We're going to do a quick walk around here on these machines today, show you a couple of features and some of the things that make them unique. Let's see if this the tractor that might suit for your operation. Many tractors in Kubota's product line, sometimes it's difficult to know exactly what tractor is right for you. Our typical customer for a Standard L Series tractor is somebody who's doing a little bit of everything, to be frank. Small horse farms, small dairy operations, landowners with ten or more acres for the most part.
Generally, guys, we're looking for tractors that handle 60 to 70-inch implements, but also do some meaningful work on the front loader. As you go through Kubota's product line, you'll notice that there is a bit of a gap when you go from a Deluxe B Series tractor to a Deluxe L Series tractor, or like a Grand L 60. Size-wise, these tractors sit in this gap that's right in the middle, so sometimes to these tractors are sold to somebody who may not necessarily want an economy tractor, but because this is a sized right for their operation.
They end up gravitating towards one of these models.
In the Standard L Series, there are actually four different tractors on two different frame sizes, so on this frame right here, we have an L2501 out here with us today, the 3301 and 3901, both sit on this exact same chassis. You'll just find different engines down there underneath the hood. there's also a larger frame machine as well, this guy back here which is a 4701, this is the only tractor offered on this chassis in this 47 horse engine, giving us two different frame sizes, really for two different applications.
The most of what we sell on our dealership tends to be the smaller frame size, the 3901 being the most popular option. These guys with three different engines are offered at 25, 33 and 39 horsepower, just like their respective model numbers are those first two digits reflecting the horsepower. The 2501 is unique and that it slips underneath the 26 horsepower threshold for Tier four emissions requirements. This tractor here in the 2501 does not have a deal, some particulate filter bolted into the back side of the engine which does save a significant amount of expense. This tractor can be priced really competitively, because it doesn't have that extra expense in emissions hardware.
The 33 and the 39 horse models are the more popular models in that series though, despite the fact that they are a little bit more expensive, because you can find 25 horsepower being a little bit lacking for some applications that you can get this tractor into. Given the size that it is, a six foot or seven-foot implement is usually used on the back end, and things like a large rototiller or rotary cutters that go out and cut really high grass can be strained by 25 horse engine.
At the same time, we do always remind everybody too that we have a tendency to want horsepower, right? It's like everybody knows how many horsepower their tractor is in their car, and horsepower is power, right? In a lot of tractor applications, that is not actually the case. If we talk about our lure here, this loader LA 525, is used to an all three tractors in the series and it lifts the same amount of weight regardless of what tractor it's bolted to. That's because the loaders' lift capacity is determined not by the horsepower of the engine, but by the pressure of the fluid going into the cylinders down here on the bottom, and that pressure is the same in all three of these models.
If you're looking for a tractor primarily for loader applications, as opposed to PTO applications, a 2501 might be more than adequate for you. If you're even pushing the bounds of the 3901, that's where we'll see guys want to step up to the larger chassis now. We go clear out the 47 horsepower, and we go up to this tractor, we not only go up to more horsepower, but we obviously go up to a larger frame with a longer wheelbase, and a tractor they can handle larger implements.
When we're in this size tractor now, we're comfortably into 72-inch rotary cutters or 84 inch rear blades, so one machine is not necessarily going to do something with another one won't, it's more that we're sizing implements the job that you have at hand. You know if you got 50 acres to go out and cut, you may want to opt for the larger tractor because you're going to be able to get things done more quickly.
Kubota's product line is unique and that the standard tractors are not stripped down versions of deluxe counterparts. These are physically machines that don't exist in other varieties and other place of the product line, so what does make a standard tractor a standard tractor? In this case here, if you look at the operator's platform, a lot of those things are pretty plainly obvious. the first and most visible thing is the big hump right down here in the middle of the seat.
On a more deluxe tractor, typically the things will be situated where you have only a minor hump or a flat deck across here, which makes it a lot easier to get on and off the tractor and to swing your feet around. This is a less expensive way to build a tractor. Just leaving this old school hump here in the middle. If you look down here along the sides of the seats, typically on a standard tractor too, we have a little bit more of an economy seat, no armrest or anything on there, or I wouldn't be surprised if there's holes there on the back that you could add them if you wanted to.
If you look down here at the sides, you'll also see that you can see down around the bottom of the seat, down to the ground. In the more deluxe tractors, additional pieces for cowlings and stuff will be added to close this are off down here, so you're not seeing down to the ground. The layouts of the controls and stuff are different as well. The three-point lever or the shifting levers and that kind of stuff you'll find there are longer levers that goes straight down to the tractor rather than being short throw levers that are closer up to the operator station that are attached by cables.
Again, a little bit expensive way to build a tractor. Not necessarily bad, and as of ten years ago, very very common but simple things that Kubota can do in order to help hold the cost down. You'll see this one that we're beside here, right here is also a gear drive transmission. Gear drive transmissions have been eliminated for most product lines now at this point because they're just not common anymore, but Kubota does still offer gear drive options in the Standard L Series. Generally, we do sell typically hydrostatics 99% of the time, but there are applications where your drive may be better.
If you're going to go out and cut that 50 acres of brush hogging that you need to do, you're going to travel to constant speed that entire time, hey kick into second gear and letting a thing go is not all bad. Conversely, if you're going to be doing a lot of loader work and a lot of changing of direction, you can shuttle between forward and reverse on these things pretty easily, but you're not nearly as efficient and productive as you are in a hydrostatic type transmission. If we come around to the back of the tractor, you can see another place here that makes this an economy machine. If you look at the three-point ends right here, the balls for the three-point hitch are attached directly onto the arms, and turnbuckles are used back in here for all of your adjustments.
On our more deluxe tractors, you'll see extendable link arms being added right here, as well as pins back in here rather than these rotating turnbuckles, in order to make your three-point hitch adjustments. From somebody who never puts implements on the three-point hitch, hey this isn't very important, but if you're changing implements frequently or you're making adjustments frequently, the more deluxe hitch options are a lot nicer to work with. They don't require as much booting around or as things rust and wear and get dirty, you know turnbuckles tend to become a little bit hard to adjust, where the pin adjustments are very very easy.
Kubota does actually offer a whole goods kit for the sway bars down here, that if you wanted to change these sway bars out to their more deluxe options, at this point it's a sub $200 kit in order to get the hardware for the nicer adjustment there. We also find a lot of people using Land Pride quick hitches Q15 which would go on the back here, and then enable you to back in and quick hitch your implements with that.
If these are things that you look at and you think, "Oh, I don't want a Standard L Series tractor" there are easy ways to work around and make a nicer operating hitch, even on the economy series tractors. I'm sitting here on the 4701 which is a little bit different than the smaller three tractors in this series. One thing that we noticed in this model when digging through the price books, that this tractor shares a lot in common with the L30 Series. The deluxe tractors the Kubota would have offered years ago, and particularly that you can notice here in the hydrostatic pedal, when you go between your forward and reverse right here, Kubota uses a treadle pedal design on these machines that's nearly identical to what was used in the 30 series tractors.
A lot of the control layouts and the operators' platform are going to be very, very similar, so you notice on the smaller tractor where we were pointing out the hump in the middle, the 4701, well it has a very small hump is not nearly as pronounced as what the smaller tractor does. Again, kind of harkening back to some of the things that we saw on the 30 series tractor. One can assume that part of the reason why this tractor exist at his point, is because when Kubota took that Grand L Series tractor from years ago and put a lot of electronics in it to create the current L 60 Series tractors, they kind of kept the older design around as an economy model moving forward, so we see a lot of design aesthetic, a lot of the same kits and stuff to put rear remotes on the tractor and those kinds of things, continue to be used in this tractor today.
One thing that we're happy about in these tractors is that, the Kubota hasn't intentionally hampered or removed features from these machines in order to not cannibalize sales from other parts of the product line. Things like skid steer quick attach couplers are available on both the LA 765 and LA 525 loader. This is a feature that [sic] well optional, really should be standard equipment on just about every tractor that's out there, and we're happy that Kubota gives us that option on this machine.
You'll notice too that both of these loaders can be removed from the tractor, backhoes are available for this tractor, remotes are available for this tractor. We're from some competitive brands and their standard offerings have removed some of those abilities in order to not cannibalize sales for more deluxe tractors.
Kubota has not done that. This is a full feature-rich tractor that you're not going to find, that it's not able to do something that one of its larger or smaller more deluxe brother might be able to pull off. That's the Kubota Standard L Series. You have any questions about either of these tractors or if there's anything we can help you with, give us a call at Messick's. We're available at 800-222-3373 or online at www.messicks.com
Competitive Comparision. Mahindra 1533 vs Kubota L3301
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're out today with the Kubota standard L Series tractor and the Grand L Series machine to show you some of the differences that exist within Kubota L Series tractors.
