Who on here owns an old Kubota?

[ncguy444]

Believe it or not there are grey market John Deeres too, that come in usually from Mexico or Canada and are models not sold in the US-- they can be fun getting parts for, too. And a few of them have the same model number as a US sold tractor, but are different!

I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up

[Okrafarmer]

Believe it or not there are grey market John Deeres too, that come in usually from Mexico or Canada and are models not sold in the US-- they can be fun getting parts for, too. And a few of them have the same model number as a US sold tractor, but are different!

I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up

Yes-- I'm not sure they come in such an organized way as the Japanese grey market tractors-- I think it is usually just farmers buying and selling from each other across the border, and so on. You have to realize John Deere has several tractor factories worldwide, and they also have at times sold "branded" tractors built by outside firms, including Goldoni, Zetor, and Renault, to name a few. These machines are generally not sold new in the states but are marketed in other countries. John Deere's main "medium-size tractor" factory is in Germany, and they used to make tractor models that differed for the European / old world market compared to the US market. Also Canada and Latin America had access to these other models. Some JD tractors have been built in many other places including Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, and I think, China. These models are generally not available in the US. The German JD factory however has traditionally built tractors for the US market that differed from the ones they built for the international market. That is not so much the case anymore, but some of those "European" models can still be found all over the world and oozing past the US borders from time to time. As you would expect, the closer you live to the border the more you can expect to encounter them. If you are interested in buying a used John Deere tractor, it is good to familiarize yourself with the model you are interested in purchasing. Figure out what model(s) would be acceptable to your situation, and then search for those particular models. One book that helps figure out a lot of the foreign market stuff is called "John Deere Tractors Worldwide."

A couple models I instantly know are grey-market to the US are the popular (in other countries) 3140, and the 1120. There are plenty others as well.

[StorminN]

Hi guys,

I finally picked up the old Kubota yesterday. It's a model L200, looks to be one of the early ones – the lights are on the fenders, not the hood... from other stuff I've read, that puts it somewhere between 1969 and 1972. It runs great, I bought it and drove it home (about five miles) yesterday. Glad to finally have a tractor, and I'll be fitting it with some sort of forks / carryall soon!

-Norm.

[Okrafarmer]

Congratulations, you're a tractor owner!
8) 8) 8) 8)

[StorminN]

Yep Okra, I'm pretty excited! Even though it's a little guy, it's going to be a big help to me!

-Norm.

[StorminN]

Hey folks,

So now that I have the tractor, I picked up a little carry-all for the 3pt hitch, I'm excited to try that out this weekend... man, I have needed something like this to move wood, pallets of stuff, save my back, etc.! I also have a line on a grader blade and a couple of other 3pt attachments, we'll see how that shakes out...

Next thing I'd like to do is tap into the hydraulics on this rig, so I can run remote stuff... a wood splitter, live top link, maybe a loader eventually... so I'm trying to learn how to do this.

This model has a hydraulic pump on the front of the diesel engine, and the hydraulic reservoir is built into the front part of the fuel tank. Hard lines run from the pump & tank, back to a single valve located under the right side of the operator's seat. In the operator's manual I have, it talks about tapping into the plug in the top of this valve to get hydraulic fluid for remotes, but it doesn't talk about where to tap into the return line.

One guy I've emailed with said that the hydraulic system on this tractor is an old English metric standard, and I'd need to find the correct pressure T, fittings, etc... but he didn't give specifics, and now he's on vacation for 3 weeks (!)... SO, I'm wondering if anyone has worked on the hydraulics of these older L-series Kubotas, and knows what standard they are and where to buy parts.

Below is a picture of the valve in question. The return line doesn't actually come out of the valve itself, it comes out of the housing for the 3pt hitch lift cylinder. The high-pressure feed line from the pump enters this valve on the under side, you can't see it in this pic. The front of the tractor is to the right in this picture.

Thanks in advance, for any help!
-Norm.

[snowstorm]

the fitting will be british paralell pipe the thread angle is one half of a drgee different than us pipe use oring fitting. it looks like that valve has a flow control. dose that knob turn? i have a b8200 that i made my own power streeing system for. mine has a flow control priorty valve. meaning it can run 2 cyl. at once. the return oil can return to tank anywhere dosent have to go thru the valve. i dont know the gpm of your pump mine is ony about 6gpm. i dont think you will have enought oil flow....gpm...to run a wood splitter...and run it well. you might want to look into a pto pump. mounts on the pto shaft.

[chevytaHOE5674]

As for a wood splitter from the hydraulics just get yourself a splitter setup with its own motor. I had mine powered from my tractor and it was pretty slow and got pricey to run (tractor had to be humming the RPMS to get the splitter to move efficiently).

Now have a 5hp B&S on the splitter and it will run a day on a tank of gas.

[StorminN]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies...

snowstorm, the flow control knob does turn... it controls how fast / slow the 3pt hitch drops. I got a reply on a Kubota forum, where a guy showed pictures of his L210... he said he took a hydraulic blade off of it when he restored it... the valve in this picture just had a street elbow screwed into it, and then under the hydraulic tank there was another pipe with a street elbow in it for the return. I looked closer at my tractor, and I have the same pipe, it has a plug in it. I haven't removed the plug yet to check the threads, because I'm not ready to drain the hydraulic fluid just yet...

I will do some research on the pump that's on my tractor... you guys are probably right, it won't be enough for a wood splitter, but I'd like to eventually have a loader, or a live top link, or maybe a dump trailer... so it will be good to learn...

Thanks for the help!

-Norm.

[StorminN]

Ok, so I've found out a little more...

snowstorm, the fitting is indeed BSPP, 3/8" size... getting an adapter to JIC soon. You and chevy are also right about the pump on my L200, from what I can find, it's only rated at about 3gpm. Now I'm trying to decide whether I should try and find a bigger pump that will fit the front of the engine, or if I should hang one off the PTO... those 2-stage 11 or 16 gpm pumps from Surplus Center look like they might do the trick...

-N.

[snowstorm]

for splitter i would get the pto pump........the pto shaft will turn about 540rpm so size the pump for that rpm

[StorminN]

Hi folks,

Another question, if anyone has one of these old Kubotas... the air filter on this tractor consists of a cyclone up top, and an oil bath filter below, with an air filter element above the oil bath (see diagram from parts manual below).

Here's my question... the air filter element that came with my tractor doesn't seem to match the diagram in the parts manual (but the parts manual is for both the L200 & L210, and there are other small discrepancies on other parts of the tractor, so it could be wrong)... but I can't figure out how the filter I have is supposed to work, in the housing that it's in...

As far as I can tell – as it is now, the intake air could come down the center tube from the cyclone, but it sort of dead-ends in the center of the air filter element... there's no place for it to go... and the way the element fits in the bottom pan, it's too small – so there's a gap, as it sits in the pan. I don't think it's supposed to sit in the pan at all, I think it's supposed to bridge the gap between the upper assembly, and the lower oil bath pan.

I've been scratching my head on this one, let me know what you think. I think all the intake air is bypassing the cyclone and the oil bath altogether, and just going through the element... here's some pics. Any guys out there with a L200 or L210, if you've got pics of your air cleaner setups, I'd love to see them...

Thanks!
-Norm.

[tyb525]

Norm,

The day I got forks for the rear of our tractor (IH 656) everything got so much easier. Moving logs, lumber, etc. Plus I used up a good amount of scrap, low-quality lumber I had around by building all kinds of pallets to carry things such as bowl blanks and firewood. Makes things so much easier to move around when you don't have to load and unload them all the time!

[beenthere]

StorminN
The pics of your air intake look like a simple conventional oil bath...air comes in and down through the screen, then down through the oil bath and up the sides into the air intake to the carb.  The screen takes out the chaff etc, the oil takes out the dust.   I don't see it matching the drawing shown.

[StorminN]

tyb525, you sure are right! I got the 3pt adjusters freed up last night, so I should be able to use the carry-all a little better this weekend... that is, if the weather cooperates!

beenthere, I kind of understand what you're saying... but in this case, the air comes in the top cyclone, and down the center tube. The center tube (unfiltered air) is separate from the outside space (filtered air) In this next pic, the outside part is where the filtered air is supposed to route after the oil bath and filter element, to feed to the engine.



But guess there are two other pictures I should have taken. One would be an overhead picture of the oil bath pan, because in the pics I've posted, you can't really see... the bottom of the center tube in the oil bath pan has no holes in it... so when the air comes down the tube from the cyclone up top, it has nowhere to go, it's a dead end. The filter element has no holes in the center part, either.



The second picture I need to get is of what the whole thing looks like when it's assembled with the filter element I have... the upper and lower assembly don't meet... because of the height of the air filter element, there's a gap all the way around the outside. I will get this pic tonight and post...

Thanks guys,
-Norm.