[Jan in CO]

Several years ago, we bought a used Kabota tractor, small one with a bucket on the front, and a pto. Turned out to be a graymarket Kabota, made in the orient somewhere. Had to pay $36 for a photocopied operating manual for a similar "real" Kabota at that time. Now hubby thinks the clutch is going out, and we find that no Kabota dealer will work on the thing, nor give us any idea as to where to buy the clutch so we can do it ourselves if that's not impossible. I can understand that, they don't want to lose their franchise. Any thoughts as to where a person can purchase the parts, or if it's a REALLY big job, and not possible to do at home, should we just sell it as is? We've been talking about selling it anyway, as hubby is tall, and there isn't much knee room for him, but it's a great little tractor for cleaning out stalls, etc. Thanks for any input, Jan in Co

 

[tooltime]

Do you have any repair shops (indpendent) in your area that work on tractors? If you find a shop with a good reputation, they would likely do the job, provided they can find the parts. If you see quite a few gray market tractors in your area, chances are someone other than a dealer will service them.

First thing to do is have the tractor model number, the serial number and, if possible parts numbers and casting numbers. Problem is a lot of the foreign manufactured gray-market imports use difft. parts numbering schemes than same model tractor produced for US market.

Putting in a clutch is a big job, but I don't know how comfortable you are with your abilities.

I've worked on a couple Kubotas, but they aren't too common around here. Parts were a bit of a bear to find, I got some from Scweissguth's in St. Louis and also Western Kentucky Tractor parts. I believe both are online.

I am pasting a link for some FAQs/boards for gray-market tractors.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/kb13/ans_grey.htm
Might be of help.

 

[Jan in CO]

Thanks for the sites and links, Tooltime! I'll have hubby check them out. Seems when he tells me something is a "half hour job" it usually takes several days, so I don't know how competent he is with tractors! At least he tries. Shows what greenhorns we are/were, that we didn't even realize it wasn't a "real" Kabota when we bought the thing! Live and learn, I guess. Jan in Co

 

[Guest]

'Grey market' means the machine was built & sold to the Japaneese market (or China tractor in China...), then imported into the USA as a used tracotr & resold here. It does not meet certain USA safety standards (roll bar, pto & other shielding, everything is written in a different language...). Usually the major components, like engine & tranny, cross-reference to something that is sold here in the USA. But rarely does the whole entire tractor turn out to be -exactly like- a USA model.

The difficulty is in figuring out what cross-references. USA dealers are instructed to turn a cold shoulder on grey market machines, Kubota Corp. strongly frowns on them, as it cuts into their USA sales, and actually working on them opens them up to lawsuits as they were not built to USA laws & kinda shouldn't be here....

You probably know that, but others might be wondering....

So, you need to find one of the folks that service/ supply grey market machines. Or, get real good info on what your machine cross references to for parts, and go to a local Kubota dealer & just order the USA parts - if they do cross-reference.

There are some good folks at www.ytmag.com that will probably help, tho most like old USA iron, so be prepared for that reaction.

Also www.tractorbynet.com has web forums like this one set up just for all types of compact tractors, including a grey market section. You should get good help there.

--->Paul

 

[Jan in CO]

Good points, Paul! If we had known what we were doing when we bought this tractor, it wouldn't be here, but for the price we paid, it fit the bill at the time, and has been a useful tool. I'll check out the forums and sites and go from there. Jan in Co