Kubota Spotlight: A Compact Excavator Comparison

As most construction equipment dealers have noticed, sales of and interest in the compact, or mini, excavator has come into its own in the past six months or so. This fact has caused more than one dealer to “move the minis” to the front row, and that is understandable. 

While a number of large projects are on hold due to concerns regarding lumber or steel costs and similar problems, the smaller jobs have continued at their normal rate, and even accelerated as some people decide to remodel rather than rebuild. 

Without a doubt, a contractor shopping for a compact excavator (1-9metric tonnes) will consider Kubota. 

Kubota—Who Are They?

Kubota is a well-known manufacturer of construction equipment in North America. 

In fact, the origins of the company go back to 1890, when they were known in Japan as an iron foundry. In 1922, they began to manufacture engines, an area in which they are still active and well-known. In 1947, they began to produce agricultural machinery, and in 1953 Kubota started making construction equipment. Kubota Corporation introduced its first tractor to the United States in 1969, filling a product void in the American marketplace for a sub-compact tractor. Today, Kubota even has manufacturing facilities in the United States.

When it comes to compact excavators, Kubota is not only the number one builder of under-100 horsepower, multi-cylinder, non-automotive diesel engines, it also makes the world’s top-selling conventional tail-swing compact excavator. * 

What Can You Expect? 

Kubota makes more than the conventional tail-swing compact excavator. They also manufacture the U-series zero and tight tail swing compact excavators. However, for ease of comparison, we have compared conventional K-series and KX-series machines below to give an overview of sizes and capabilities.  

SPECIFICATIONS	K008-3	KX018-4	KX71-3	KX033-4
HORSEPOWER	24.08	10.3	16.1	24.4
LENGTH	15’ 6”	9’	12’ 2”	14’ 11”
WIDTH	5’ 1”	2’ 10”	4’ 3”	4’ 11”
HEIGHT	8’ 1”	7’ 4”	7’ 7”	8’ to 7’11”
CRAWLER LENGTH	6’ 10.6”	N/A	5’ 2.6”	6’ 6”
BUCKET BREAKOUT FORCE	3,694 lb.	1,000 lb.	1,630 lb.	2,890 lb.
GROUND PRESSURE (PSI)	0.31 to 0.34	0.25	0.26 to 0.27	0.28 to 0.29

For more, see https://www.kubotausa.com/construction. 

Choosing The Right Machine For Your Business  

The same criteria should be used for the selection of any mini excavator. What do you need? What kind of jobs do you do? Do you need a shorter, narrower machine to get in and out of tight spaces, perhaps in an urban setting? Do you need steel tracks for extreme traction, or should you go with the more surface-friendly rubber track? 

The point is, Kubota should definitely be on your shop-and-compare list. And of course, we carry replacement rubber tracks for the full line of Kubota compact excavators! 

If you would like to review our general overview of the compact excavator category, click below!  

* ALL KUBOTA INFO: From Kubota USA