I was sifting though Excavator posts to see how many there were on Kubotas and going back to 2019 I think I only found3 or 4 posts. Anyone care to comment on why that is? Not many Kubota owners on this site? Kubotas are engineered better? Kubotas are built to a higher standard? ????? The experience I have thus far with excavators might fill half a thimble But its really great that so many of you are willing to share you experience and expertise Thank You, Time is very precious as that is what life is made of!
In 2008 I bought a 2006 KX91-3 excavator which had been a rental excavator and used it until 2019 and at that point it had just shy of 1000 hrs. The only thing that broke was the main pin that holds the bucket and thumb, broke, but was an easy fix dealer had the pin in stock New bucket teeth once. Other than that only normal maintenance. In 2019 I traded it for a KX033-4 which was the same size as the KX91. It currently has just less than 500 hours, only normal maintenance. Good excavators! FWD
Excavators in general, regardless of the size or brand, are some of the most reliable and trouble free pieces of equipment on the job site. At their core they're fairly simple machines with just an engine, pump(s) and hydraulics, no powertrain, transmissions, or other mechanical systems. They are designed to work in terrible conditions in third world countries with poor maintenance and survive. Treat them well and they seem to run forever. As for Kubota's, they are very reliable mini-excavators. I've personally owned a U35-4, U48-5 and my father has a KX040-4. I've also spent many hours running kx121-3's and kx040-4's as rentals and on previous jobs. We've never had any repairs other than those that are self induced, and those have all been very minor (knock on wood). As I've stated before, the Japanese brands are all really good in my exprience. Takeuchi, Hitachi/JD, Yanmar etc are all right up there reliability wise.
Also just FYI, Kubota and specifically the KX040 is the number one selling brand and model of mini-ex in the world, so there are plenty of them out there.
For for what was the worst excavator any of you ran across?
Hi, new here but I’d say it mostly comes down to user base and what people choose to post about. Kubotas are pretty common, but they’re also known for being reliable and fairly straightforward. Because of that, you don’t see as many problem threads compared to other brands. Most posts on forums like this usually come from people trying to fix something.