Aftermarket Kubota Radiator Debacle

Croatan_Kid

Croatan_Kid

How's your hammer hangin'?
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Location
New Bern
So, my Kubota L4400 tractor needs a new radiator. Factory part is about 645 bucks...aluminum core and plastic top/bottom tanks...mine is leaking at the bottom crimp and the seal surface under the cap has a chunk missing somehow.

I start out on my journey to find a less expensive replacement and find another legit Kubota part for 530, but then this weekend it was on sale for 475. Even better! I'm about to pull the trigger on it when I stumble across this place: Industrial Equipment Radiators - BT 5397

The thought had never crossed my mind that someone would make a full aluminum replacement, but I'm damn sure glad they did! I called and confirmed a few things and made sure shipping wouldn't cost 130 bucks like their website says. All in all, I got the aluminum replacement cheaper than a stock style once you figure in shipping. It even has all the mounts, tabs, and threaded holes for the wiring brackets, hood prop, and fan shroud.

They have a huge line of radiators and can apparently make you just about anything you need. Thought I'd share in case anyone was in need!

http://www.cgj.com/store/category/radiators/
 
Good info & good you found a bargain! Reminds me of when I worked at a Turf supply dealer. We had some mowers that ran the mini Kubota engine. The Radiators listed around $450. Either the Factory or Kubota decided to make a design change, & we picked up a Pallet of the New/old radiators, for near nothing. The only change was 2 bolt holes location. We were selling the earlier model for $200-$300, depending on the customer, after advising them if they were willing to drill 1 or 2 holes. Sold out pretty fast!
 
I probably should have listed this under the "vendor and shop referral" section, but oh well.

Here's my experience with this crowd thus far:

-called and ordered
- was told it'd take a few days to build
- specifically asked if my Kubota radiator cap would fit and I was assured it would fit
- a few days later it ships and arrives on time
- as soon as I open the box, I can tell the Kubota radiator cap will NOT fit
- the threads on the barb fitting for the overflow protrudes inside the filler neck about 1/4 inch
- called to ask what cap to use
- they said they'd find out and call me back
- 1 hr later, I call them back and finally get an answer

The product seems solid and I'd much rather have it than the stock style with the plastic tanks, but damn. For 500 bucks, they could send it to me with a 7 dollar radiator cap on it or at the VERY least tell me which one it uses! Even with the cap they told me to use, I'm going to have to pull the overflow fitting and grind some threads off so the cap can sit down in the filler neck like it's supposed to.

I'm definitely going to call them again tomorrow and make sure that won't void my warranty and make them aware of the situation...if for no other reason than to piss them off a little bit.
 
Of course most plastic tank radiators that leak at the seams can probably just be recrimped to remediate the leak. Most radiator shops can do that, as well as replace the plastic tanks and seals, assuming they are available. (Which of course on equipment is not always the case, being somewhat custom)
 
The sealing surface under the radiator cap has two chunks missing which is why I've opted for a full replacement. There's some kinda crap inside the radiator, which I can only assume is stop leak of some sort and it's deteriorated the plastic in a few places.

Now, for the update on the new radiator...

I took out the factory one because I was thinking the new one was ready to drop in. I was wrong.

Here's why:

- the core itself was 1/4" too short which threw off the other dimensions for the fan shroud and debris screen
- the mount tabs for the fan shroud were also too close together
- the debris screen bolt holes weren't drilled or tapped deep enough so I would have had to stack up 3 or 4 washers
- I had to fix the overflow fitting which was sticking in to the filler neck about a 3/16" and was also only finger tight

I called them and they got an earful. They tried to tell me that there might be a serial number break, but they made this tractor from 2007 to 2013 and didn't change a damn thing and I have confirmed with a Kubota dealer that there is only one radiator for this model of tractor.

So, with all that said, both radiators are headed their way and they're going to build me a new one and send them both back to me. It's pretty obvious that whoever welded this particular radiator didn't read the print correctly...or their print is wrong. Everything that's off is off exactly 1/4".

I've greatly considered just returning it and getting a stock replacement, but I don't want to have to deal with replacing a radiator every 10 years or the tanks leaking at the crimps and since the bottom of the radiator is fairly exposed, I'll feel a little better not having to worry about a rogue limb or something cracking the plastic tank.
 
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I needed a full replacement...that's the reason I wound up going this route. If the fill neck hadn't been messed up, I would have probably just taken it to my local radiator shop and had it fixed.
 
I've got a similar issue on the rad in my cj. Orders a full alum after market that fits cj's. took 4 hours of grinding and modifying to get it in the hole and hooked up and after a 10 mile drive it's dumping coolant in the garage right now. Hope yours gets sorted out.
 
I sent both their new radiator and the factory one to them. They should have arrived yesterday and I expect to hear from them soon....I wrote them out a full list of everything they did wrong. I'm sure they'll just love that :D I didn't say anything that wasn't true though.
 
Got the revised radiator this past Saturday....didn't take long for me to put it right back in the box to send it back. The bracket that holds it down and also is the hood latch doesn't fit right...so I told them I'm tired of being aggravated with it and tired of dealing with them and that I want my money back, including the original cost of shipping. I want it to be like I never called them to begin with.

Luckily, the factory radiator can still be had for 477 bucks, 495 with shipping. If I get another 10 years out of the next one, so be it.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
Got the revised radiator this past Saturday....didn't take long for me to put it right back in the box to send it back. The bracket that holds it down and also is the hood latch doesn't fit right...so I told them I'm tired of being aggravated with it and tired of dealing with them and that I want my money back, including the original cost of shipping. I want it to be like I never called them to begin with.

Luckily, the factory radiator can still be had for 477 bucks, 495 with shipping. If I get another 10 years out of the next one, so be it.
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That really sucks. Hate you wasted all that time on them.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
 
Me too, but oh well. There's too many tolerance stack ups on this thing for them to claim they're a direct fit and that they've sold them before.
 
I'll dig this back up...

Finally ordered a factory radiator from Bahrns Equipment. It was 477 bucks and I was a little skeptical at first, but it came in a box with a Kubota sticker on it and it even comes with a new fan shroud AND radiator cap. I'm glad I finally got one. If I get another 10 years out of it, so be it. I can deal with that! Not sure why eberybody else wanta 650 for the same parts, but whatever.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
I'll dig this back up...

Finally ordered a factory radiator from Bahrns Equipment. It was 477 bucks and I was a little skeptical at first, but it came in a box with a Kubota sticker on it and it even comes with a new fan shroud AND radiator cap. I'm glad I finally got one. If I get another 10 years out of it, so be it. I can deal with that! Not sure why eberybody else wanta 650 for the same parts, but whatever.
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Most equipment dealers are the same.

There is an msrp, which fulfils certain legal requirements . Then typically a 1st line distributor buys at .35 to .45 of msrp. Then they will sell at various points above cost. Typically they will have dealer agreements that say they will not sell to any non dealer for less than dealer net. This is in exchange for that dealer being brand exclusive. However they may offer incentives for total sales numbers at year end. Many mid sized dealers will run e-parts at pennies over cost just to try and get to a better tier or higher year end rebate.

When I was I in the Cummins network we as a distributor shell company that sold below dealer cost. But it was really just the distributor selling it under a funky name.

Fyi in that world the difference between a distributor and a dea,e sis a distributor buys below 50%of msrp and a dealer is above.
 
When I worked at Turf dealer, some of our equipment ran Kubota. We never knew Why, but as a Distributor, we could by a Radiator, cheaper from Engine Power Source / Pineville, than we could get from our Own Factory! But pretty sure they were in the $400 range.
 
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