Neighbor of a friend's MIL has a kubota excavator, KH28. Its a little dirty and most of the cyls show a little oil staining but not pouring oil out. Husband passed on and left his wife with a bunch of equipment and stuff and a bit of junk. KH28, 1985, 2000 hours and she says her sons and husband rebuilt the engine, seems early but don't have details on why it was rebuilt or was it just a tune up. Sprockets seem okay, not pointy 1/2 inch flats on the tips, track chains not all wobbly and loose, the idiler bracket is flush at the front side of the frame. The line for the thumb is split and makes a beautiful 50' arc of hydraulic oil when operated. Paint is ratty but fixable. Looks like there was possibly one crack on the boom above the lift cyls that was repaired or its just a factory seam/doubler, diamond shaped plate over the spot. Engine was slow to start but it seems it wants a full 30 seconds of preheat in all weather conditions, more preheat seemed to help start it, 60F temperatures. Controls all operational but really wobbly, down boom was really tight, not sure if there was some safety but didn't want to force it. Local sales of similar models show an average of $7500, she's looking at 10k and the local dealer seems to indicate in really clean shape its 8k. My logic seems to say 8k minus 1k for fluid/filter changes, 1k for repacking the bucket/crowd/boom/blade pistons, 500 for new hoses and to replace the missing abrasion guards, it also looks like the outer half of some of the bucket bushings are missing? hollow ring around the bucket pins. Makes me think $4500 would be a decent offer. I'm not sure if my logic is sound. -J
Take a look at the drives too , if they smell bad stick a pen magnet in lub to see if there's metal . 2000 hrs and engine rebuild does seem really quick something does not add up as it sounds like its a engine that needs help getting started even in warm weather. Normally those little Kubota's run forever with few problems. Also check the swing bracket bushings too. Take a few pic and take them to your dealer with pro/cons and see what he thinks price wise.
The procurement activity involving equipment usually begins with some pair of numbers arrived at, these two differing numbers reflecting the opinions of: the sellers market value and the buyers market value. Repair work being typically invoked by the buyer to explain why the buyer is offering less than the seller wants. Repair work not to be inclusive of maintenance or incidental type repairs. Some folks will stand by a 'rebuilt engine' as if it was bought as a new crate engine, regardless of how the rebuild was conducted. I figure this is emotional recapture for all those parts they bought, not sure. Small kubota likes preheat for a quick start - also my experience even a warm day. Kubota characteristic I guess.
Seems the kubota manual for similar small equipment wants a 30 second preheat. The widow was using the word rebuilt second hand, I'd be more inclined to believe it was either a tune up, the hour meter is incorrect or something like a frozen block happened. Appreciate all the suggestions and will let it sit for a few weeks before I come back with an offer. Once running it was running smooth with no smoke or misbehaving throughout the rpm range.
From your description, I think that machine suffered 2000hrs of abuse, or has alot more hours. Given the year, I would say the latter. That engine should need only routine service in 2000hrs, not a rebuild or "tune-up". Tom
Thanks Tom, yeah, I'm thinking maybe the hour meter broke, I did not verify that it was ticking over hours while running, I should have. Again the 'rebuilt' is third party, the owner being deceased. (no fault of the machine)