To wrap things up, in January after continuing to hear Kubota is going to address the thumb issue but nothing happening, I asked the dealer to take the machine back or present me with a mutual agreeable solution. They asked me if I would be ok with them removing the factory coupler and thumb and installing a complete Werk Brau hydraulic coupler and thumb including replacing my three buckets (12”, 24”, and 36”). I agreed. The machine itself is awesome.
In the meantime when I was at Con Expo I had a lengthy conversation with the folks at Kubota about the issue. They actually had a 057-5 at the expo with the factory coupler but no thumb. The Kubota reps didn’t try to avoid the situation. They acknowledged there is a need to improve the thumb but could not tell me how soon. I also asked where the coupler came from, turns out it’s made by a vendor in England.
The dealer called middle of last week to ask me to drop the machine, all the parts from Werk had arrived. They had it exchanged in a day or so and Sunday I got a chance to pick it up. The Werk setup immediately looks better. Feels better also. I haven’t had it in the dirt yet, but I think it will be fine. The dealer insisted on replacing my buckets with ones from Werk, however the buckets Werk Brau sent are the same exact Kubota buckets I had.
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