USED MACHINERY: With its hydrostatic transmission and standard power steering, the nominal 22hp diesel Kubota RTV 900 was unique in the utility vehicle sector when it was launched in 2005. More than seven years later, essentially the same vehicle remains the only one in its class with hydro drive. But does this transmission make the RTV 900 a risky used buy? James de Havilland reports
When we assessed four diesel and four petrol utility vehicles in 2008 (practical test, profi 02/08 and 03/08), the Kubota RTV 900 was pitted against the ‘oil burning’ Kawasaki Mule, John Deere Gator HPX and Massey Ferguson MF20D.
We concluded that the Kubota ‘looks to be a piece of kit that will suffer ag abuse without too much protest. It’s a complete package, too, with a useable hydraulic tipping platform and power steering. All it needs is a few more hp beans’. We then added that ‘the RTV900 has raised the bar; it’s farm tough, straight from the box’.
Five years on, we can now see whether that summary was correct. Has the Kubota RTV 900 really proven itself to be ‘farm tough’? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’. Why qualified? Because Kubota outlined to its dealers back in 2005 that it was entering new territory with the RTV, so, perhaps not surprisingly, there were a few initial issues. To be fair, some of these were down to a lack of experience of hydro drive in this type of application, but, on top of that, Kubota put its hands up to a few design problems, too.
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