We received over a foot of snow today, and I ran that snowblower pretty hard. We had some sleet mixed in with it so the snow got heavy.
At the end of the day it worked really well. The down pressure is a huge plus for cleaning compacted surfaces. I mean its not a 90 hp, 84" machine, but for driveways, walkways, small lots, etc. its a win. It'll throw it 20-30 feet no problem.
My only complaint with it is at the end of the day I noticed some more lose bolts on it. I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would put all this engineering into this complex system and not put lock nuts or nylocs on bolts. Such a simple thing, but snow blowers vibrate like crazy so its one corner you don't cut.
After today, I'd buy one again. The visibility, tight turning, is great on this machine.
Man. you aren't kidding! Nothing like plowing my little private road and deciding to do the mailboxes out on the main road, looking up in the rearview mirror to see traffic rapidly approaching, and my 1100C won't shift into gear and get me out of there. Glad I ordered that rotating hazard beacon...Its been three years now and it still works great. There is one thing that I need to mention. When these setups are installed there is a drive shaft assembly underneath that has a gear box and seal. From what I have been told, the alignment on these has to be perfect when the installation is done. If not, the vibration over the years will cause the seal to leak. There is no seal replacement from Kubota. The whole underframe system has to be replaced.
Mine was the first one that the dealer put on. When I got it I remember clearly that there was a louder (than I would have liked) vibration underneath when an implement was lifted all the way up while the PTO was running. When I questioned it I was told it was normal. I’ve been around enough equipment in my life to know that ....one ....it didn’t seem normal, and two that it would eventually “show itself”.
Low and behold it did and the seal leaked. The dealer stood behind it after a lot of discussion. But where I’m going with this is if you decide to put this setup on yourself, be very cautious of this. That undercarriage gearbox assembly is “not repairable” and its expensive to replace.
Other than that the new one, now aligned right, is very quiet lifted up all the way with the PTO on. So there was definitely an alignment issue.
And one other thing if Kubota is reading this. If you want to take the RTV from a 8/10 to a 10+ in the UTV market put a rocker pedal in it for forward to reverse like the tractors have. When you are blowing snow, plowing, or grooming it would make a world of difference.