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Neil Messicks here with a Kubota M4N series.
This is a narrow series tractor targeted towards
vineyards and orchards.
Let's take a quick walk around here and show you some of the features
of this machine.
Kubota has actually been without narrow tractors here
for almost three years.
Part of the reason for that is because tractors have recently
gone through some major emissions changes,
now requiring diesel particulate filters under 75 horsepower
in order to meet tier four final.
When Kubota was going through an update in their products,
their mainline tractors were updated first,
and the specialty tractors took a little bit longer
to get through engineering.
Now, the gap for that is over and this product is back
in production now sporting a diesel particulate filter back here
on top of the engine that cleans up the exhaust.
We have some videos out explaining exactly how DPFs work.
Essentially, what it does is, take the place of a muffler,
capturing the soot that comes out of the engine.
Every so many hours typically between about 30
to 50 hours for a tractor like this if you're running at higher RPMs,
this will go through a burn cycle and burn the soot out of that canister.
As an operator, generally, you just go run your tractor
who run the revs up and go out and make the thing work.
As I said, this is a narrow tractor, and the point of a narrow tractor
is to be as close in as possible in order to get down
your narrow vineyard rows.
This tractor comes in under 60 inches wide
with these Ag tires equipped to it.
Now, you can dish these things out further.
If you look over here on the wheel these right now
are dished in.
If you needed additional hillside stability
or you had wider rows say in orchards because
they're typically a little bit wider than vineyards are.
You can flip dishes here on the rims in order
to move the tires out.
You are able to get the thing down to 60 inches
right about five foot for some really tight narrow spaces.
One of the new features that's on this tractor
that was not on the prior series machines before
is 540 and a 540 e-switch here on the back.
Say you're running a small five foot rotary cutter
on the back of this machine, you don't need that
full 71 horsepower in order to spin that cutter.
By shifting down to 540 E you can have higher RPMs
at your PTO.
You don't need to run your engine RPMs quite as high saving you fuel.
Also, new on this tractor are some additional options
on your hydraulic remotes, two rear remotes come
as standard equipment on a narrow tractor.
You can actually stack up the five valves
on the back of this machine.
Some of those can even be equipped with flow control
if you're running pumps, hydraulic pumps
or need to dial in specific flows for sprayers
that are commonly used in orchards.
Flow control valves allow you to do that.
You could stack up to three additional valves
to on top of this stack here getting up to five new remote outlets.
If we've been able to find any shortcomings on this tractor
when going through the spec sheets and looking
at our competitive comparisons, the one area that
it could have a little bit more capacity is back here
in the three point hitch.
It does use these external lift cylinders which are
really nice if you have it.
If you're on some kind of trouble back here rather than having
a complicated rock shaft system.
This lifts back here from the rear making them easy to service.
It does only lift a little bit over 4,000 pounds
on the three point hitch, which is a little bit
below most competition.
I wouldn't say that it's a big showstopper
for most people as typically most of your work is done
by the drawbar on these tractors.
Your three point lift capacity is a little bit on the low side
compared to some of the competitors.
The transmission options on this tractor are one thing
that really separated from other machines in this class.
You'll see up here on my main stick, I had six speeds and one range
with two ranges to select between so 12 speeds total.
You will see other tractors in this class sporting 12 speeds,
but none that are doing it with six speeds on the main shifter.
The nice thing about this, is that it requires fewer range changes.
These are all synchronized gears, so you can shift through
one through six on the fly, while your range changes
are unsynchronized requiring you to stop the tractor.
By having six gears on the main shifter,
you're able to shift between more speeds
without having to make range changes as often.
This tractor can also be equipped with a creep speed kit
as well giving you six gears all under one mile and hour.
If you really need to creep along a creeper gear there
in the bottom, it will accomplish that for you.
Kubota has also updated the console on this machine too
over the older series things like wheel remotes,
drive controls.
The layout of this side of the tractor is a little bit nicer
and a little bit more modern.
Along the lines of that transmission right up here,
is where we have our direction changer
to go between forward and reverse.
This is a hydraulic wet clutch so when you want to toggle
between forward, you just go from front to back in order
to change directions.
Kubota has another feature on this machine called bi-speed turn.
If you look right down here on the dash, we have
a little indicator switch that shows four-wheel drive
and abled four-wheel drive with a front arrow on here.
I can show you the front axle here, there's a little sensor
on the front axle that when the thing reaches
a particular steering angle, it actually will shift up
the front tires causing them to spin more quickly.
What that will do is, when you reach the end of your rows,
it'll pull the front end of the tractor around
allowing you to make a much tighter turn,
and get back into the next row without having to make
a wide angle turn.
As we continue around the back of the console here,
we have a couple of more switches.
Some electrical sockets for things like guidance monitors,
a place to plug in your cellphone, PTO engagement
which could just be turned on and off,
and those flow control valves back here at the rear.
The two remotes that are on here are your flow control remotes.
Those adjustments can be made right here from the cab
by dialing these up or down.
If you added additional remotes you can see the sockets
back here across the rear for that flow control will come up
through the bottom.
The windows in this can be opened just like a normal tractor.
You can open this including the sides back here as well.
You'll notice up here in the top of the cab sensors
is a spray machine.
There are additional cab filters and stuff.
If you're running sprayers and stuff, these can be replaced easily
from inside the cab just by popping that grille open.
The tractor is pre-wired for a radio.
There's a socket right up here in the top with an antenna
and speaker wires behind it if you'd like to put a radio.
It's as simple as popping that out and sticking it in style
radio right inside the cab.
We talked about bi-speed turn in this tractor shifting up
as you go into a turn.
This is the sensor right here that accomplishes that.
There's a little cam right here on the top and a wire that detects
when you reach a certain steering angle to upshift the tires.
We'll give a short demo of exactly how that works.
I'm going to do a quick feature of the bi-speed turn here
on this tractor.
Again, what this thing does is it will reach
a particular steering angle up in the front, it will upshift
the four-wheel drive so that the front tires spin faster.
The first thing we're going to do here,
is make a turn in two-wheel drive like you typically would
in a normal tractor.
This should give us typically the best case scenario.
Usually, when you're in traditional four-wheel drive,
the front tires being engaged are pushing you out of your turn.
This is about the best case scenario
that you would get out of a traditional tractor.
We're going to go ahead and put this thing in gear.
I'm going to start at the yellow line that's here in the parking lot.
We're going to go ahead and pull forward, and then
go into a tight two-wheel drive turn.
Once I get perpendicular here to my yellow line,
I'm going to drop out here and drop my marker.
I'm going to hop out here and take my VX series filter kit
that we get from our friendly parts department.
We're going to drop it right back here at my rear tire.
That was my turning radius in two-wheel drive.
Now, I'm going to pull back over here to my line
and engage bi-speed turn.
We're right here on our line.
I'm going to reach up here in the dash and flip
the switch to bi-speed.
I'm going to come out here and crank this thing around.
You can see here comfortably that I've taken a solid
probably three and a half, four feet off
of the turning radius coming around.
That can make a big difference if you're somebody with tight rows
in your vineyard, rather than having to go out
and make a big wide turn that extra three and a half,
four feet that you took off your turning radius may enable you
to steer right into the next row rather than having to make
a lot of wide turns at the ends.
We're really happy to have these tractors back
in the product line here at Messick's,
to serve our orchard and vineyard customers
that are all around us here.
This tractor here that we walked around is an M4-071.
There's also an M5 series tractor that will sit on
a slightly larger frame to give you a little bit more machine.
Those I believe come in at 91 and 111 horsepower.
Once we have one of those in stock,
we'll do a walk around them that as well.
We can help you with a machine like this,
give us a call here at Messick's.
We're available online at www.messicks.com
or at 800-222-3373.
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