Kubota vs Kioti - Are All Orange Tractors The Same?

There’s been a long-standing question in the tractor community about whether or not the orange paint on Kubotas and Kiotis is more than just a good looking color for a tractor. What’s the real deal behind the two brands?
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The Mindful Homestead is a small farm in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. We raise Forest Pastured Pork, Pastured Poultry and Fresh Eggs. Our aim is to grow as much of our own food as we can, while supplying quality farm products to others as well.

[@TheHomesteadJourney]

Awesome thumbnail..... :-p Very interesting to hear the history. Some of it was brand new to me.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

Haha. You make that tractor look almost good!

[@matthewwelch9084]

Kioti/Daedong make all their own engine and transmission assemblies. Good info on the old l series though, I never knew that. Look forward to the upcoming box blade videos, looking to pick one up in the near future.

[@sloppyjoe6243]

Almost all of their own engines. The largest PX series use a Perkins engine.

[@waynedunne4507]

Your dead right on the fact that kubota are all kubota ! That’s the reason I went with Kioti here in Australia. Better comfort, ergonomics and easier to work on.

[@OakKnobFarm]

Interesting history!

[@wallyborni4411]

I wish the vdo was longer, we love this kind of informative videos.

[@Liledgy100]

I’ve owned 2 kubota’s and 2 Kiotis (currently a dk40 hst). Both are great machines. The dk40hst (2014), which is longer made is a beast ! About the strongest loader in its class. It was Between a kubotagrand l39 or the dk40.

[@disgruntledconservativevet1798]

I looked at all of them. Year after year at the World At Expo (Tulary Ca.) I asked questions, John deer, Kubota, LS, Massy Ferguson, etc. ALL OF THE MANUFACTURERS ARE THERE. I purchased a 2021 Kioti CK 2610, why? PRICE POINT! I got way more for the money. My Friend who convinced me is a 4th generation farmer. I purchased it from San Joaquin Valley Tractor in Bakersfield Ca. With the front loader, Backhoe, box Scraper, and 60” Brush Hog. $41,000.00 and that was with California sales tax. I am a property owner in the Mountains, but I do a little work in Ag, so I needed a tractor that wasn’t good at one tasks, but multiple tasks. I had hydraulics installed to run a grapple or rotating snow blade for the front (3rd function). Only option I did NOT get was a cab. I was really looking at the John Deer E series, but found out that you can not put a backhoe attachment on the lower priced models because the rear end is aluminum, and won’t handle the weight. I would have had to purchase a more expensive model. The Kioti will handle it all, and has an 1800 pound lift capacity for the front loader. Another thing people need to do their homework on. EMISSIONS! Majority of the issues with these tractors are the particulate filters/emissions. 25 HP and lower do NOT have these issues because they don’t have emissions on them. 6 years I did research, and lots of KZbin. Do your homework, because in the end it will pay off.

[@MyClutteredGarage]

That was very interesting and well done, Jack. It’s funny but if not for the orange color, people probably wouldn’t make the speculation as much.

[@HomesteadFresh]

Great info - love the history! We almost went with Kubota, but actually went with Kioti simply because the local salesman and the dealership was just wonderful. (Also... Pronounced like the animal: coyote)

[@FAFO_24]

Are you liking the Kioti? I've heard some good things about them

[@HomesteadFresh]

@@FAFO_24 we love it! If we had more property, we would have gone with a bigger model, that is the only thing - she works great 😃

[@TheCbrown6767]

Great video neighbor to the North! From Athol MA!

[@fartingislife2546]

Lol I'm from gardner ma.. hey neighbor lol

[@OrangeismyNewGreen]

I believe Daedong makes tractors for other brands, some Bobcat models, New Holland sub-compact tractors and others, thanks for sharing Jack 👍🏻

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

The Bobcat model was a surprise to me when it happened. I figured they would have engineered in house. The Bad Boy partnership with Daodong did not surprise me at all. Their mowers are great, but BB doesn’t have the resources currently to build a tractor from the ground up.

[@jamesb.armstrong5433]

@@TheMindfulHomestead Bobcat is a Daedong (day-dong) company. I believe Bad Boy tractors are actually Branson tractors. Branson tractors is also owned by TYM.

[@sloppyjoe6243]

New Hollands are made by LS which is a Korean company as well. They are also located in Daegu S Korea. Bobcat is a Doosan corporation and outsources Daedong to make their tractors.

[@corpsmind5920]

Can you do a video oh how you control leaves from all those trees. I’m having a hard time during fall with mine.

[@jacobhendrickson8935]

I thought Kioti was the one who sued Kubota for the orange color issue. So this is good to know it was actually the other way around. I’ve been a Kubota fan ever since grandpa always having a Kubota and as a matter of fact it’s still running like new and in the family still today.

[@jacobhendrickson8935]

Yes you could save money getting a kioti, but as the saying goes you get what you pay for.

[@jake4183]

Does the SE model have a Draft control for the 3-point. Or have down pressure adjustment between light and heavy. Using a back blade or box blade works better with down pressure.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

It may but honestly I’d rather add weight to the box blade and leave it floated. Using the tractor to put pressure on a blade and hitting stuff is when things get broken, at least for me.

[@keithrayeski3147]

Yea, not disrespecting anyone, but Kioti after my months on research, was the hands down winner for a bunch of reasons. In April 2022 there was a significant bump up in prices but still, I saved significantly on Kioti. I went with the CX2510 HST. I got the backhoe with thumb, loader with third function, grapple, quick attach forks, loaded tires and block heater all for nearly 10,000 less that they others. Dealership also factored high on my list and my Kioti dealer, all but invited me and my family to Christmas at their place!!😁🤣 In the real world, it’s simply that compact and sun-compact tractors have become so common place with literally more than a dozen different folks making them that it narrows the list of reasons to pick what you like. Multiple attachment and implement builders out there making quick attach stuff that I think JD is cutting their own wrists to force proprietary attachments and implements for JD machines. You know what they say, nothing runs like a Deere…being chased by a Kioti!!😁

[@ProductiveRecreation]

There have been many manufacturing partnerships among brands in the past and present. I have a Shibaura built Ford 1700 from 1981. The Ford/New Holland compact tractors were made by Shibaura for many years. Now they’re made by LS. Many Massey Ferguson models are made by Iseki, and TYM and Daedong make tractors for other brands as well. Kubota may be the only company that makes all major components in-house for all their models, though Kioti is moving that direction. Even John Deere compacts have Yanmar engines.

[@Will-tm5bj]

Some big john deere have Cummins engines and others have john deere engines. Some large yachts have john deere engines, som3 have cat engines. Smaller sail boats might have a yanmar engine, some have kubota engines.

[@jacobhendrickson8935]

@@Will-tm5bj Kubotas largest tractor uses Cummins as well.

[@donnyaldridge6452]

I looked at the Kabota L2501 and the price was insane..I got the actual quote today..I thought the 23,400 was OTD..Nope it was 27,265..Thats HST, quick attach bucket, r4 tires filled with Tax and fees and insurance payments around 454 a month..A bit much I think for around the house. Think I'm gonna look at this Kioti model and Mahindra and do a price compare I was expecting the Kabota to be closer.

[@jeffrme]

Kioti is a much stronger tractor, hydraulic fluid rate is the highest of any class! I owned John Deere and I loved it, wish I had never sold it. But life changes and just wasn’t using like I was, years down the road I went to get another Deere and that’s when I tried the Kioti! I really love the value you get with Kioti! After much comparison, I decided I get more bang for my buck with Kioti! Have never regretted it at all! I look at it this way, if your a Tractor person, your my kind of guy!

[@scottwooldridge8946]

Ive always been told it didnt matter what tractor you bought as long as the dealer was good and had parts and service available.

[@davidklemarczyk1722]

Hey Jack, any tips on what to look for when buying a used sub-compact tractor? Newbie here.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

Hey David! Hours are important, but even more important is where/how/when the tractor was serviced. If you’re going to look at a tractor, look up what dealers are in the area for that tractor. Ask the seller where they had it serviced, or if they did the services themselves, if they have any records of that (receipts, a log book, etc). Also, keep an eye out for general “sloppy” work on any items or accessories they added. Even with the work lights knocked off my ROPS, you can see the wiring I did was originally a clean install, even if I just zip tied the broken lights back on. If something is obviously hacked together and they claim to have done their own service, it might not have been taken care of as often as it should.

[@davidklemarczyk1722]

@@TheMindfulHomestead Love it. Thanks!

[@tarrantfarm]

If you are mechanically inclined, don't discount older tractors where you can get good bang for your buck. For the most part they are simple to work on, and provided they run well, you may just need to do some maintenance and fix a few things on them, but if you have a local dealer and parts are easy to get, you can probably do the work yourself. There is alot to be said about getting a used older one that will just be a good workhorse, and you can never have enough horsepower when buying your first one. If you are a newbie and getting a used one, take someone who knows something about tractors with you and do some research on the one you are looking at so you know what issues might be a problem with that model/year.

[@ProductiveRecreation]

If you look at something older, research the manufacturer relationships and explore parts availability. My Ford 1700 is a great tractor but is considered obsolete and parts are hard to find and expensive. Sticking with big names like Kubota and Deere you can’t go too wrong. As has been said, look at hours, service record, and condition. Fresh paint may be hiding issues!

[@davehudson4607]

Prices are pretty close these days

[@jeffpitzer8521]

I just today purchased a new Kioti RX 6620. From talking to 4 different dealers I found out that Daedong makes all of their own components...even the hydraulic controls and solenoids. From all the research I've done I believe that a Kioti is every bit as tough and dependable as a Kubota... but the Kioti has more and better features and in my case many thousands of dollars less expensive.. I think Kubota is a great product and actually own a smaller Kubota tractor. But the Kioti in my case is a much better value..if you're in the market for a tractor you owe it to yourself to at least look at and study the specs of Kioti before buying any compact tractor.

[@chadbinette3201]

Saw one of the clips in the beginning of you rototilling with your mower deck on. I'm not an expert by any means but grew up on a farm and still have a few , if your running an attachment on the three point hitch I would highly recommend taking off your mower deck. Could damage your mower deck or the mid pto like that. Plus it really limits your ground clearance. Just hate to see you do unnecessary damage to your equipment. As a mainer the moment you said southern NH I hit that subscribe button.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

Thanks for the heads up. If I’m doing serious dirt work I pull it off. But for a few quick passes with the box blade on the driveway, I leave it on. Luckily I can lock the deck up but still lower the rear, so the clearance works. Thanks for subscribing!

[@livewithnick]

I’d probably consider that a big lawnmower lol.

[@SCDeerAddict]

Anything below an L series Kubota is a glorified lawn mower. Notice the hump on the L series? Thats the transmission on the DT model, alot beefier than any B series

[@madtater5948]

I own a kaboba tractor and a kioti tractor, it looks to me like the kioti tractor has a little bit of red color in the paint. the paint really fades bad on the kuboba tractor

[@jacobhendrickson8935]

That’s one thing that’s terrible about Kubota is the paint quality. Whenever I get around to painting mine I’ll use an automotive base coat/ clear coat so she stays that way.

[@javiertorres7460]

The big difference is in the price

[@davehudson4607]

Kioti make their own engines & transmissions today

[@paulscarcella9767]

its dae dong and they make all of there own motors and they dont use other brand motors

[@tangoseal1]

All I see are videos on YT about Kioti falling apart. I never see that about Kubota.

[@brucebabin4137]

Not true, I’d like to see those videos.

[@MaineOutdoorsChannel]

I will stick with Kioti

[@yvettebeck8355]

Daedong pronounced day-dong

[@edblaskowski81]

Kioti is much better. Outperforms Kubota in almost every category

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

Except dealer network. The nearest Kioti dealer is an hour and a half away. Long way to go for parts.

[@73leo73]

Concord tractor is not far from where you live. They are a great Kioti dealer. Kioti tractors are heavier stronger and cost less than kubotas. Bob cat tractors are also made by kioti. I have a cs2510 for 3 years now and never any problems yet with about 200 hours on it. I didn't even think about kubota because of the tredal pedal because I found it really uncomfortable for me trying to go forward and reverse. Anyways that's my 2 cents.

[@GrowlinWillie]

Should have been a 30 second video

[@RockinRack]

On paper kioti is the best value but in reality they have terrible QC. In my research I have seen far too many horror stories from kioti owners. Most have a favorable experience but i would rather pay a little extra rather than possibly end up with a 50k lemon that spends more time at the dealer than on my property. Deere, kubota and massey dont seem to have the same kind of reoccurring negative reviews where people end up with a total waste of machinery and money. Kubota is too light and deere is too expensive. The massey 2860m with power shuttle and cab is the tractor that fits me best and for an affordable price point. Just my 2 cents

[@brucebabin4137]

Again, I’d like to see the proof of this. Not what I’ve been seeing.

[@MaineOutdoorsChannel]

Long I ... k i oti... Bottom line you get a LOT more value for your money when you buy a kioti... I researched then both and others tractors before buying a ck3510se ... Kioti is made in south korea and kubota japan... you can't copyright simply a color....

[@kaseycasece1340]

kubota loader tractor made in japan all most mainly there parts come from japan / some don't ? . kioti loader tractor made in south korea ! . gear drive tranmisson have more power than , H S T TRANMISSON !

[@Tcrim354]

I don’t want to be the guy on the internet that talks about tractor, who doesn’t know what he is talking about. You would be the first one

[@futurecutter2275]

The "behind the scenes" story behind the two is....the original Kubota company was owned by 2 Brothers. They used Daedong as an outside vendor. An unknown rift came between the 2 Brothers. One brother left the company and vowed to put his brother out of business. He also took Daedong with him. The brother and Daedong then created KIOTI (thus all of the similarities) at a fraction of the cost of Kubota. Kubota took this as a threat and sued kioti in an attempt to put them out of business or to change their design.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

That’s not quite the case. Daedong and Kubota have collaborated on one tractor with Kubota providing the engine as a vendor to Daedong and Daedong building the rest of it. Do you have a reference to the brothers story? I’ve heard it mentioned before but also heard it called an old wives tale, and no one can back it up. The brothers would have had to have been really old… since Kubota was started in 1890 and they didn’t collaborate with Daedong until the late 1960’s.

[@futurecutter2275]

@@TheMindfulHomestead unfortunately not. A gentleman that I knew years back (early 2000's) bought one of the first kioti tractors in our area. Until then, they weren't even known in our area. He told me he asked why all of the Kubota similarities and this is the answer he was given by the salesman. However, I prefer Kubota simply because they're more American than kioti. I'm in the market and will probably go with a New Holland, but now you have me wondering. I'm going to start digging a little. Lol

[@futurecutter2275]

No. The brothers outsourced various components to the Chinese.

[@ryanburnham1932]

Kioti; is pronounced coyote like the animal, not close to the pronunciation of the Central American squash Chayote. Their emblem indicates as much, a howling coyote. Also Bobcat compact tractors, a Doosan brand (also South Korean), are currently made by Kioti. I only mention this because most Americans looking for a tractor would likely know the Bobcat name and be interested in their product, but maybe not the Kioti branded tractor. My point as a Kioti owner is, Bobcat/Doosan would not risk their brand reputation if Kioti was truly inferior in anyway to even John Deere.

[@TheMindfulHomestead]

Round here we pronounce the wild dog “kai-ote”. I actually once heard a Kioti dealer pronounce it “Kee-oty”. That’s where it came from most likely and it stuck. With regard to Bobcat, a discussion with the rep in our area led me to believe that they were only rebranding Kiotis until their own designs were wrapped up and ready for production. Not sure the validity of that, but he didn’t have a reason to lie to me about it.

[@ryanburnham1932]

​@@TheMindfulHomestead I bought a Kioti a few months ago and as of then the Bobcats were still Kiotis. I even put a Bobcat block heater in mine since. I Ultimately went with Kioti due to the Bobcat connection, as the closest dealer for any tractor is over 200 miles away (Rural Interior Alaska) and the Kubota Dealership is someone my Father-in-law has had issues with, even buying his tractor from them. Ultimately I hade a 4,304 mile round trip to Washington to buy a tractor as there none of the size I was looking for in Alaska and it would have been a 9 month wait plus at least a $13,000 price increase to get one. I know I am a very special case due to my remoteness and what is right for me is not the case for everyone (Also Bobcat apparently puts rules on their dealerships that they cannot due business with someone that lives outside the dealer's area; as the first question I was asked by Washington dealers was where do I live and then they basically hung up on me.) As to the pronunciation differences, the US has more dialects than even Americans are aware of. So I guess it is just the animal pronunciation in your local area.

[@reitzy69]

Japanese and Korean are no where near related lol Japan has care if what they build/make where as Koreans could care less...may as well say made in vachina

[@gusbraniff2151]

Waste of Video Space

[@charlesreed6404]

Stay away from Kioti. I have a horrible year long histroy on a CK3510SE. Been back to the dealer 5 times in 130 hrs. If you are serious about buying one, hunt me up and I can give you a detailed history of what I've been through. Pay the extra few bucks for the Kobota or JD.

[@walkersworkshop800]

Agreed my kioti is the biggest piece of crap i ever bought kubota is way better in every way

[@antoniosonoqui]

What kinds of problems have you experienced? I’m in the market and was considering that exact model

[@antoniosonoqui]

@@walkersworkshop800 what problems have you come across?

[@charlesreed6404]

If you are not in Maine then you more than likely will not be dealing with Manchester Motors in Manchester Maine and their other location in Topshm Maine. Much of what broke or went wrong would have been way more tolerated with good dealer / customer relationship. Unfortunelty these two failed. They made it so painful and frustrating with their lack of being customer and results driven. It is even painful to write all this again but here goes...was delivered with 3 very noticable large dents in the right rear fender. Was little to no effort to go over the tractor with me. After months of waiting fro my brushhog to be delivered, when it was delivered it didn't have teh afety cahin...when I asked the delvery guy, he said oh we looked in the shop and couldn't find one, Fast forward to one of 5 time they had to come get the tractor, they pulled the dents out and implied it's all good now even though the powercoats was chipped in all 3 areas, delivered without lynch pin engaged on the drawbar pins, floor mats drastically curl up in cold temps, both rear tires went flat and rimguard pouring out of them, can't possible even describe the details of the mess I had to deal with, Grapple hoses unprotected and routed where they dragged on the ground, safeety decal fell off, rusted nuts holding the mirros on, the underside of the break linkage chaffing through the hyd hoses, multiple hyd hose leaks, linked peddle always "linked" no matter what position the lever was at, over a period on 3-4 months dealing with the tractor stalling out and throwing error codes....after 2 trips back to their shop finally said there was a recall on the seat safety switch..the first attempt to fix this was them unplugging the seat safety swtch and then returning it back to me, this was total disregard to their customers safety! Coolent hoses leaking, Tool box bracket totally rusted out within 160 hours and always stored on my garage if I'm not using it, the grill guard is rusting at 190 hours, I really can go on and on. If I had it to do all over again I should have saved up a few more pennies and bought the JC 3R series. I had a JD 790 30 hp years go that would work circles around this. I'm sure you might be at the point I was at and why I chose the Kioti, the JD equivenent with the same features is 8-10k more.....If you end up with a Kioti, be diligent and thoroughly interview the dealership before your sign. Again, if in Maine, stay away from the two dealerships I had. I recently moved on to another dealer in Maine and they are fantasic. If you want to hunt me up on fb I can send you my day to day documentions that has much more detail than I care to write here.