Something you need to understand about tractors is that the larger the machine is, the more variations and configurations of that particular model tend to exist within a particular model number. This one right here is an M8-181, 180 horsepower. There's also an M8-201 at 200 horsepower, but within that, there are slews of configurations that you can go through and make these tractors very, very deluxe or very, very simplistic.
This tractor that I'm walking around here today is actually one of the Kubota factory demo units that's now arrived at our dealership, and so I could walk around it here today. It's not one of our stock inventory tractors. For that reason, it's not configured exactly like I would typically choose. While we walk around this machine today, we're going to show you a lot of the things that are common across the entire M8 series. This is one of the very few Kubota products that does not roll out of a Kubota factory. This is a tractor that was engineered and built in conjunction with Versatile out of Canada. Now, this tractor does depart from Versatile's tractor in a number of different areas, mostly up here in the cab when it comes to the controls, operator layout, some of the ergonomic stuff up here in the machine is the stuff that's coming out of Kubota's M7. This feels like a Kubota family tractor in the cab. When you drive it around, it's very easy for me to hop up here being comfortable with the rest of the controls in the Kubota family tractors. This one drives and operates very much the same way, but it is actually rolling out of a Versatile factory despite the fact that it has that Kubota DNA up in there.
Another thing that I would add here would be the level of support and infrastructure that Kubota brings to this product family. Versatile's not a company that's actually known really well for supporting their products well out in the field. If you notice the development cycle of this tractor, this was a machine that was actually launched and introduced about two and a half years ago now, and they're just really starting to hit the ground in volume. That's because of Kubota slowing some stuff down to address some quality issues that they were concerned about and protecting their customers from those kinds of issues of rolling out
I come to this with a lot of respect for a company that's willing to slow things down a little bit, and delay product launches in order to be able to get things right. Happy for the quality that they're able to work into this machine, for the support, and infrastructure, and parts, and engine diagnostics and knowledge that Kubota's able to bring to a product that hasn't been really well represented in the US up until this point.
You always want to approach new products with a certain amount of care when you're looking at them for the very first time to understand how new and unproven something might be. This tractor has a lot of proven technology and proven parts in it. When you look at the different companies that are out there that are building machinery, a lot of them are sourcing major components and parts from very much the same companies. That's very true of this tractor as well. This is not something that was built as a brand new machine from the ground up. If you look at your front axles up here, these are going to be very common, spitzer front axles. The engine that's in this machine is not a Kubota engine, it's a 6.7 liter Cummins engine that's in here. The Kubota engine division does have an engine in this horsepower class in production, I wouldn't be surprised to see it before too long, but there's a Cummins under the hood up here right now.
The transmission that's back here is from ZF out of Germany. It's a very common transmission that you're going to find and a lot of other proven products at this point. While this is a new machine, we're looking at a proven transmission, known front axles, known engines, electronics packages that have been in the M7 now for the better part of a decade, a lot of proven stuff in a new machine.
If you work your way around to the back of the tractor, you'll find a lot of the heft and features that you're expecting to see in an ag tractor like this, a machine that is really meant to work out in the field with a variety of different implements. Not a purpose-built tractor, but something that's incredibly versatile for doing all kinds of different work. You can see here a full stack of hydraulic remotes, you've got five across the rear here. Two of these are going to be mapped up to the front loader, to operate that. There's a button up in the dash that you toggle to switch between this set of rear remotes, or having them operate the front loader. They're all operated electronically, so you can dial in your flows, or timers, or other functions that you need in order to operate your rear implements. You have a number of options for that across here.
Up in the top, you're going to have a plug up here for lights, you have a plug up here for ISO bus. If you're operating an implement that's ISO compatible, you simply plug it into here, it'll pop right up on the tractor's monitor. Down here, you're going to have a series of low pressure and power beyond returns to go back to the tractor. If you keep working your way down here, you're going to have a regular three-point hitch category three on this size of machine. Then on your PTO, you're going to have a 540 or 1000 selectable, both regular and the economy variants, all selectable from up in the cab, not with a lever or anything here at the rear. The hitch on here is big and substantial and it's the drop pin style where you can set this thing up so that when your implement hits the back of the hitch, it automatically drops the pin down into the hole, so you don't have to get out of the cab.
This tractor's rear tires are set up with 480/80R46s. It's a fairly narrow tire, tall and narrow tire for this size machine, something appropriate if you're going to be doing a little bit of row crop work. You can also set these up with duals or what's most common for us, would be a super single, a wide fat single tire. All of these are going to have bar axles on the back, not flanges, so it gives you a lot of flexibility to go through and set up the tires in the way that's right for you.
In addition to this machine's significant tonnage, you're also going to notice a lot of additional weights stacked back in here, both on the outside and the inside of this cast rim. Some Kubota tractors sometimes got a little bit of a reputation for being on the light side, that is not true of this one.
The first thing that caught my eye is this sizable wart on the outside of the cab here. This is the engine particulate filter and depth system that's on the outside of the cab. It's not unusual when you get into big machines like this for these things to come out of the engine compartment, and be on the outside of the tractor. To me, visually, when I walked up to this, I thought this thing was enormous and kind of ridiculous. It is big. To their credit, while it looks like on the outside of the tractor that it would really cause a major obstruction when you're sitting inside the cab looking out, it is located right at the cab post. When you look out from the cab, it is not as big of an obstruction as what it looks like from the outside, so don't judge this one without getting in the cab and looking out first. It's not as bad as what it looks like.
If you look at tractors in the higher horsepower classes, say, above 100 or so, you're going to notice that Kubota maintains a really high loader attachment rate on their machines, where a lot of other manufacturers don't necessarily put on nearly the percentage that Kubota does. That's because a lot of these tractors often end up in hay applications, barnyard work, and that kind of thing. The loader that goes onto this machine is a very full-featured loader. It's not one that you're going to go through and pick 100 different costly options for. This is going to come through with soft ride on it, with a single lever release for all the hydraulic hoses, and a standard third function as well. All of those things are operated off of an electronic loader joystick that's nicely integrated into the armrest on the right-hand side of the seat, so it is really one of the most feature-rich loaders that's really out there on the market.
This is built by Quicke. Quicke is a really common company, really common loader that you're going to find on this class of tractor. If I give one criticism to the way that this is set up today, it's a little slow for my liking. When you operate the stick back and forth, the lift could be a little bit faster. In my back and forth with the factory folks, I hear that hopefully, an improvement to that might be right around the corner.
Under the hood, you're going to find a Cummins engine, a six-cylinder 6.7-liter engine, creating either 180 or 200 horsepower, respectively, depending on the model that you choose. Most of these machines today are going to come through with what's called Boost. This one has 25 horsepower of boost. Boost is the tractor's ability to be able to deliver a little bit more horsepower over what's rated on the side of the hood at the times that the tractor is really working hard. You're going to have the rated amount of horsepower, that 180 or 200 to any point on the tractor at any time, but if you have multiple demands for horsepower, say you're running the hydraulics while you need traction, potentially another horsepower boost is available on tap in order to get you through those tough spots. These things produce a little bit more power than what it necessarily looks like on the side of the hood, and you'll find that being a common specification on a lot of tractors anymore but it is sometimes a little confusing on exactly where it can be used.
If you work your way back to the tractor here, you're going to find a really significant large cooling pack here on the front. I was impressed talking to the development guys about this machine, about running triple mowers out in 100-degree Texas heat and how they were really able to keep this machine cool and have it hold up in those demanding conditions, impressed by what this field guys are out there doing with these machines.
If you look around the tractor here, it is a fairly easy machine to work on if you need to. There is space underneath this hood. It's not all packed in there too hard, but you certainly are going to have to remove the loader and stuff to get back here if you have to do some significant maintenance. The easy stuff though, radiators here in the front of the cab that are easy to blow out. They'll swing out of the way here to be able to get back to the full core. Large air cleaners, and stuff right up here on the top of the engine, those regular service points that you're going to look for are all easily accessible from the outside of the machine with the loader on.
One thing you absolutely cannot complain about in here is the size of the cab. This is an enormous cab. Sitting here in the seat, I can stretch my legs out the entire way, scoot forward, point my toes and still not get out to the glass. There is a huge amount of room in here. Not just in terms of forward reach, but also out to the sides, and I also have a sunroof as well. It's a really spacious cabin.
Now, you might laugh at a sunroof in a tractor. If you notice this machine with the loader the entire way up, that's there so that you can lean forward a little bit and see how high you've reached that. If you're stacking bales or something really up high, you lose the height of the loader here once it crosses over the cab roof. This isn't so much for opening this up on a nice sunny day, it's for visibility up to your load while you're lifting things up.
On my right-hand side over here, you're going to notice this right-hand armrest. I mentioned before that the electronics out of this machine are largely out of the Kubota M7, and the detail that I would have done in other videos on that monitor all holds true here.
A couple of things that I would say about it is it's really intuitive to operate. There's a 7 or a 12-inch option. Both of them have the same features and functions on them but the one difference is going to be just simply how much stuff fits on the screen at one time. The 7-inch really kind of gives you control over one tracker system, where the 12-inch will allow you to see multiple ones at one time. It's really easy to operate in that you can see the different tractor systems. Say your three-point hitch, or your hydraulics, or your front axles, simply look at the little icon for that, press the button and then all the functions and features that are available for that system of the tractor are available on the screen. I find with my relative knowledge of this kind of stuff that I can get through 90% of what's on here without asking questions or having to pull out an owner's manual. It's very easy to use.
The same can be said of the physical buttons that are here on the side as well. All of them are very intuitive. You have your remotes, and your loader stick, your PTO, all things that you would expect. Two throttle presets, your three-point hitch height, your throttle, neutral, four-wheel-drive, lockouts for the loader and really that's about it. You don't have a whole lot of excess, unexplainable buttons floating around on your armrest. It's all very intuitive and easy to use.
A couple more things to show you here in the cab, so on the left-hand side, that seat will fold down there. They're very clearly thinking about the modern-day farmer that might be carrying a laptop or something around in their tractor. Gives you a nice flat surface over here to put things down to work on. Then a regular 110-volt outlet right back here in the corner of the cab, along with USB plugins, or traditional cigarette lighters if you want to plug stuff in there, so all of your power options are available right here beside your desk in your huge cab tractor. Over here on the other column, you're going to have some of those same options. Several power ports, but then also ports for ISO bus connections or power ports for your monitors, all those things that are typically bolted over here on the bar on the right-hand side.
If we work our way up here to the top of the cab we've got some controls up here, right below the headliner. We can start down here with this button, the one that says auto. When we get into this size machine, it's really common to have these things driven by some kind of guidance monitor. It could be a Trimble, or Topcon, or the many companies that are out here for that kind of stuff. This machine is going to be compatible with all of those other brands. Kubota does not shoehorn you into their preferred monitor for this machine. You can go out to the open and market and pick the one that might suit your fleet the best, many of which we will support as well at Messick's. Up here is going to be where your radio is. There are speakers in here, they're buried up behind the headliner, you can't see them.
This has got heated and power mirrors that you can adjust here, turn many of your work lights on and off, and then operate your air-conditioning controls. The one beef that I have up here, every time you turn the tractor off, if you want to work the air conditioner, you have to reach up here and turn the compressor back on every time. It does not remember that setting. I passed that on to the engineers, and I'm told that hopefully that one gets addressed as well.
When it gets into options and fine configurations, these are wildly complex machines. These can be set up for really simple high capacity loader tractors or phenomenally comfortable fieldwork tractors, depending on exactly how they're equipped. If you're a buyer for this type of machine, you probably know many of those things and what those options are, but coming at these things for the very first time, these kinds of product lines can be intimidating but know that the basics of them, the things that we showed you here today are going to be pretty common across this entire product line. Really cool to see Kubota growing into new markets. It's always exciting for us as dealerships to move into some of these new frontier products with these companies. Well, this is a class of tractors that we at Messick's are very comfortable with. It's always fun to be able to have another color to offer when moving into these new spaces.
