Carbonitehunter
New member
Man, I have so had enough replacing my radiator. I love Kubota and have forever, but forever I've had to ask what Kubota was thinking with that rad placement? From 04 up they did a couple modifications, one of which allegedly created more fresh air but, in doing so, also created more openings for sticks to come in while backing up, and of course skewering the rad. No matter how you color it, that under the seat thing stinks! One mod I used a triple-core ATV rad and moved up front and evicted my winch (OEM Kubota rad wont fit up there)...this worked a bunch better, but was still subject to the occasional stick and copious amounts of river mud to be cleaned out. Next, an up-kit on the hood with holes drilled in hood for the hoses...this was cool except I hate looking over things on the hood but more importantly, I lost the use of my hood...one hydraulic leak had me quickly abort that one. Both these first mods had my fan seldom EVER turning on, even in Summer, so I knew I was making progress. The final rad mod came with sacrifice, but plenty worth it to me, and is getting ready to go from trial mock-up to a permanent version...on the rear roll-bar. We have wore helmets and spent about 50 hours in the woods exposing it to our bobbing/bouncing heads, crashed through everything imaginable, went without helmets and ear protection to see how loud and annoying the fan would be right behind us like that, and it's a dream! Machine has never ran cooler, and out of a 6 hour ride that fan literally kicked on twice when we were in low climbing a bunch of hills. 50 hours later and not a spec of ANYTHING on the rad-screen, and we went through some stuff you'd not like to ever walk through! To trial this location I used broadway copper 90s, 1" copper tubing with no rigid connections a the rad nor the nipples on engine...rad-hose adapters at both locations. Bed still goes through full articulation but had to remove front panel. Once I go back and use short 90s and pretty it up the whole box can go back on. Expanded metal cage with access through the passenger-side will complete it. The access is for gloved hands...the wife decided it was the most awesome hand warmer! Now all my ridding partners keep grabbing my pipe too! Dang, did that sound right? Anyway, in cold weather, the rad feed pipe will warm your cold hands and gloves in seconds! Probably will only work for the 900 though, as the 1100s rear glass would likely cause a flow issue, so what would be the point. The biggest sacrifice would simply be that you'd have to be careful throwing huge things in the bed, but with a heavy enough expanded metal cage, only so careful. This machine we use more for recreation in the Hatfield McCoy trails, and hunting, so I really didn't care about not being able to toss a shipping container up in the bed anyway.
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