Some internal seal had a slight leak, which caused oil to seep into the dry side of the valve body. With it flooded with oil, there was no room for the spool to shift, thus, locking the valve. After a lot of back and forth with Kubota, they instructed the dealer to just replace the whole part rather than try and repair it.
It is a good machine. I have backhoe, front loader, and mid mount mower. I mow about 8 or so acres of grass on a 13 acre property, with hills. The 3 speed rear end is nice. It also has a 2 speed PTO. The main transmission is a sliding mesh, and is as such unsynchronized. I can shift gears by double clutching pretty well, but on a hill the ratios are too close for that, so I must come to a stop to change gears. A syncro transmission would have been nice. For most people, the B2601 (almost identical but with hydrostatic transmission) is the better option. I have my reasons for preferring the stick shift though. Overall, I am happy with the machine. This backhoe valve body issue is due to a manufacturer defect and should be covered by warranty.
@@zoidsfan77 I borrowed a BX machine and while the HST is great for loader work, I found it a bit of a pain for pretty much everything else - having to keep your foot on the pedal, especially backwards where the cruse doesn't work. Now if I could only find a dealer that would get me one before 2022...
@@DominicRichens Is that how far out they are now? It took several months to get mine, but there was a delay related to the 3rd function valve I had installed.
@@DominicRichens The unsyncronized transmission definitely slows down loader (or other earthmoving) work a bit, but I feel I have gotten good enough that the loss is fairly small. The main thing to consider though is that when running PTO implements, you can't slow down without slowing the implement. For mowing around obstacles for example, it would be nice to vary the speed. What I typically do is mow all my open areas in gear 2M, then come back to the tight spots and mow those in 1M.
@@zoidsfan77 Having the shift right next to the loader control looks good - better than the L-series where the F/R shuttle is on the left so you're switching hands all the time when doing loader work. Thanks for the tip about using the PTO - not going to be my top use for this tractor - if anything it would be bushhog or sickle in a field. My dealer just e-mailed to say they'd found a B2401 at another dealer and arranged a trade so I can get it in a month!
