Dealer Support
I've had two dealers quit Kioti since owning the tractor. The original dealer was about 8 miles away; the second was about 50 miles. Now, the closest dealer is in Iuka, Mississippi. The closest in Alabama is over 90 miles away. This complicates parts and service to say the least. Kioti's dealer network will teach you either the value of self-sufficience or the value of a good dealer.
Tractor
Overall, the tractor has been good. Since it is a four-wheel drive it pulls like a larger tractor. It easily breaks ground with an old two-bottom John Deere trip plow. It lifts more than I expect on both ends and there have been zero problems with the hydraulic system. Fuel efficiency is good and the engine runs like new with 900+ hours and has had no problems. The controls are laid out well and the machine is easy to use. Maintenance is easy enough as long as the loader is in the correct position to access the engine. It still has the original battery after 8 years. Minor things have broken (light switches, headlamps) which are expected; one hydraulic cylinder on the loader has been repacked. The wiring harness to the headlamps could be better, as they will occasionally drop out completely due to a loose plug connection. Furthermore, a standard trailer pigtail on the back would have been helpful.
However, there are some design flaws. Minor ones, like inaccessible grease fittings are fixed by installing right angle grease fittings at both brake pedal grease points (or by putting the design engineers on the maintenance testing crew). With straight fittings, you can only lubricate those fittings if you do not have the loader package installed. Major ones, though, have lead to costly repairs.
First, is the fuel filter and water separator. There is no valve for water separation. The fuel filter housing is made of a translucent plastic instead of glass or transparent plastic. Coupled with the ability of the filter to pass water, and you have a $1000 fuel pump repair. This had to happen during the middle of summer planting. Granted, it is my fault for not checking the filter every single time I crank the tractor, but the problem could be designed away with a more accessible and transparent separator, a better filter, and a water in fuel test circuit.
Second is the mechanical shuttle shift synchronizer. It lacks any kind of limiter on the travel of the sliding gear, so that as the synchronizer gears wear, the sliding gear can travel farther forwards and backwards until the synchronizer keys can partially fall out. This will lock the shuttle into either forward or reverse. Mine dropped one key into the sump, and allowed the other two to lock the shuttle in reverse. The first-second and third-fourth synchronizers do not do this as they have a limit on their travel. Also, the shuttle synchronizer has always growled when I use it, regardless of how gentle it has been used. The obvious solution is to have Kioti engineers invent a time machine to fix the problem by limiting the travel of the sliding gear with mechanism beside the shuttle shift fork. Or, remove the three synchronizer keys and not use the shuttle synchronizer. Likewise, this also happened during summer planting.