On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 08:18:35 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

My house is on a three cylinder Kubota 15 Kw diesel and it runs great.
I bought it as a left over from the generator upgrade at the local
volunteer fire department six/seven years ago. Usually start it once
a month or so by shutting down the mains in the house and barn to test
the switch over too. That thing is noisy on start, but once it warms
up, works great. I understand that this is actually a Yanmar three
cylinder marine diesel, but that could be total BS.

The proliferation of pieces and parts is amazing. When I was looking for
a yard tractor (to cut the lawn -as opposed to my old diesel farm
tractor), I looked at the John Deere line. Most of under $3000 units had
Briggs & Stratton engines, or maybe a Kohler. "But the real cream of the
small line JD tractors," the sales guy told me, "has a Kawasaki four
stroke...best small gas engines going." If I recall, some of the JD
smaller diesel tractors use Kubota engines. Some of the JD transmissions
are made in Europe and China---ke-ripes.

Heh - it's enough to make you run screaming into the wilderness. :)

A friend of mine sells Zetor/Century tractors which are made in North
Carolina with Kubota frames, Czechoslovakian sheet metal, Case/IH
hydraulic pumps, Chinese hubs, bearings and wheels and a Korean
knockoff of the Kubota diesel.

This past weekend, I saw a Chinese 40 hp four cylinder diesel, Iron
Horse I think they were called, with a basic loader and three point
hitch for $12,000.

Unreal.

Well.

Well indeed.

I ended up getting a Husqvarna lawn tractor on the internet. Sears sells
them under its own brand name, but their tractors have B&S engines and
Kohler engines. The XP line, apparently not sold by Sears, has the
Kawasaki engines. Though Husqvarna is a Swedish company, the tractors
are made in Canada.

My neighbor has a Husqvarna with the Kawasaki 25 horse four stroke.

That is a nice lawn tractor.

I have a Ariens 1742 zero turn that I really like a lot. It has a B&S
engine and runs like a top - I've got three acres of f'in lawn to mow
and vacuum. :)

Now, my old diesel farm tractor is nearing the end of its life, and I've
been eyeing a four wheel drive JD diesel tractor. The damn thing really
fascinates me. But that means I'd have to take farming a bit more
seriously. Damn thing swings a massive posthole digger, though...and
that appeals.

Seriously, look into the Zetor/Century line. At least they are
assembled in the US - fairly inexpensive and from what I can see, run
forever. You might also want to look into the Long line of tractors
which are basically American made knockoffs of the Case/IH line.

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717