What Is Actually In a Tractor Package The four pieces every Kubota tractor package contains, the things that get added after you say yes, and how to read the quote before you sign it
Disclosure before anything else. We are a Kubota dealer. We run ads for these packages, you may well have arrived here by clicking one, and we would like to sell you a tractor.
Which is exactly why this page is worth reading. We know precisely where the gap sits between the number in the ad and the number on the contract, because we are the ones who print both. Most pages about Kubota tractor packages are written by people who have never watched a customer's face change at the signing table. We have, and it is not a good look on anybody.
A package is not a discount. It is a bundle. Those are different things and the difference costs money.
Here is the whole idea. A tractor package is a tractor, a loader, a trailer and an implement or two, quoted as one number and financed as one contract. It exists because buying those pieces separately is a nuisance and because one payment is easier to say yes to than four. That is not a criticism. It is genuinely easier. But the bundle is priced as a bundle, and the things that are not in it are the things that surprise people.
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A Package Is a Bundle, Not a Bargain
Every dealer in the country advertises tractor packages and every one of them means roughly the same thing. A tractor, a front end loader already mounted, a trailer rated to haul the thing, and at least one implement on the three point hitch. Sold together, financed together, delivered together.
The advertised price is real. We are not about to tell you the number is fake, because ours is not and we would have a compliance problem if it were. What the advertised price is, though, is the floor. It is the cheapest legitimate configuration of that package, and the configuration you actually want is usually two or three steps up from the floor.
This is the same thing that happens with trucks. The price on the window sticker of the base model is a true price. It is also a truck with vinyl floors and no tow package, and that is not the truck anyone drives off the lot.
The Four Pieces, and Which Ones Matter
Almost every Kubota tractor package on the market is built from these four. What changes between dealers, and between the ad and your actual quote, is the grade of each one.
| Piece | What varies | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| The tractor | Series and horsepower | The least negotiable and the most transparent piece. Same machine everywhere. If a dealer is cheap here, look at what got thinner elsewhere. |
| Front loader | Almost always included | Check whether the quick attach and a skid steer style coupler are in the price. A loader you cannot swap attachments on is half a loader. |
| Trailer | Rating, axles, deck, brakes | The single most padded line in the package. A single axle utility trailer and a tandem axle equipment trailer are not the same product and both get called "trailer included." |
| Implements | Duty rating and count | Usually a box blade, sometimes a rotary cutter. Ask for the model number, not the category. Light duty and standard duty differ by a large multiple in working life. |
If you take one thing from this page, make it the trailer line. A tractor with a loader and a filled box blade is heavier than people expect, and a trailer that is legal empty is not automatically legal loaded. We have had customers arrive to collect a package and discover their existing trailer was never going to work, which is a bad afternoon for everybody.
What Gets Added After You Say Yes
None of this is a trick. All of it is real cost that genuinely is not in the advertised number, and a dealer who pretends otherwise is setting you up to be annoyed later.
Here is the honest list, roughly in the order it shows up on a quote.
Add those up and you get a number that is meaningfully above the advertised one. That is not a bait and switch, it is what buying a machine costs. The only real sin is not telling you before you are sitting down with a pen.
Which Package Size Actually Fits
Package tiers follow Kubota's series, and the series follow acreage and task more than they follow price. Buying one class too small is the most common expensive mistake we see, because the fix is trading out a year later.
Sub compact, roughly one to three acres
Mowing, light loader work, moving mulch and gravel, snow if you had any. It fits through a standard gate and will not tear up a finished lawn. It is a genuine tractor and not a lawn mower, but it is not a land clearing machine and it does not pretend to be.
Compact, roughly three to ten acres
The volume seller and the one most package ads are built around. Enough loader capacity to be useful with a pallet fork, enough PTO to run a five or six foot cutter without complaining, still small enough to work around structures. If you are unsure between this and the class below, this is usually the right answer.
Larger compact, ten acres and up, or heavier work on less
Where the tractor stops being sized to the property and starts being sized to the job. Real ground engaging capability, a loader that will lift a full pallet of block, and the weight to actually pull a disc or a heavier box blade rather than being dragged around by it.
Utility, working ranch and commercial
Past the point where packages are really the point. At this size the implements get specific to the operation and bundling matters less than getting the right rear hydraulics and the right hitch.
One caution on sizing by horsepower alone. Loader lift capacity and rear hitch lift capacity vary independently of engine horsepower, and it is usually one of those two that limits what you can actually do. Ask for both numbers and compare those rather than the headline HP.
The Financing Changes What the Package Is
Kubota runs finance programs through Kubota Credit Corporation, and the headline offers rotate. Low rate long term, or cash back in place of the rate, or a seasonal program. What matters for a package buyer is that these two things pull against each other.
Take the low rate and you generally give up the cash incentive. Take the cash and you finance at a market rate. For a small bundle over a short term the cash often wins. For a large bundle over a long term the rate usually wins. There is a crossover point and it moves with the current program, which is why nobody can give you a permanent answer and why we are not printing one here.
What we will say plainly is this. Ask your dealer to quote the same package both ways and show you the total of payments on each. Any dealer who will not do that is not a dealer you want to be signing with. It takes about four minutes.
Reading the Quote Line by Line
A package quote should be itemised. If yours arrives as a single number with the word "package" next to it, send it back and ask for the breakdown. Here is what you are looking for.
The Short Version
Buy the package if you need most of it anyway
If you genuinely need a trailer and at least one implement, bundling gets you equipment financing on the whole kit and one contract to manage. That is a real advantage and it is why packages exist. Take it.
Do not buy the package for the discount
Compare the bundle against the pieces priced separately if you only need the tractor and loader. Sometimes the bundle wins and sometimes you are financing a trailer you will use twice.
Spend the upgrade money on hydraulics and ballast
Third function and proper rear ballast change what the machine can do every single day. A fancier implement does not. If the budget is tight, that is the order.
Get the itemised quote before you compare dealers
Headline package prices are not comparable across dealers because the contents are not the same. Line items are comparable. Ask for them from all of us.
Five Questions Worth Asking Any Dealer
- What is the trailer's axle configuration and rated capacity, and is the tractor with a loaded implement inside that rating?
- Are third function hydraulics and a quick coupler in this price, and what does adding them later cost?
- What rear ballast is included, and what do you recommend for the loader work I have described?
- Can you show me this package quoted with the low rate program and again with the cash program, with total of payments on both?
- What are the freight, setup, documentation and delivery charges, in dollars, today?
Three branches. Sun Valley, Temecula, Escondido. Same family since 1952. Ask us all five, then go ask somebody else the same five. If our answers are worse, buy theirs.
Straight Answers
What is included in a Kubota tractor package?
Almost always four things. The tractor, a front end loader already mounted, a trailer rated to haul it, and at least one three point implement, usually a box blade and sometimes a rotary cutter. Kubota sets machine pricing and finance programs, but the trailer and implement choices are made by the individual dealer, so package contents differ between dealers even when the advertised price is identical.
Are Kubota tractor packages actually cheaper than buying separately?
Not usually on the pieces themselves. The real advantage is financing. Bundling the trailer and implements into the equipment contract puts the whole kit on equipment terms rather than leaving you to finance a trailer some other way. If you need most of the bundle, that is a genuine benefit. If you only want the tractor and loader, price it both ways before assuming the package wins.
What costs are not included in the advertised package price?
Typically freight and setup, documentation fees, trailer title and registration, sales tax on the bundle, delivery beyond the dealer's free radius, and any upgrades. The common upgrades are third function hydraulics, a quick attach coupler and rear ballast. None of these are hidden charges, they are simply real costs that sit outside the advertised configuration. Ask for them itemised before you sign.
What size Kubota tractor do I need for my property?
As a rough guide, BX sub compacts suit roughly one to three acres of mowing and light loader work, B and LX compacts suit roughly three to ten acres, and L series suits ten acres and up or heavier work on smaller ground. Size to the heaviest job you will actually do rather than to the acreage alone, and compare loader lift capacity and rear hitch lift capacity rather than engine horsepower, because one of those two is usually what limits you.
Do I need third function hydraulics on a tractor package?
You need it if you ever want to run a grapple, a hydraulic angle blade or any attachment that does more than raise and curl. Adding it when the machine is built costs significantly less than retrofitting it later. It is the upgrade we recommend most often and the one buyers most often skip and then come back for.
Is rear ballast included in a tractor package?
Frequently not, and it should be discussed. A loaded bucket at full reach lifts weight off the rear axle, which costs you steering and stability. Loaded rear tires, wheel weights or a ballast box are what make the loader genuinely usable. Treat ballast as part of the loader rather than as an accessory.
Should I take the low interest rate or the cash back offer?
It depends on the size of the bundle and the length of the term, and the programs rotate, so no page can give you a permanent answer. Broadly, cash back tends to win on smaller amounts over shorter terms and the low rate tends to win on larger amounts over longer terms. Ask your dealer to quote the same package both ways and show you the total of payments on each.
Yes, This Is an Ad
You just read an equipment dealer explain brush clearing. You knew what this was from the first line and read it anyway, so we will not pretend otherwise now.
What we are offering is the site walk. Send photos, or have us out, and we will tell you which of the four approaches your lot needs. Sometimes a rental. Sometimes one implement you use every spring. Sometimes your slope is too steep for any of it and you want a hand crew, in which case we will say so, because a customer who bought the wrong attachment does not come back for the tractor.
And if you are clearing ahead of the wet months, do the drainage in the same trip.
We have been here since 1952 by being the yard people call back, not the yard that sold somebody a mulcher they use twice.
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