or both.
The time that we would run both is pretty few and far between but most likely it's usually for the bagger, a powered bagger, where you have a fan to run along with your mower deck at the same time. The next lever forward right here is the lever to engage your PTO, simply by sliding this forward here, it will turn the PTO on. On our right hand side over here we have another movement lever, again an orange handle.
When you move this guy forward here you engage the different speeds that are available for the cruise control. If you're going to go out and mow four acres and acres it allows you to remove your foot from the pedal and simply drive the tractor without having to keep your foot on the hydrostat pedal. Right on the inside of that is the height control for the three-point hitch, this is at position control, one through eight.
If you know that you're going to be using a box blade, for instance, in grading at position number four, you can simply pull to four to set the three-point to a position, go the whole way up when you're at the end of your row, and then go back to position number four again, makes it nice and easy to do three-point work with the tractor. On this particular machine, Kubota also has the loader valve right here at your armrest, we'll run over the loader here in another video, but you have your normal up/down left/right functions that we would have on any Kubota loader along with speed dumps and float positions as well.
At the end of our video here you'll be able to click one of the videos up here in the corners in order to take you to that loader video. Down here on the floor is our hydrostat pedal. Kubota uses a treadle pedal in these tractors. In this case it's a forward here with your toe and reverse back here with your heel. For the guys that have larger boots you can also straddle the pedal here and keep your foot on top and rock both directions.
People have varying thoughts when it comes to the tredle pedal. I am really a guy who really likes it a lot because I do sell some dual pedal tractors as well and find it really unnatural to press a pedal forward to go backwards, but you'll find guys with varying opinions on that too, by and large you can get used to whatever you're driving. As you move through the Kubota product line, this is the first tractor with a wheelbase long enough to justify steering brakes.
You'll notice right here that you have two brake pedals or the option to lock both brake pedals together. If you've come from the old school road of tractors it used to be really common in order to lock or break your inside tire to help your tractor steer more tightly. That's not so necessary anymore in the world of tight steering compact tractors, but it does become an option here on the bigger B Series machines, where if you want to make a tight, tight turn, you can steer your tractor and then brake your inside tire to help you maneuver more quickly through that turn.
Also down here on the floor is a diff lock, if you ever find yourself hung up in the mud, you could press that down to lock your differential to stop one tire from spinning while the other one sits still, that'll lock them together and it can be really effective in getting you unstuck from the mud. Down here as well as our lever for our four-wheel drive, just a simple engage and disengage lever. Again, an orange cover colored lever because it's related to movement.
This open and closed knob here in the middle is typically the most confusing function on the tractor for many people. A three-point hitch on a tractor does not have down force, it only lifts up, and because of that when you're lowering your implements down, there's a restriction valve that's there to control their drop. This valve right here changes how quickly an implement drops to the ground. It needs to be adjusted depending on the weights of the implements that you have on the back of the tractor.
If you're lowering your three-point control down and you find your implements not moving, you simply need to reach down here and open up the valve a little bit to allow it to drop to the ground. This tractor has mechanical parking brakes which you simply press down on the brake pedal and let this latch right up here to hold the brake pedal in place, and that will lock that guy right there. As I move up here to my seat, this is a more deluxe, more suspended seat that with on a lot of tractors this size, you have a lever right here to move front and back, and another lever right in here that helps to some of your suspension adjustments.
I also have armrests as well, and plenty of space to still get my hands down here onto the controls. One of the things we run into it at a lot of small tractors is that the arm rests often overlap the controls and you have to move them up out of the way to get to your levers. On this tractor there's enough room down here that you can easily reach the armrest- or reach the levers from the armrest so that's nice as well. The dash here on this tractor is one of the most deluxe dashes that Kubota has had on this series' tractor so far.
You'll notice a lot of intelligence up here in the dash itself. We have digital gauges for our fuel, for our temperature, for the hours that are on here. We start the tractor, we have a digital gauge for the number of engine RPMs that we're currently running at, I'll reach down here and engage our PTO, press this button, and we can show our PTO RPMs as well.
Typically you run your rear PTO at 540 RPMs, you see there that I can actually over rev the PTO with this tractor.
Generally, they have these things set up so that 540 is right at the peak torque of the engine. Generally you just pull that throttle back to your C540 and that's where you want to run even though you can get a little bit more speed out of the PTO than what your implements may be designed for. Work my way across the dash here, this is a common Kubota multifunction light control that you'll find on most of our tractors.
With left and right turn signals, headlights, four way switch, which is over here on my other side, a button for a horn, work lights, which I have up on top of my cab. On this cab model I also have windshield wipers and wiper controls, Defoggers, power sockets for my cell phone. On the less deluxe SU version of the tractor that we have over here, some of these are missing. It doesn't have things like work lights and 12 volt outlets and those kinds of things. This tractor also has adjustable tilt steering. If I step down here on the floor, I can adjust the steering wheel up and down to a comfortable operating position.
They leave this little pocket up here as well, that I suspect is probably intended to lay your cell phone or any other devices that you have with you when you're out operating your tractor. The B series uses a sealed DPF filter, which is the canister right here on the top. Again, this is something that you only find on the 33 horsepower engine that's in this series. This canister captures the soot that comes out of the engine and does not need to be serviced until the tractor reaches about 3,000 hours. Given what we normally see guys put on these machines. Generally, 100, 150, 200 sometimes 300 hours a year.
You are talking, at the minimum, 10 years down the road before anyone should really need to be looking to replace these things. At this point, they are not terribly expensive pieces to work on but it is a maintenance item that does need to be addressed as your tractors age. Something to keep in mind. Again, if we need an application where we need the horsepower, don't be scared of it, but if you have an application where you don't necessarily 33 horse, you can avoid some expenses and complexity in your engine selection.
In the models that are in the B50 series, all but the SU model is considered a deluxe tractor. We have a good deluxe three point hitch. You will notice here at the end you have extendable ends. If you press down on this release mechanism, it allows you about two inches of adjustment, making it easier to hook up your three point hitch on your attachments. You also have pins here to attach the sway of your implement, and a ratchet up here in order to adjust the level of your implement. All these are tool list designs that don't take a whole lot of banging and fussing around with as opposed to our standard three point hitch which is over here.
This is the B3350SU. It has a standard three point hitch. It costs less money to build your components this way. You can see that just by looking at it. No extendable ends, threaded turnbuckles back here for your sway bar, and a threaded adjustment up here as well to do your leveling. While these are very common on a lot of other tractors, the adjustable versions that are on the deluxe tractor are easier to work with. When you're putting these arms onto an implement, it's not unusual to have line these up and kick them on with your boot in order to get them to slide over, or as these turnbuckles rust, and wear, and get dirty, having to put screwdrivers in here in order to break these pieces loose.
If you are looking for implements that you don't have to manhandle and bang around or you're going to be taking things on and off the three point hitch frequently, the more deluxe tractors are a lot nicer to work with on the rear end. You'll notice here this tractor is equipped with industrial tires, which are by far the most common option for us on these tractors. There's also an option for a turf tire as well that's not quite as aggressive, or an AG tread tire with much deeper Vs that are a lot more aggressive. If you look at the wheel base here of the tractor, we are getting a little bit longer than we are in a lot of the smaller tractors.
The wheel base of the BX and the B series are quite bit shorter, making them more maneuverable. Since we are getting into a larger tractor with more loader capacity and longer frame, you can expect a little bit larger turning radius now that we are getting a bigger machine. While these guys can be fitted with VIN mount mowers and many people do choose to buy them, do expect them to not be quite as maneuverable as what their smaller counterparts may be.
That's the Kubota B50 series. If you can see yourself with one of these tractors or have Kubota parts or service needs for your machine, give us a call at Messicks's, at 800-223-3773 or online at messicks.com.
We're out today with several Kubota machines, and we're going to take a moment to show you some of the differences when you move from a B-Series tractor into an L-Series tractor. Take a walk here with me around these two machines, and we'll show you some of the things that make these tractors tick.
We’ve done a lot of technical overviews on a BX series and a lot of overviews on a B Series but there are certain things that will cause a customer to opt for one tractor over another. We’re going to do a quick walk around and explain some of the demands that your application may have that would push you into a potentially larger or smaller machine.
As you can see we've been Kubota customers for quite a while. Here's our older 3430 we use. For smaller tasks, we have smaller implements to use like this wash rig. We don't need a lot of horsepower, 35 horsepower range. It works great around the farm.
