ThomasP wrote:For example, his Kubota is only 17.5 hp, but for the same amount of money he could have gotten a Craftsmen tractor with more than twice that amount of hp. He went with Kubota because of its reputation.
The typical Cummins or Detroit Diesel truck engine may only develop 375 horsepower (which is what the Olds 455 in my motorhome will develop), but they will have available to them about 1000 foot-pounds of torque at 1200 RPM's while I'll have to rev my Olds engine up to 2200 RPM's to see its maximum torque of only 400 foot-pounds. You can't compare low-RPM diesels to high-RPM gasoline engines on horsepower. As the saying goes, horsepower sells engines, torque wins races.
The Kubota has a three-cylinder diesel engine, and is built like a tractor on a cast transmission housing. It also has nearly indestructible hydrostatic drive. The gasoline riding mowers at the box stores have two-cylinder gas engines that spin twice as fast to get the same horsepower rating, develop only half the usable torque, don't have hydrostatic drive, and are build on sheet-metal frames. They tend to rattle themselves apart after a few years, and the high RPM's will rattle your teeth in the process. The Kubota is good for at least 3000 hours with routine maintenance. We put about 60 hours a year on ours, so it should last a good while. I could do serious pulling with mine if I put ag-tread tires on it instead of the slippery turf tires, and wheel weights would help, too. But I use ours for high-speed grass mowing and pushing snow, in addition to occasionally moving gravel around on the driveway.
The front-bladed, rear-steering units are very good for irregular yards with lots of curves and obstructions, but they are not stable at higher speeds. I can mow a 60" swath in thick grass at 10 mph with my Kubota. I used it for pounding out a path through 34" of snow a couple of years ago, by ramming the snow with a 15-foot run-up. That would have trashed the normal lawn mower in a day, even if you found one with a 12"x5' blade. But there was not a whimper from the Kubota (there was quite a bit of whimpering on that occasion from the operator, however).
The Kubota is great if you need a real tractor, but it is admittedly expensive for mere mowing. I wish mine had a three-point hitch--that would have been another coupla grand and I didn't see the need at the time.
Rick "who can mow three acres of grass in about 90 minutes, including going around lots of trees and obstructions" Denney
