Kubota M7 Standard VS. Premium

We're out today with two of Kubota M7 series tractors a 171 premium KBT and a 151 standard. We're going to go around both of these tractors here and show you some of the differences in features of what exactly makes a standard tractor standard and a premium tractor premium. When we get into the world of agricultural tractors there's a lot of differences between models and when we've gone through compact tractors and utility tractors and other models. Typically if you're buying say an M7060 those machines are virtually the same from one model to the next without major differences between tractors.

Big farm tractors like this it's not that way, these things can have a lot of options pages and pages of options. There are however between the standard and premium series, a couple of major places that you can start to have some differences. This tractor right here is the premium model and if we take a look down here you'll see there's a very robust front axle that has suspension on it. It has a floating suspension as you're running across rough fields and stuff the front axle can bounce back and forth very easily with hydraulic accumulators and stuff to even out your ride.

You can sit up in the cab and dial up and down how much pressure you want those accumulators to change how that front axle will respond. Over here on the standard model, you'll see those bits and pieces aren't here right, this is an area that you can eliminate accumulators and moving parts and save some significant costs. Still, a very robust front axle still articulates from left to right but doesn't have those suspension components in it for when you're hauling across a field. You notice back here on the tiers this premium model has a bar axle on it this is 100-millimeter bar axle one of the largest in the industry.

That enables you to be able to easily slide this tire in and out in order to set your row widths and stuff, over here on the standard tractor you have a normal flange axle. Flange coming out from the transmission where the tyre bolts on in place, while this tire is adjustable by flipping the rims around you don't have nearly the range of adjustability and the time that it takes in order to take this monstrous tyre often change bolts and stuff is a lot more significant than an easier bar axle. Our premium tractor also comes with a premium hydraulic system, you'll see back here in the back where are we remotes are this is a closed center load sensing hydraulic system with electronic remotes.

That enables a lot of functionality and there's a lot of functional differences in the hydraulic systems of these two tractors. This one cranks out right about 29 gallons a minute and that close center system enables you to use implements that demand a specific amount of flow at a specific pressure all of the time. Take for instance pumps on a sprayer right you want to be able to drive that sprayer pump at a constant rate, at a constant flow that your rates out of your sprayer aren't changing. A closed Center system you can do that you can dial in exact numbers like that the economy tractor has an open Center system.

What an open Center system will do is that when the hydraulic system starts to have multiple demands upon it flow doesn't always go at exactly the same rate exactly the same pressure to all to the right ports. You go back to our sprayer application again if you have say a flow marker out there on the end and you're running your sprayer pump and you reach out and raise your flow marker when you put that additional hydraulic demand on the system the standard tractor is going to have a much more difficult time maintaining that proper flow to the pump causing your spray rates to fall off.

There are specific applications where close center hydraulic systems are worth every penny but if you are looking at a tractor mostly for say hanging applications where you're not going to be using those hydraulics in those ways, you can save a significant amount of money over in the standard tractor. This is our standard tractor over here with those open Center hydraulics on it, you can see the valve stack itself looks fairly similar. Up here on the top there are these cables coming down to it that s for flow control. This tractor does have standard flow control to allow you to dial in some of those adjustments that we were talking about earlier.

You're never going to get the precision out of an open Center system that you could from a closed Center. Our premium tractor also sports a premium cab, if you look over here on the side you have an electronic armrest that floats with the seat then all of your controls will sit on it. Also equipped up here with this 12 inch monitor that you can dial in a lot of your adjustments or see a lot of the information about the tractors operating conditions and stuff up here on the screen. Our rear remotes that we were just talking about - and this tractor are electronic. You have little electronic switches that you can flip right here and remotes built into your controls up here on your driving stick.

That makes it really easy to operate these things using these electronic valves too you can also set things like timers up here in the monitor. Say we go back to that foam marker again and it takes three seconds to raise it. You could just tap this thing down, let the valve run for three seconds at which point it will automatically turn off and make those repetitive tasks a lot easier to do. This is a much more modern much more comfortable operating setup than what we're going to find over in our standard tractor. Over here in the standard tractor, we have a more standard control layout.

All my rear remotes for instance I have you know mechanically 05:15 operated remotes on these levers right here, I don't have a big monitor to get a lot of information about the tractor. I can still get a digital readout for my display up here in the front but I don't have the large adjustability electronic features that we have over in the premium model. When we start to get into tractors of this class precision farming capabilities become something that many customers are considering and the premium tractor is able to accommodate a lot of those needs.

This machine can be ordered through with steering valves in order to allow precision guidance monitor to steer the tractor something that's available in the premium machine that's not available over in the standard. When we get into option these tractors we're going to find that there's many many fewer options available on the standard series machine to help hold that price down and what you would find over on the premium tractor. Some of those things are going to be like a CVT transmission right, that's available in the premium where it's not on the standard but also a lot more significant things as well.

When we get into that transmission a lot of guys now particularly here in the US are doing a lot of roading and like to road it at higher speeds and 50 kph or 32 mile per hour transmissions or a feature that's only available over in the premium series. We're going to find things like that, option and cabs suspension the standard machine typically it's going to come with a more rigidly rounded cab than what the premium series is going to things like super single tires that we've got over here again these are things you're going to find on the more premium tractors.

When we start to dive into the options Kabuto giving us many many more options in order to equip the premium tractor for the customer than we are going to get over on the standard series. We've talked a lot about the differences between these tractors but there's also, of course, a lot of similarities as well. The engine that's under the hood of these two machines if we were comparing up a 151 to a 151 they both sport exactly the same engine under the hood there are no differences there. The structure of the cab of the glass and the visibility the way the pillars are setup are the same there's no differences, the way your buddy seats are set up are identical.

The emission systems on the tractors the way the steps are set up your grille guards the loaders that would go on to them are the same loader. Now granted the premium gets an electronic valve or the standard gets mechanical valve but the actual lifting and working capacities of these two tractors are really very similar. The power shift transmission we offer a premium tractor into power shift is the same power shift that you're going to find over in the standard series. When we get into the actual workability of the tractor for most applications where that hydraulic system is not a real factor, hang you know feeding your cattle those motor works that stuff these two machines are capable of very much the same work at the end of the day.

Simply the premium tractor is going to be a nicer machine to run a lot more comfortable and offer a lot more advanced features for repetitive tasks that can be programmed and accomplished through the use of the electronics in the monitor. All these things obviously come with a cost right a premium machine can have all great features but none of those features ever come for free. When we compare the difference between a 151 standard in a 151 premium about as apples to apples is what we can get there's a $19,000 difference between these two tractors at list price.

That's essentially what you're paying and there's a lot of mechanical differences that justify that price point particularly in the cost of this close center hydraulics a lot of money is tied up in those systems. You're not just paying for fluff when you're buying a premium tractor there is a number of added expenses and electronic monitors hydraulic systems that make the premium tractor justify its price point. At the same time though when we go and we look at the rest of the product line to the m7 tractors being if this is the new introduction into the market has some very aggressive programming on them that's been offered so far.

It can almost start to make this tractor a viable option for a guy looking at an m6 an m6 141 to a small m7 tractor isn't as big of a jump as you might expect when we factor all today's programming into account. This is a really viable tractor for a lot of Kabuto M6 or M135, M110 those customers from years gone by can find an m7 tractor actually being surprisingly at an achievable price. That's Kabuto N7 standard and premium tractors, if you're in the market for an agricultural tractor we can help you give us a call here at Messick's we're available at 80022233373 and online at messick.com.