# Kubota L39 TLB vs L35 vs renting



## jakejorgenson (Mar 17, 2009)

I've been considering getting either the new L39 (with the finance deal Kubota is doing now) or a used L35 (they have one for about $18.5 at my dealer) for our business to use on a variety of tasks on site. I need to be able to pull it with my 3/4 ton diesel truck and already have a dump trailer that either of these would fit into for moving from job to job if we need to. We would use it for grading driveways with gravel to prep for slabs, trenching and filling for electrical laterals and gas laterals to the house, trenching water and sewer lines, digging foundations about 3 ft deep for small additions and garages that we often build, and putting forks on the front to be able to move lumber and things around on the site (move the pile of roof plywood up to the edge of the roof instead of out where the delivery truck dropped it). Will this type of machine work well for what I would like to do with it? The other option is just rent as we need but it's about $300 a day for the mini or something like that. We do have several jobs right now including 3 different large garages, an addition on the back of a home, and a couple of new homes with fairly large driveways that we would consider using this machine for that work. Have any of you used these machines? Are they too small or will they be up to the tasks I'm looking at? Are there substantial maintenance costs I'm not thinking about on them?


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## jlsconstruction (Apr 26, 2011)

Kabota makes a good engine, but a not so good tractor imho


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

IMO if you can afford it buy it...

The machine should work fine provided the soils aren't too tough or you don't expect too much lift out of it. 

Once you have daily access to a machine you will find many uses for it and wonder why you did not buy one sooner.


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

It will work great at moving materials around jobsites and getting deliveries off trucks. IMO, for doing any digging work a mini will work circles around a TLB. If you have good soft ground and wide open sites then running a trench isn't that bad. I sure wish I had a L39.


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## jakejorgenson (Mar 17, 2009)

Ended up getting the L39. Used it this week to dig gas lines, drain lines, grade a driveway, and lift some big timbers with the backhoe up to a roof at a job we are doing. We are already putting it to really good use. Seems to work really well. Not as fast as the mini-ex, but much more versatile which is really nice for the work that we do. Going to be building a 40x40 building with a slab on grade (just have to dig the footings out and prep it) this next week and doing a small addition the following week of which this machine will work perfect for. Took a little to get used to the length (longer than the mini-ex or skid) so it was a little tough to get around, but not too bad.


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

if yours doesn't have a QA loader/bucket, it can be had from Kubota, then w/ forks its a great additoin to moving materials around


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