Ok, you convinced me so I bought a brand new R640 from my local dealer. Generally, I am happy with the machine with two exceptions. 1. No throttle lock. OMG how on earth did they forget to include this important feature (or am I missing it somehow? I hope so. Is it an option?). 2. The articulating king pin joint top bearing won't retain grease, but rather it extrudes the grease aggressively after only a couple of hours of operation. I can tell when all the grease has been "pinched" out of the joint because the machine starts "squeaking" and "squealing" at the joint to the point that you can not stand it. It's a brand new machine with only 34 hrs and it has done this from the very beginning. If this can't be resolved and is considered a "normal" characteristic I will have to sell this loader (because I don't have the time and/or money to spend greasing a fitting every two hours) and move to a different manufacturer (and one that definitely includes throttle lock capabilities - my bad for not verifying the R640 had it but I didn't even think to ask as this should have been a given with this type machine especially since it's so easy to include with the electronic throttle system). Performance-wise the machine does fine. My unit serves as a piece of farming equipment so we don't need much more in the way of driving speed but we do operate on bumpy dirt roads and have longer transport runs fully loaded which is why the throttle lock is important to us. I have been a loyal Kubota customer for the past 25 years and currently own seven different pieces of Kubota equipment. I was always impressed with the quality of their products for the price. However, in the past five to ten years I have noticed an increase in their quality escapes and have had some type of problem with the last three new pieces of equipment I have acquired from Kubota.
At best the R40 series can not handle a snow blower. At best it could handle a snow blade, grapple, a low output brush and never a snow blower.. The R do not stand for articulating because that starts with an A. Your presentation was great but your information was not accurate.
