Kubota Grand L Series VS. Kubota MX Series

Neil from Messick’s here, we’ll give a short conversation and do a comparison between Kubota's Grand L Series and Kubota's MX Series tractors. Take a quick walk around here with me and we’ll show you some of the differences between these two series. So the very first thing that we want to do when comparing two tractors, is to stop looking at the numbers and take one gigantic step backwards and talk through what your application is.

All too often when we see guys coming on their one of our lots, there’s always a race for bigger numbers, right? We're all programmed to want more horse power, more loader capacity, more and more, more of these things, but really the very first thing that we should be doing is taking a look at the task that you have at hand and determining where your pain point is going to be.

Now if you have a particular load that you need to lift, let’s identify what loader capacity it takes to lift that load, not just look for the biggest loader we can find. Or if you have a particular implement that you need to run on your three point hitch let’s look at the horse power demands of that implement and pick the right engine to power that implement and work forward from there. Rather than letting this be solely a numbers game make it a game about your application. Pick your application, identify the needs and then find the right tractor to suit what you have to do.

This is a difficult comparison to do because these are two very misunderstood products in Kubota's product line. The L Series is very complicated. There’s a lot of bottles offered in that series machine, all the way from some very basic 25 horse power stick shift transmissions, clear up in a sub 60 horse machines with heat air conditioning and very deluxe machines. There’s a huge breadth in the L Series, but sitting just beyond the L Series, if you go for the top end models and you want to go a step bigger there’s an MX Series tractor out here as well.

The MX only has three models in it, the 48, 52, and 58 and they all share mostly common features of this one right here. Typically what we’re going through these machines with the customer we would hop from a Grand L to an MX for the guy that’s looking for a tractor that’s a little bit more simplistic, doesn’t need electronic transmission functions or heat and air conditioning cabs and those kind of things, and requires just a little bit more tractor.

We look at the MX really is kind of the compact utility machine, if that makes sense. It’s at the very upper end of the compact tractor Series, and really geared towards the individuals that are doing utility oriented tasks. So generally these are going to go to guys who have- production farmers who need a small tractor to work in barn yards and those kind of things, horse and hobby farmers that might be doing some light haying or have larger numbers of horses to take care of, those guys that are really starting to step in to more real agriculture oriented applications.

The place when the tractor where you can really see that agricultural mind set is in the three point hitches. In the Grand L 60 Series with the exception of the top two models, they're all going to come through category one three point hitches but over in the MX Series all of these machines are going to come through as category two and they are going to have a little bit bigger back end, a little bit larger axles, a little bit heavier three point hitches to support those larger rotary cutters, or three point bale spears or those heavier attachments that you may put on a more utility minded tractor.

This is a machine that you are less likely to mow with, say, a finished mower. For instance somebody may easily have a ten acre lot to mow we are putting a three point finish mower at the back of a Grand L Series it’s going to be very, very natural, but if you come over to an MX Series machine and you do that same thing the added weight of this tractor is really going to cause you to run up your grass and stuff a lot more than it would on a more compact oriented Grand L Series machine. We’ve got a distinction here, a little bit, in compact tractor tasks versus utility oriented tasks between the Grand L and the MX.

Locate at the drawbar of the machine back here, you will see the same thing that you will notice with the three point hitches well. The size of the drawbar and the size of the holes in the drawbar kind of indicate how big of an attachment this thing is made to pull around, if you look back here this is about a five eighths pin that you’d drop down through there for small wagons and those sorts of things, but if you go over to an MX over here you’ll notice a much, much larger drawbar with a much larger hole in it, better part about an inch or so. If you needed to pull around a small hay wagon or something like that you could actually pull it off with this machine with its more stout rear end and bigger drawbar.

Standing here at the front of the machines, we’re going to see that there’s really more similarities in the front of the tractors and there are differences. Looking at the front axles, the capacity, the look, the bulk of the front axles, the size of the rims and the bolt patterns to go on there are virtually identical between the two machines, and you will find the loader capacity is there as well, being pretty much the same thing.

When we make this comparison here, if we have to generalize, say, for one type of customer to go one way over the other, it’s the guys with more utility oriented tasks that need that heavier category two rear end in the MX, here you go. But if you’re more landscape type applications where you don’t need that heavier rear you might not even necessarily want the weight to be running your lawns all the time, the more compact oriented Grand L Series is the choice for you.

When you look across the operator’s platform here, you could start to see some of those differences between an economy tractor and the more deluxe tractor, if you look at here at the bottom, for instance, there’s no rubber floor mat across the bottom of this tractor, if you look at the transmission shifter here, you’ll find there’s more simplistic transmissions offered in the MX Series than they are over in the Grand L Series.

The deluxe tractors have electronically controlled hydrostatics, clutchless options to change gears and their GST varium, fully synchronized gear drive transmissions and their DT varium and gear drive option. The MX though is going to give you some more simplistic options, this is four speeds down here on the floor between your legs, a little bit more old school, a forward and reverse shuttle and a range selector over there, and see how the eight forward speeds and eight revers speeds in this option. There are mechanical hydrostatics offered in this as well.

Still hydrostatic with the paddle on the floor but without the electronic features that make it a little bit easier to operate, so there’s just some cost saving measures in order to hold the price of this tractor down. You can in some cases buy an MX Series tractor cheaper than a Grand L 60 Series machine and it really boils down to those differences and comfort features.

Looking around the seat area here you’ll notice fewer cowlings and stuff and you can actually see clear down to the ground. Now, if your cellphone falls out of your pocket on this tractor you’re going to run over it, where in an L Series machine with additional body panels and stuff to fill up the bottom you don’t have that concern or things to worry about and stuff dropping at the bottom of the tractor.

In summary, if you’re looking at a tractor in the L Series and considering whether you should move to an MX if you’re looking at a tractor in the bottom of the L Series, say, I need a standard L Series tractor, 2501, 3301, 3901, moving to an MX is big leap. This is a lot more tractor at a much high price point, it’s probably a jump that you’re not going to want to make.

From a 4701 standard L an MX 4800 is almost a no brainer. It’s a very, very small price jump and it’s going to get you that heavier category to the rear end. From an L 60 Series machine this is going to feel a lot different, if you’re in one of the deluxe tractors with all those deluxe transmission features or you need a machine with a cab with the heat and air conditioning and everything, moving to an MX is a lot more of an economy tractor, it’s not it’s a bad machine, they're both going to do much of the same work but there’s a comfort level and a refinement found in that deluxe tractor that’s not over here.

That being said, if you find yourself at the upper end of the capacity of some of these tractors you just need that machine with a little bit more roll weight for a little bit more of a grunt, if you’re going to throw a motor behind this thing and kick it in gear for eight hours and go, hey, an MX is really worth looking at it in that regard. This is a difficulty comparison to make, like I said there’s a lot of models in these two series but when you’re standing beside these machines side by side you can start to kind of feel the vibe of where these two machines are targeted at.

The best thing that you could always do is to really take a trip out here come, onto one of our lots where we have all these machines sitting side by side, hop on the seat and drive them around for yourself and make your own conclusions. If we can help you through that processes or if you have any parts or service needs for your machines, give us a call at Messick’s. We are available at 800-222-3373 or online at messicks.com.