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- Neil from Messick's here with two popular compact utility tractors.
A Kubota L Series machine and a John Deere 3E.
Take a quick walk with me here around these machines
and we'll find out some of the differences in features.
Let me practice this video here
by saying that when doing a sales presentation to a customer
we never like to talk down competitor's equipment.
Generally, we feel that our dealership in our products
can stand on their own and we like to be able
to sell our own merits rather than talking down somebody else.
Unfortunately, we see a lot of customers making decision
based on videos they've seen on YouTube
or things on the internet, and not really having
the opportunity to see products side-by-side.
We're going to do some comparisons here today
and try to be as fair as we possibly can.
Often times when these things are done
they're dealt with manufacturer talking points
or not than in real fair ways and so we're going to--
even though we are clearly a Kubota dealer
we're going to give you a little bit of a balanced approach
to the pros and cons of these two pieces of equipment.
A little bit of preparation I did before coming out here today
I sat down and went through John Deere's website
and watched their YouTube videos
and that kind of stuff to see the way that they compare these two tractors.
One thing that I noticed immediately
was that they really do seem to stretch a little bit
to find positive things to talk about with this machine.
Honestly, I'm very much feeling the same way.
If you watch our other competitor comparison videos
I can usually find some merits about a particular tractor or things that I like.
Honestly, I'm really struggling with this one.
There's a lot of critical flaws in this piece of equipment in my opinion.
The most of them for me, start really in two areas
in the loader and in the front axle.
If you come up here and you look at the sides of the front axle
the front axle in this tractor is really small
oddly small for this size machine.
If you check the spec sheet it has an operating capacity
and a load capacity of right about 1600 pounds.
Down below the from axle, down here
is this tie rod for the four-wheel drive.
The lowest point on this tractor
if you look across the bottom, is this tie rod.
John Deere will often point out that Kubota put some
of their steering equipment in front on the axle which is true.
They put steering rods and that kind of stuff in front
but they will then position theirs below.
In my opinion, offly problematic.
I'd rather take a higher tie rod before
I would take a lower tie rod that's more at to hit something.
Back on that loader axle capacity you'll notice the loader here
has a bunch of warning labels around in the back side of it.
Labels backs here specifically saying not to handle round bales
and to raise loads of caution.
For me, that's probably going back into that front axle capacity.
This loader can lift right about 850 pounds
but if you had say, a heavy round bell
or something up the front that's bouncing
it doesn't take a whole lot to start to over strain that axle.
This is the size tractor, where you start
to see some customers get in to those applications.
You know what a hobby farmer, a horse farmer
that kind of stuff will occasionally try to manipulate
and move a round bale with a small utility tractor like this.
There are specific warning labels on the backside
of the loader telling you not to do that.
Another cost-saving measure that you'll find on this loader
is the fact that it's not removable from the tracker.
I am always impressed by the cool castings
that John Deere uses here to support the loader
but this loader doesn't come off the machine.
You can't remove the entire thing if you want to take to bulk of it off
from a mowing application or something like that.
The bucket itself can come off, it doesn't come off to the way that we would like to see.
On the backside of the bucket down here
there's two clips that you take off to allow the bucket
to swing away and come off of the loader.
That's fine. It's inexpensive way to make
the bucket easily removable
but unfortunately it's not a universally accepted standard.
If you look at the Kubota version over here
this is a universal skid steer quick coupler.
Coupler that you'll find on about 80% of equipment in the market.
The nice thing about having this coupler here is being
as a universal standard you can put all kinds of stuff
on the front of this tractor universally with a quick coupler right?
If you wanted to put on a grapple or pallet forks
or an over-sized bucket or anything
from the whole world of skids to your compatible attachments
this tractor can very easily do that where John Deere
will have lot do in a proprietary solution.
This tractor uses an aluminium transmission.
It's not to say that aluminium is necessarily bad .
Aluminium can be great in a lot of applications
but in a tractor application, it removes away
which is something you typically want
for ground engagement and those sort of things.
You know I haven't made very many comparisons
to the Kubota sitting beside the Deere here.
That's because I don't really feel that these two tractors are equals, frankly.
This is the tractor that you'll see John Deere compared this machine
to and they will compare their 3E series
is to a Kubota standard now which is their utility economy tractor.
It is however a fundamentally a smaller
and wider and less capable machine in a lot of different ways.
Kubota makes another product that's a B3350SU.
For us it's not a model that we sell a lot of
but it's essentially a B series tractor with a little bit larger set of tires on it.
You'll find a specifications the weights of that machine
or why not much more equally to the John Deere 3E series even though
it's B series tractor, we'd suspect you'd probably
find very similar performance from that machine.
The reason why we don't sell a whole lot of those ourselves
is because the cost difference
between the 3350SU and a standard L is very, very small.
For about the $800 or so differences between those two machines.
This is a lot more tractor and you can see that here
as we go back and forth the standard L is a little bit bigger, right?
When you see John Deere's YouTube videos
and their comparisons of these machines
you don't typically see the two tractors sitting side by side
in the way that you would notice this.
The loader for instance weighs about 350 pounds and more.
It's much longer and lift a much higher, it's a lot more capable.
The tractor's base weight itself depending on the configuration
gear drives or hydros have different base weights
or a couple of hundred pounds difference.
Really, it isn't the best apples to apples comparison
that can be made even though these two companies both good
with all these comparison because their placement
in the market is really very similar to each other.
At the end of the day the Kubota is more tractor in a lot of ways.
Another one of the critical flaws on this tractor
that I forgot to mention when talking about the transmission
is the range selector. Over here my left hand side.
This is only a two range transmission which is very unusual.
Kubota only uses a two range transmission
in a sub-compact tractor and moves into three ranges in every other model.
In most competitive machines are like that too.
It's very unusual to see two ranges in this size machine.
That's right over here simply a low and a high not a low
medium high like most other machines would have.
Down here on the bottom is also a hand lift for parking brake.
A lot of other tractors would use a simple brake and latch.
Again, my preference to grab the latch up here rather than
a lever way down on the floor.
You may feel differently about that.
Over here on the left hand side are John Deere's twin touch pedals.
We've talked about the preferences the people have
between the two pedal and a single pedal design just like Sanford
or Chevy there's a lot preferences out there but at the end of the day
you'll get used to whatever you own.
For me personally I've never been a twin twitched guy.
To be honest, the first time I got on this tractor and started it
I thought I was pushing the forward pedal
and pushed reversed and ran backward initially.
Could be me being new but there's preferences about pedal
but at the end of the day you're going to get used to whatever you operate
but I myself have never been much of a twin touch guy.
Another thing that I noticed immediately when getting
on starting up this tractor is how loud it is.
I have a decibel meter here which I'm going to turn on
and sit right here beside my ear and give you the idea how loud this is.
[engine starting] That topped out at 96.4 decibels.
Let's hop on the Kubota over here and see how that compares.
[engine starting] 90.3, so there's a 6 dB difference
between the Deere and the Kubota.
Now if you know anything about the decibel scale, decibels are logarithmic.
Every 10 decibels is a doubling of volume.
A six dB difference is very significant and very noticeable
and something I immediately picked up when I'm hopping on the Deere machine.
That's my walk around here the Kubota standard L
and a John Deere 3E series machine.
Like I've said, I tried to be as balanced
and as fair as possible when going over these machines
but this is one that honestly I don't know why you would buy.
I simply really struggle to see the value for this tractor in the market place.
If you're going to the process of shopping for a compact tractor
we can help you. Give us a call at Messick's
we're available at 800-222-3373 and online at messicks.com.
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