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Kubota U 25 S mini

Natman

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I'm new to this forum, so bear with me, also new to compact excavators. But since I already have a newer L 3301 Kubota compact tractor, I am leaning towards keeping everything color coordinated. I've had a couple different small Kubota tractors for almost 20 years now, and they have done their job, no complaints so I'll stick with the brand. I like using the proper tool for the job, why I'm not interested in a backhoe attachment for my tractor, besides I always have the rear end tied up with some other attachment. I have a 40 acre piece of ground with some a wood lot, plus I am around a lot of all kinds of construction, and will no doubt pick up a little work for the thing on the side, like i have done for years with my tractors. Not a big money maker but it helps justify having fun with it at home.

I already have a 10K dump bed trailer I use to haul the L 3301 around, besides other stuff, so it and my projected work needs determined the size of the machine I am shopping for, something around 6K all up weight. Since I have gotten a crash course education in the various models of minis in the last several days, it has all boiled down to the u 25s. I have several email request out to various outlets, made over the weekend, so I'll see what happens in the next couple days. One thing I have learned from being in the hoisting business (I operate a 30 ton National rider boom truck with 110' of boom for a living, my 5 th unit, one at a time) is that most of what you see on the internet is either : sold months or years ago, or junk! The other thing I have learned is these compact excavators wear, just like boom trucks, and rather then become expert in working on them, I'd rather spend more up front and get something in the low triple digits hour wise, a non rental unit is another big plus. I have a couple that LOOK pretty good, 3 to 700 hours TT, for mid 20 K dollars. I have pretty much given up on finding a cherry unit in the teens, though I am still looking, in the mid to high 20's seems to be the price range for one less then 5 years old.

I'm in SE Idaho, if anybody wants to chime in on any good Kubota sources in the Western side of things I can contact to see if I can scare up a lightly used U 25, feel free. Thanks. BTW, my first use of the machine will be putting in/clearing the way for the tractor to go to work, a 1/4 mile+ path through a steep wooded hillside, I like to think my small crane developed sense (especially the sphincter sensor) will keep me out of trouble. I'll be starting on the easy part, and working my way up to the 25 degree slope, clearing 4 to 8" trees and moving rocks and small boulders as I go, learning as I go. What could go wrong?!
 

Blondie70

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Dec 30, 2017
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Poplarville, MS
You have a good plan in all respects. I am in South Mississippi, so can't help......but good luck in your quest !!!!! No doubt you will find a good one.
 

Clguest

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Feb 2, 2016
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116
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USA
I believe you will need a lot of time or a larger mini to clear 8" trees. Take a rental out for a day to validate your expectations if you have not done this yet.
 

code54

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Mar 25, 2012
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94
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Hurricane WV
About two years ago I started looking for a used Kubota KX91. Took some searching but found one with 234 hrs on the clock and a little warranty left. Been using it since and it has been great.
Your plan sounds fine and 8" trees should not be a big deal. I have cleared at least 20 24" trees with a 7500lbs machine. Not as fast as a 30 ton machine but dig the roots then just push them over. I wanted a small machine to do less damage in the woods so it is working out well for me.
So far I been extremely happy with my little Kubota and like you have several of their tractors and feel the brand is top notch.
Good luck in your search!
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
Messages
280
Location
Australia
I love my u25-3, you can tackle huge trees and boulders it just takes longer which a customer won't tolerate but when you are at home who cares.
Would not go smaller than U25 for endless reasons.
A big issue on paying jobs is not having the load height to fill large tippers but you should not be there anyway.
I would trade that off any day to have a machine that a big SUV can tow around.
25Deg is a breeze my place is like 40Deg but you get a feel for your machine.
I found plenty of second hand when i was looking but not many 2.5 to 3 tons size.
Endless 1.5 ton and 3.5ton up.
I am kicking my self now as i rejected alot of low hour machines as when i checked I thought they had to much wear in pins and bushings and when my new one turned up it was just the same.
Very disappointed, i should not have been so fussy.
Good Luck with your search.
 

Natman

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8" is the very biggest, and they'd be dead fall, rotted. The majority are quaking aspen, 2 to 4 or 5 inches. This video is almost exactly what I'll be dealing with, but a lot more rocks in some places. I was super impressed by this, it pretty much solidified my choice of a mini excavator being the right tool for the job. Plus, so many others.

I have heard back already from what is shaping up to be probably my best deal, a 2016 machine with less then 300 hours, for 27 K. The company selling it checks out as a big time "for real" heavy equipment outfit, not a used car lot.
 

Natman

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The place in Nebraska came through, we have us a deal! A 2016 U 25 s, 277 hours TT, it will be freshly serviced by their pro shop, it has a thumb, I talked them into giving me all three buckets, 9, 12, and a 16", and best of all, they will top off the fuel tank. I feel good about paying 27K for it, as in confident I am not getting totally ripped off, though I'm sure if I was willing to beat the bushes for another few weeks I could maybe do better. I have had a gutload of buying used equipment, boom trucks in my case, and a lot of the time it's worth paying a bit more upfront for something that won't immediately require time in the shop. Now I just need to decide whether to pay about 1.3-1.5 K to have it delivered, in a week or two, or jump in the old Dodge Cummins dually, hook the trailer up (both rigs in great shape, though the truck has 289,000 miles on it) and ruin this weekend by making the "scenic drive" myself. That's a Wyoming joke.
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
Messages
280
Location
Australia
Congrats Im sure you will be happy with the machine.
Great price and hours are fantastic.
I know what you mean about buying some ones else s junk.
Q where is your ripper and mud bucket???
Need the ripper for those roots and mud to finish all jobs.
Very important to find service manual and check if the final drives have had there oil changed, and return Hydraulic filter changed on previous servicing.
Be careful if you are picking up as it took me a few load binding methods to figure out the best way to stop it moving around on the tray.
Don't leave us all in suspense to long before some pics of the new beast.

Cheers
 

Natman

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Yeah I'll make sure it has all the books, they are a Kubota dealer and the only owner since new, but I will double check them on the filters etc. I have a professional trucker friend who will be in Oklahoma in a couple days, and as of now coming back empty, so I may luck out on transport, not free by any means but a best possible deal plus I trust her (a she trucker, who along with her husband are owner/operators, but he's in Idaho right now) and the farm equipment guys to do it up right. My first thing will be to see what rigging points I have to work with so I can pick it up with my 30 ton boom truck, off her flatbed and into my trailer. Shouldn't be a problem, I can lift it 120' high if need be!

I am already shopping for attachments, and getting educated on what's out there, wow. I'll be selling my tractor's 3 pt post hole driller, and be getting a hydraulic one for the new unit for sure. The precision and control of having it on the boom will be great. Possibly a post drive, same deal there, precision. That'd be a ripper that takes the place of the bucket? I have a ripper for the tractor, the plan is to use the mini to get it so I can get the tractor in there, then fine tune things with that. The 9" bucket will have to do for a ripper for now. By mud bucket, you mean the 36" or larger ones I've seen, with no teeth? Those do look handy, on the wish list.
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
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280
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Australia
yes lots of fun things you can attach but if you are handy you can make some as well.
You carn't really use the 9inch as a ripper but you will understand once you try to dig a few things out.
The ripper does not just rip through things in stump removal you go right under the tree like a tooth pick around the tap root.
The rest of the world is metric so i have to convert back to closest imperial sizes for you.
I have a 1000mm mud which is 39.5inches with replaceable blade.
I would not recommend wider and i think you will find it is the most used bucket.
I would recommend using tiger teeth on all your digging buckets.
My buckets are 150mm(6inch),300mm(12inch)450mm(18inches)and a 600mm(24inch)toothless four way hydraulic bucket.
I have bolt on side cutters witch increases the cut width by 2inches on some buckets if I choose.
I chose to use the hydraulic grab bucket as i did not want to weld a thumb on my machine and when you are not using them they can be a pain.
 

Natman

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Googling around getting an idea on what kind of attachments are out there, and saw this:
It'd be pretty easy to make something similar, I like the part where he's loadng it with timbers picked up with the bucket.
 

007

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Yes i have a box on my blade home made and smaller than the one in the video.
I think the one in the vid is to heavy for U25.
Yes i have ball on blade and 6x4 trailer.
I the middle of building bigger trailer that tips.
You do have tractor to pull your trailer
You notice he is using his mud bucket in that vid.

I seem to make things as i have a job for them.

I copied this guy with a slightly smaller eye beam and works a treat.

I lay alot of irrigation poly pipe on my property and i built a kind of shoe that slips over my ripper witch cuts a trench about 4 inches wide.
That works a treat also done prob 20 miles with that.
Another project on the go is a soil compactor.
you will finish up getting a divorce if you become to addicted.
I forgot to ask did you get quick hitch or mechanical hitch with the machine.?
 

Natman

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While delving into the various attachments available (I weld and fabricate, so I'm mostly looking for ideas to steal), I need to remember : I have a Kubota L3301 tractor. With a box blade, scraper blade, front loader, post hole digger, snow blade, snow blower, mower deck, flail mower, PTO wood chipper, and forks. I need to be careful I don't duplicate my efforts! Yeah, I am well aware of "AA", attachment addiction. What I can see happening though, is the excavator doing the job better then the tractor implement, in some cases anyway. I can see a coordinated effort on a project by both machines, using the best advantages of both, will be pretty awesome. A tandem axle fat tired dump bed trailer is on my list, and I'll set it up for towing by my ATV, tractor, or the mini X. A linear actuator is what I'll use for the dump mechanism.

No QA (quick attach, what we call it in the tractor world, being able to use any skid steer implement with a few seconds change over is great) on the boom tip, or mechanical hitch (not sure what that is), so I guess knocking out the pins etc. will be required to change buckets. That got old real quick with my old Kubota with it's backhoe attachment, but if I get all three buckets with this rig ((9,12, and 16") they will all be useless if I switch over to a QA. Good for reselling though. Just 2 to 4 days away, getting excited, watching numerous youtube mini X videos isn't helping.
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
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280
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Australia
Now i know why my downloads are slow, you won't get off Utube.

If I was contracting every day a hydraulic quick hitch would be a must.
I chose a mechanical quick hitch as per photo which are entry level and relatively cheap.
You are just inserting one non greased pin each change.
I consider a hitch of some sort a must as it keeps the same pin surface in the lower bushes constant and they are sealed pretty good with Orings.
Not dragging greasy pins in and out and regressing all the time.
I might add on heavy attachments its a nightmare to get pins in without second person or hitch.
Not sure about there but in AUS there are issues with lifting eyes in general on buckets or hitches.
Some manufacturers will include a lifting eye on the hitch but mine did not.
I just improvised and bolted a tow hook from a vehicle to mine until i can do some thing better.


20171107_140532.jpg
 
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Tags

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Feb 19, 2012
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Connecticut
As far as I'm concerned, you can not beat the factory Kubota quick hitch. It's simple and durable and easy to make the ears for, so you play mad scientist and adapt lots of attachments. I'm not telling you what to do by any means or telling you how to spend your money, but, it would be the best "attachment" you could get to start with. Just drop one of your well greased bucket pins in the dirt a few times and you'll wish you had a quick coupler. I'm sure your dealer is ecstatic to get rid of regular pin on buckets, since nobody really wants em'. It can't hurt just to check with him on cost of the coupler and buckets....a few extra dollars spent now will be well worth it down the road....just my .02$
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
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I wasn't aware there was a genuine mechanical quick hitch until you mentioned that and i looked on the US web site.
The dealers here don't even bring a bucket in on the machines as there is so much after market Hyd and mechanical hitches and buckets available.
Our buckets have the pined on style because you can swap between the Hyd and mechanical by just leaving the second pin in your buckets.
Not impressed looking at the Kubota quick hitch, look how wide it is, it would be banging into the sides of narrow trenches.
The Pinned ears are just two holes in a plate where you would need a profile cutter to make the quick hitch ears unless you keep buying the genuine ones.
There are only two brands i can think of here that don't have standard pinned ears being wacker neuson and bob cat.
I agree he needs a hitch of some sort, not even dropping the pin but one of my buckets is 137kg so would not be easy to get that first pin in.
My style of hitch would go strait into the buckets he has and if he looks around they come up for about $120.
 

Tags

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IMG_2915.PNG The nice thing about the Kubota coupler is that it retains the same bucket geometry as opposed to a pin grabbing coupler, and I would think on a machine that size you would want all the power you can get at the bucket. I'm not sure I follow you on the width of the coupler, it's no wider than regular bucket ears, the thumb-is actually wider than the coupler....
 

007

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Dec 28, 2016
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Australia
In the kubota site they looked wider than the pic you posted, having never seen one here and not even on Aus web site as option.
Yes you would loose some power but i have not noticed.
That probably only presents its self when pulling your largest dig bucket but on all your smaller ones no prob.
Digging clay with a gummy bucket maybe?
My buckets don't look as tall as the one in the pic so maybe the bucket manufactures are compensating for that?
Ether way almost all machines here are sold with Hydraulic hitches so clearly the contractors are overlooking any power loss for speed of changes.
I am guessing the sub 1.5ton machines might see a bigger proportion of mechanical hitches.
The machine i had before this one had hyd hitch and you could hammer along at a fast pace changing attachments.
but i also noticed when looking for second hand machines most of them were leaking oil or weeping when the hours got up so that is one less hassle i can do without.
What i have noticed also on the smaller hyd hitches they seem to disregard the OEM pin spacing and you seem to get wider like the optional Hard Rock pin spacing on the quick hitch in your picture.
 

Natman

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I got some pictures of the machine (AFTER sending the money off, I just trust Nebraskans I guess, I've had other very good experiences with the breed) and it appears to be very cherry. No ripped seat and just a few minor scratches on the counterweight. And, I just realized, I already have a can of Kubota Orange spray paint, for the tractor.IMG_3972.jpg

I'm going to sit tight on any bucket changes until the need for a different setup makes it obvious what I need. I take it the mechanical hitch requries you to jump out and pull a pin or something, as part of the process? Kind of like my tractor's skid steer like QA maybe, where you need to get out and flip down two levers, then curl, and the attachment falls right off. That would be more then adequate for me I think, and still beat the pins having to get hammered out thing.

I have my rigging points figured out for lifting it off the truck (it's important to not delay the trucker, time is money to those guys and I want to make it quick). 2 choked slings on each side of the rear ROPS rack, and 2 slings of the same length going to the holes in the side of the front blade, with two short lengths of chain with grab hook to extend those front slings just right so it remains level as I pick it. This is my day job, running the crane....and I am confident (but I'll look close anyway) that the ROPS is attached well enough to take about half the weight of the machine, and then some. i'll the crane setup with the required rigging hanging on the hook, so the trucker can just pull in under me, by the time he unsecures the mini I'll have it rigged and ready to lift. Then I'll walk it down the street a 100 yards to my crane yard (too much stuff in the way for the trucker to pull in there) and see if I can dig out a large tree stump, after first digging clear around it. If nothing else I'll create a ditch around it, flood it with water, and then use the 54,000 lb. crane's front tow hooks to tug it loose. Fun stuff!
 
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