Kubota ZD1211 Walk Around and Review

Kubota has been building this series of diesel zero turns for the better part of probably 15 years. This is the third major iteration of these machines, the third major redesign that has been done. This particular machine here is serial number 10,006, which probably means that it's the sixth one of these that they have made, it's one of the very first ones off the production line.

If you paid attention to the equipment market here for the last several years, one of the major changes that we've gone through is required changes for emissions. Now, that we're fully into Tier four any machines over 26 horsepower have to have a diesel particulate filter attached to them. One issue that created here with diesel zero turn mowers now is that any machine over that 26 horsepower threshold, which was many of them, now requires an expensive emission system to be bolted on to it.

Where we had had some 31 horsepower machines in the past, they now would become prohibitively expensive. What the Kubota did to address that problem and to give good performance on a little bit lower horsepower machine is to create this aerodynamic cutting system deck. It's a very similar construction deck to Kubota's older decks of years gone by, very very heavy, very thick steel, heavy welded, edges on the front, if you happen to bump into something, nice deep decks for high throughput, but by changing some baffling and cutting about a half an inch off the height, they were able to lower the horsepower demand of the mower deck by about 20%.

That takes some of that extra load off the engine, it helps the machine power along a lot better, and allows us to run even a 72-inch deck well with a 26 horsepower engine. As I said, the major mechanical change on this is the changes to the BACS deck to improve that deck efficiency, but every time Kubota does come out with a new model, they take the time to address some other operational concerns and improvements that can be made to the product.

You'll notice now on this we use a low profile tire this is really more of a visual thing gives the machine a little bit more aggressive look. The older series Evy mowers had dual fuel tanks on both sides, but to switch from one tank to the other, you ended up having to flip a valve in the middle, and you ended up having a fuel gauge and an idiot light up here on the dash in order to track your fuel level.

That made it a little bit complicated, having to switch the fuel thing, and watch two different things for your fuel level. This series mower now has both fuel tanks tied together. You'll notice behind the seat up here there's a little pipe, where there's a vent line that runs between the two tanks to allow the fuel to flow from one side of the other, and there's now no need in order to flip that valve to switch between tanks.

Kubota also came out with a new dash here as well, we were just talking about the fuel tanks, so rather than having an any idiot light and a gauge now have a fuel indicator coming up here on the side, they also showed battery voltage, your our meter, your coolant temperature, a warning light if you happen to overheat the radiator or put the machine into some kind of alarm state, parking brake showing the parking brake is engaged, a neutral indicator that shows if your sticks are in the neutral position and ready to start.

That's handy because oftentimes people will miss the fact they might have one of the sticks brought in just a little bit, and not in the neutral position where the machine can start. Your PTO indicator to show that your mower deck is on, a glow plug indicator light while you're starting, temperature alarms and a low fuel alarm. They really put a lot of additional indicators, and a lot of machine indicators now on this panel that didn't exist before. We'll talk briefly about some of the features that the ZD series has and why they've been so successful.

Kubota commands a vast majority of the market for diesel utility vehicles, and you'll see down here underneath the hood the technology and the engineering that they put into this is quite unlike anything else. This is not a new design, you'll see that the older ZD Series mowers used a very similar system, but everything that you have here in the center is bolted together with all Shabs so that you don't have belts and hoses running between the different components. You have your pumps, and your wheel motors bolted directly together, eliminating all the belts, and hoses, and the rubber parts that we know years down the road will leak and require to be replaced.

Inside of this central gearbox is a hydraulic wet PTO clutch. That something is really unique even in high-end mowers from other brands, you usually will see a magnetic clutch, and Kubota uses a wet clutch just like they would in an agricultural tractor in order to turn that mower deck on. You'll notice when you engage your mower deck, you come up here to where the lever is at, instead of using a button to push, and a snap that thing on you bring this lever forward which applies hydraulic pressure in order to activate the mower deck. It's a much more heavy-duty engagement system.

Because you have a hydraulic system in here as well, they're also able to fit the mower deck with hydraulic lift, so rather than a foot operated or spring assists a lift, you have hydraulic pedals out here on the front that allow you to move it up and down. This is also a shaft driven mower deck as well down here in the bottom, that shaft rather than a belt is just less wear and tear less maintenance over the long haul, and so by building a system like this Kubota has created a very heavy-duty zero turn mower, and removed a lot of the parts that we know over the long term are going to have to be replaced.

Now, no system is perfect, you could look at these pieces in here and see that there's a lot of weight in this mower, and it does tend away about 2-300 pounds heavier than what a lot of other competitive mowers are, and that does create a little bit of an extra inertia as you're hauling along and mowing really quickly when you come to a stop the machine does want to keep on going and not snap into a quick turn quite, as soon as, what some lighter weight mowers would. A great system, very very heavy-duty, very popular among our AG and construction customers, and a handful of landscapers as well.

There are times that that weight and that heavy-duty build quality of this machine can be a bit of a disadvantage. Kubota builds these in a couple different sizes, but by far the most popular is the 26 horsepower. Uses a Kubota D1105 engine. The 1105 stands at its 1105CC, it's about a second most popular engine that you see in Kubota equipment. Produces 26 horsepower and because of that being under that threshold doesn't require a diesel particulate filter, or any additional Tier 4 emission systems to clean up the exhaust. Just by its size, it's able to meet Tier 4 emissions without any additional hardware.

Another unique and really simple feature that Kubota has built into the ZD series as a service lift here in the front. You'll see by default the front axle is set into an articulating position, and by moving a pin down here into another hole you can fix it in place, allowing you to choose whether you want your axle to articulate for a little bit better ride, or if you're mowing really fast over really rough ground some guys prefer to lock the axle in place and try to almost skip over top of some of the bumps and the ruts. By taking the pins out of this, you're able to articulate this front axle up into a service position with an integrated jack.

As you turn this here it operates a screw on the inside, and this whole front axle is going to start to twist up. As you get it started here, you can slide this pin in place, the one that previously held the axle. You can actually catch the front tire, allowing you to easily and safely get underneath the deck here to clean out the underside. If you look at decks on used machines, you can clearly tell the people who periodically scrape the wet grass out from underneath the deck. Allowing wet grass to accumulate down there in the bottom of the metal surface, will rust through the deck shell much, much more quickly than if you keep it clean.

It's pretty common on zero turn mowers, but the very first piece of this thing that will wear out will be the mower deck shell, which is very expensive to replace. Also approved on this series is a nicer high back seat with a little bit more ride in the suspension down here in the bottom. Another thing that I like too is it's an improved floor mat, it's a little bit more grippy than the old ones were, and other than that everything is pretty similar to the older series.

Zero turns from Kubota have been excellent machines for us, particularly the ZD series. Our company sells nearly one of these a week, very very popular machines for us. If you have any questions about one of these or could see one in your application, give us a call here at Messick's at 800-222-3373 or online at messicks.com.