OrangeTractorTalks reader Jamie from Zambia, Africa (map) has posted a picture of his L1501 tackling the task of mowing elephant grass in our gallery. This grass can grow upwards of 8-9 feet in height! Regardless of how much you might neglect your own lawn or brush, I bet your mower has less than this to contend with! Keep those blades sharp and that mower serviced.

Great pic Jamie, thank you for sharing. If you have a picture of your favorite orange machine in action or just sitting pretty, upload a picture of it.

OrangeTractorTalks reader Keith posted a picture of a Kubota L1801 in our gallery that was involved in those fires. Keith helps run a Kubota restoration and refurbishing shop in Australia and a client had their equipment burned up by the fire.

A burned up Kubota L1801 as a result of Australia's recent brush fires making the news.

If you look at the full resolution photo, you can see the bubbling on the dashboard, the melted steering wheel, the FEL control knobs are all gone and the rear tire is basically just a rim. Incredibly, Keith reports that the Kubota was still running in this state and they drove it onto the trailer under its own power.

I’ve asked if Keith could keep us posted on the progress of this repair. I think it would be interesting to see what a full restoration looks like. Thank you for sharing Keith!

Mr. K

Note: Antoine’s site is in French, use google’s translator to convert it if need be.

About the Farm
Antoine’s farm, established in 2004, is 5 acres in size and produces more than 30 varieties of organic vegetables – carrots, lettuce, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, fresh herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, peas – you name it, his farm grows it. He built the farm from the ground up having purchased the raw plot 5 years ago without buildings, improvements, water or electricity. Today the farm supplies fresh organic produce to more than 150 families in Quebec.

Antoine's farm produces more than 30 varieties of vegetables - like this brocoli for instance.

Snow – Lots of it
In the winter time temperatures drop below -22F (-30C) and the ground sees lots of snow – about 20 feet fall on the farm every year. This means his Kubota is putting in overtime hours running a snowblower to clear a path to a few greenhouses on site. Antoine makes good use of his tractor’s creeper gear to move the heavy wet snow, an engine block heater and the cylinder head decompression function when it comes to starting in those temperatures.

The farm's Kubota L2201 earns its keep - snowblowing, rototilling, hauling or running the irrigation system.

A Busy L Series
The farm uses a gray market Kubota L2201 to blow snow, rototill, brush cut and run a water pump off the PTO for irrigation. Other attachments include a seeder, cultivator, weeder and a couple of trailers for hauling the harvest – a very busy tractor indeed.

On the technical side – the L2201 is closest to Kubota’s North American L245. Both have the 3 cylinder D1101 engine that generates about 24.5 horsepower at the flywheel and 20 at the PTO. The L2201/L245 is similar to its smaller brother, the L1801/L185 which is a 2 cylinder tractor. Antoine’s tractor is a 4WD but the L2201 was manufactured in both 2WD and 4WD configurations and production ran from around 1975 to 1979.

Future Plans
Expanding the existing greenhouses, planting an orchard and creating a windbreak are all in this Kubota’s future. Sounds like Antoine will be busy for a little while to come. We thank Antoine for sharing with us how he uses his Kubota to get the job done! Well done!

Related Articles
Kubota in Action at Tiny Farm
Discovered it’s a Gray Market Kubota? Relax.
Cold Weather Starting Tips

Perhaps this will inspire Kubota engineers to develop their own toilet seat in repsonse to growing consumer demand for restroom hardware.

See original eBay auction here.

This week's featured eBay tractor is a L3400DT from Atlanta - very low hours and comes fully equipped with front end loader, box scraper, mower deck, pallet forks and a post hole digger.

The tractor is a 4WD as denoted by the DT at the end of L3400DT, and it comes equipped with almost every implement you might need: a front end loader, box scraper for grading the drive way, post hole digger, pallet forks and a mower deck.

This Kubota is located in Atlanta for local pick-up only and is priced very competitively. Currently 3 bids with high bid at $10,000. Considering the condition of the tractor and all the implements included, this is really a complete package – manuals are also included. Auction ends in about 6 days as of this writing, so get on over to eBay and check out Steve’s L3400 (auction #270305908800) which is our eBay tractor of the week.

Update: Steve managed to sell his L3400! High bid was $15100 and the new owner still has a warranty until 2009, powertrain until 2010. Great deal!

L2800 auction on eBay, auction #130259310531

Another nice thing about this auction is that it seems the seller is willing to help out coordinating pickup and delivery. Some sellers do not want to concern themselves with this last part of the sale and insist on local pick-up only, so this is good to see here.

Currently sitting at 6 bids with high bid at around $2,500. Reserve is set at $12,750 which is pretty fair considering that this tractor sold north of $16,000 brand new without a loader only a few years ago.

5 days remaining! If you’re interested contact Daniel Weeks directly at daniel@tripleddd.com or check out his auction on eBay here.

Update: Daniel ran a successful auction and sold his Kubota! Someone got a fair deal on a great looking tractor. Proof that a Kubota in good shape with some clean pictures will find itself a new home on line. Nicely done!

Behind the wheel of Tiny Farm's B1700

Tiny Farm Blog is a comprehsive account of what a few folks with a couple acres of land, some basic tools and a Kubota can do. Tiny Farm is located in Ontario, Canada and is in its sixth season of harvest this year. The author of the articles takes its readers through the various challenges of growing organic food having come from zero farming or agricultural experience back in 2002. Based on their articles and photos, I’d say that that Tiny Farm had done pretty well for itself, the best far for us though, is getting to see some action shots of their Kubota!

Tiny Farm employs a Kubota B1700 they purchased second hand in 2003 but later upgraded with a new LA302 loader and 48″ rototiller. From their articles, we get to see some candid shots of our favorite orange tractor rototilling, suffering through a rototiller breakdown and demonstrating some other novel uses. The articles also dishes out handy loader tips for clearing beds in the preparation stages. My favorite shots are those of the spreader in action! It goes without saying that one should stay well back of that implement!

Head over to Tiny Farm Blog to see a Kubota put to good use and a healthy dose of inspiration.

Stay well back!