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Kubota's RTV
My wife and I recently purchased our RTV worksite with the cab and snowplow. The cab and the plow haven't even showed up yet due to backorder. We've already put 45 hrs on it and are enjoying every minute of it. We use it for recreational use, and yardwork. The only thing that I'm dissapointed in is that it doesn't seem to go very well in dry sand. It seem the little three cylinder is underpowered for the hydrostatic transmission. Has anybody done anything with their engines, to maybe get a little more horsepower? Maybe a turbo or injectors?
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Kubota's RTV
I wish mine had more power too. I am hoping after it breaks in it will run a little stronger.
The problem in sand is mostly the tires. All of the tire options, except the turf tire, are designed to operate in mud. As with tractors, what is ideal for mud is terrible on soft sand.
After several comparative tests on the same stretch of ground, I replaced the HDWP tires on my RTV with some small car radial tires.
It doesn't make a tracked vehicle out of it, but it will go twice as far up my sand dune test slope before digging in and stopping.
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Kubota's RTV
Something I posted on an ATV web site:
The good news: My RTV now powers itself up steep roads like I always hoped it would and thought it should.
The caveat: I don't know (can't tell) which of the four things I changed helped the most.
The changes:
1) The premium Case/IH hydraulic fluid installed by the selling dealer has been replaced with Super UDT. Observation: standing starts are quicker and the transmission seems less sluggish. I found the same to be true when I had my BX, but in that case I replaced the Super UDT with Chevron All Weather Synthetic and that noticeably slowed things down.
2) I took the break-in dino-juice out of the engine and put in a quality 10w-30 diesel rated synthetic. Observation: With no other changes, the engine idle RPM (as measured by my digital TinyTach) jumped about 7 percent, from 1400 to 1500. You gotta know that the engine is making more power when that happens.
3) I changed the tires to a 24 inch diameter. My tests have indicated that 21.5 inch tires (factory turfs) are too small and 25.5 inches (borrowed from my wifes Camry) were a bit too big. 24 inches is also the actual size of the nearly useless factory HDWP tires and that diameter seems to provide a good balance between decent top end speed and good low end grunt. Plus, the speedometer is apparently calibrated to that tire size.
4) The tires are mud and snow steel belted radials. I mostly operate on rough roads and established trails. Deep mud is rare around here, so slogging through the bogs is not a worry. I keep just enough air in the tires to get a good bulge on the sidewall so they are laying down the maximum amount of tread "flat on the ground" and providing the least amount of rolling resistance possible.
All-in-all, on the hill behind the house that I could only climb in second gear before, I can now negotiate in high gear at greater speed and higher RPM. Coming up my steep driveway before the changes would result in the RPM's dropping to 2300 in high gear. I noticed yesterday that the tach stayed at 3000 RPM's on the same road.
I think I found the balance
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Kubota's RTV
I wonder over the results. The Hytran is a little thicker oil like a 10 weight to a 5 then the Super UDT so it should bring the tightness up a little and might hurt with a little more starvation during cold starts. The engine oil was probably good on two fronts, used oil hurts performance and newer slipperier synthetic has to help. The tires, now that is a good one as you should have been able to produce the most torque and throttle response with the smaller diameter tire. I wonder if we are really starting to break in that engine? If your happy I'm happy!
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Kubota's RTV
"My tests have indicated that 21.5 inch tires (factory turfs) are too small and 25.5 inches (borrowed from my wifes Camry) were a bit too big."
Mark, I had to laugh when I read this. I could just imagine your wife's car up on blocks while you tested her tires on the ATV. How did you do this? Are the wheel bolt patterns the same?
Dave
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Kubota's RTV
Yes, she looked so sad sitting in car going "vrroom... vrroom".
OK. I'll be cereal now. They were a set of orphaned Nokian snow tires. The bolt pattern is the same but I put the tires on white spoke wheels.
Actually I suspect the bolt pattern is slightly different. The guys at the tire store tell me there is a 5 hole on 4.5 inch pattern and another pattern that is 5 holes and metric. The difference amounts to about 1/32 of an inch.
I am pretty sure the 'Bota is the metric version, but at a max speed of 25 mph, if there is a slight misalignment, I can't feel it.
Art: I would be willing to bet the babies milk money that a BX or an RTV on a dyno would show a measurable drop in HP at the wheels with HyTran instead of Super UDT in the sump.
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Kubota's RTV
"I would be willing to bet the babies milk money"
Damn, age is a hell of a thing to cope with!!
I just learned that: Babies need milk money!!
How things have changed!
What's next? A token in hand just to be conceived!!
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Kubota's RTV
Okay okay a bit lame I suppose but seriously am going to buy another Orange toy Any good advice on the RTV900 that hasn't already been discussed here would be appreciated!!
Thanks,
Dean
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Kubota's RTV
DRankin, with rereading your first thread I pulled a whole new meaning out of what was said sorry, but that is what I expected. We also sell hytran and it has proven to be great in the farm tractors comparable to the 20 and 30 weight (equals)so reprsented but from an ex-IH serviceman he told me to stay with the Kubota UDT for success. I will only consider the Hytran for emergency situations. I would agree with you on the horsepower loss at any end as well as to the wheels especially.
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Kubota's RTV
The worksaver is the number one bargin as well as seller! It really gives you all the important things except the cab if you felt you needed it. Bed liners are good if you plan on hauling much that you want to fall out of the box ans the diamond plate floor is more condusive to holding loads in place.
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