Kubota has continued the rollout of its next-generation compact excavators into 2025, and on this episode of The Dirt, we take a deep dive into the company’s dash-5 lineup.
The next-gen excavators range from the 1.7-metric-ton zero-tailswing U17-5 to the 8-metric-ton KX080-5, which our guest calls “the Cadillac of the lineup.” The KX080 was also the top-selling new financed excavator in the U.S. in 2024, according to Fusable’s EDA data.
Product Manager Bill Holton gives a complete rundown on the dash-5 excavators, their features, capabilities and ways they can help contractors improve profitability and production. The other models in the lineup are the KX040-5, U48-5, U55-5 and KX057-5. (The first number in the model name represents the operating weight in metric tons, as in, the KX057 weighs 5.7 metric tons.)
Features include retractable tracks for fitting in narrow spaces, larger touchscreen and more comfortable cabs, to name a few.
So to get the lowdown on Kubota’s next-generation line of compact excavators, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
Tap into the power of Fusable's vast industry intelligence – over 100 million entities, activities, and transactions – to identify and capitalize on new growth opportunities for your business. Explore at Fusable.com/TheDirt. (Fusable is the parent company of Equipment World and the sponsor of The Dirt.)
In This Episode:
- 00:00 – Kubota’s -5 Compact Excavators: Complete Overview
- 00:25 – What are the New -5 Models?
- 01:29 – 6-Way Blade
- 02:30 – New Features on -5 Models
- 03:08 – Telematics
- 05:52 – How Telematics Helps with Finances
- 09:02 – Telematics Subscription
- 09:59 – Bluetooth Call Quality
- 12:19 – The 8-Metric-Ton KX080-5’s Unique Features
- 15:00 - -5 Compact Excavators’ Advantages
- 15:55 – Final Thoughts
Equipment World serves up weekly videos on the latest in construction equipment, work trucks and pickup trucks – everything contractors need to get their work done. Subscribe and visit us at equipmentworld.com!
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:24:17
Bryan Furnace
Equipment dealers know your market inside and out with feasible dealership solutions. Do more with good data at fusable.com/thedirt.
Today we're here to talk about the new Dash five excavators from Kubota. What's new and what are some of the improvements to the models? Today we're here to talk with Bill, who's going to give us a quick rundown.
00:00:24:19 - 00:00:30:18
Bryan Furnace
What are the new -5 models rolling out? Specifically, I know it's not the full lineup. So which models are we talking?
00:00:30:20 - 00:00:52:06
Bill Holton
Yeah. So for our new -5 series over the last several years we've introduced the U17 dash five. And that's one of the most recent. It's our 1.7 metric ton machine. It's a zero-tail machine. It does have adjustable track. So you can narrow the tracks, get in through those tight spaces, gates and doorways. Oh, nice. And then expand the tracks back out.
00:00:52:06 - 00:01:11:07
Bill Holton
From there. It goes up to the KX045. So our 4-ton unit, the 4-ton units are a special unit to us because you have three different backfill blade options. So you can have your straight blade, your angle blade or six and one dozer blade. The KX048. That's our 4.8 ton as well. After that is our 5.5 ton.
00:01:11:07 - 00:01:28:12
Bill Holton
So the U 55 that's our tight tail. The KXO57-5 is our 5.7-ton machine. So in that five-ton category you've got both a tight tail machine and a conventional tail machine. And then after that it jumps up to our eight ton. So the KX080-5.
00:01:28:16 - 00:01:37:01
Bryan Furnace
So just to clarify, the six-way blade and the four-way blade options, is that only on the second model you listed, or does that go up to the eight-ton machine as well?
00:01:37:04 - 00:01:54:04
Bill Holton
No. The six way is only available in the four-ton machine. So the KXO45 has all the dash 5 stuff with a few extra nuances about it that we'll talk about later on the call, but you get the straight blade, angle blade or six-way blade option, just angle.
00:01:54:06 - 00:02:19:11
Bryan Furnace
It's been such a handy feature out in the field, let alone when you add that six-way blade. Now, one of the primary things that it helps with for us anyways is, you know, the only way to approach a trench at certain angles is you've got to spin the machine, which means you're tearing up all the sod in the yard, or you're trying to do a little jump turn so that you're you're not tearing it up so much versus having that six way blade, especially four way blade, though, even helps.
00:02:19:13 - 00:02:32:17
Bryan Furnace
I can just hit it straight on and manipulate the dirt the way that I need to. I think that's a very underappreciated tool that's starting to come on some of these newer mini machines. So what are some of the other new features coming on the Dash five models?
00:02:32:18 - 00:03:02:16
Bill Holton
So for the 40 up to the 80 that have the dash five features, you'll have a full color LCD screen. There's a seven-inch screen monitor that you can monitor all your biometrics of the machine while it's in operation. If you have the optional rearview camera installed, matter of a simple press of a button, and you split the screen in approximately a 6040 split, so you've got a full color view of what's going on behind your machine, as well as still being able to see some of those biometrics on the machine.
00:03:02:16 - 00:03:06:17
Bill Holton
You know, your your temp gauges, your fuel gauge, the time, that sort of thing.
00:03:06:20 - 00:03:30:02
Bryan Furnace
So telematics, that's something that we have kind of on a number of machines with a number of manufacturers. Telematics seems to be the big thing that's coming on the smaller machines. They've kind of been around in the big market, but now they're coming to the small machines. But as a result, I think there's a lot of owner operators out there that aren't small operations, and they kind of have this mentality of, you know, I only own three machines.
00:03:30:03 - 00:03:46:12
Bryan Furnace
I'm not really struggling to keep track of where my machines are, but I think there's a lot more to telematics than a lot of guys kind of get off of the initial pass. Can you kind of break down some of the ways that telematics can help smaller contractors, outside of just knowing the location of their machines?
00:03:46:14 - 00:04:06:23
Bill Holton
Yeah, sure. So our Kubota Now telematics, once you've downloaded the app onto your phone, the owner of that contract, the owner of that machine will get notifications not only where the machine is, but there's any error messages that pop up maintenance schedules that come up and say, you hit your 500 hours and it's time for a scheduled maintenance.
00:04:07:01 - 00:04:23:15
Bill Holton
You'll get an indication of that through the app. You have instant access to the operator's manual for that machine, because we all know that that book stays with that machine for its life, right? It's always, always, always. And it's used all the time sarcastically.
00:04:23:15 - 00:04:25:10
Bryan Furnace
Speed time. Yes.
00:04:25:15 - 00:04:47:15
Bill Holton
Yeah. So you have instant access to that through the app as well. There is the ability for you to go in and see what the error messages are, or maintenance calls or for that machine. Yes, you can track your machine to see where it's at. You can set up geofencing around various job sites, and you'll get notifications when the machine leaves or enters that geofence that area.
00:04:47:17 - 00:05:12:02
Bill Holton
You can set a geofence for multiple locations, as well as where your equipment storage is. So if it goes back to the shop and you'll get notified every time it leaves or comes in. Another great thing about the telematics is it gives you the ability to see you know, what your battery output is. Do I have a good strong battery in my machine right now or I can get into my fuel, see what my temps are?
00:05:12:04 - 00:05:32:14
Bill Holton
Oh my coolant, my oil, that there's a lot of maintenance features right there that really should put that owner operator at ease. And then there's there's one really, really neat feature that we like about the Kubota. Now telematics is the restart inhibit feature. So you don't want to worry about where your machine is. You don't want to worry about tracking your machine.
00:05:32:16 - 00:05:51:22
Bill Holton
You've got some jobs that you may right now, or you may be stalled because you're waiting on something else. And so you go to another job, but you don't need to take your machine off site right where you can inhibit that restart and then shut off your machine. Now that machine is going to stay there because nobody can go back and restart it until you reactivate that feature through the app.
00:05:52:02 - 00:06:11:13
Bryan Furnace
So diving in just a little bit further does the does the telematics start to track historical data as far as fuel usage and engine loading? And do you start to get into some of those parameters as well? But before we get into that, I want to take a second to tell you about the sponsor of this video. Equipment dealers want an edge in today's market.
00:06:11:15 - 00:06:43:19
Bryan Furnace
Fusable provides the crucial sales data and market analysis you need to make smarter inventory and sales decisions. Imagine knowing exactly what's selling in your region, understanding emerging trends, and optimizing your stock to meet demand. With Fusable flagship products like EDA data, you're not just reacting to the market, you're anticipating it. Get the advantage at fusable.com/thedirt. Does the telematics start to track historical data as far as fuel usage and engine loading?
00:06:43:19 - 00:06:46:10
Bryan Furnace
And do you start to get into some of those parameters as well?
00:06:46:10 - 00:07:05:11
Bill Holton
So there is, kind of tip of the iceberg on that where you can get in and start to track, you know, how much fuel have you used? How many times have you had the maintenance, the machine? The maintenance log is also available through the seven-inch monitor in the machine itself. That's not telematics related. That's actually on the machine.
00:07:05:11 - 00:07:23:15
Bill Holton
So you've got a couple of options here to be able to get in and record or take a look at when your machine was running. How many hours did it run at the end of the year? When you sit down and you're trying to balance your books on how many times I use this machine, you can go to your telematics, you can see where it was or I know I use it on these jobs.
00:07:23:17 - 00:07:40:07
Bill Holton
I know we did this kind of work with it. And you look at the log record in your machine, oh, I know that we use it for this many hours on this job and go back and kind of checks and balance against what your books say. And, you know, in your head as a contractor, you probably quote some things right off top of your head.
00:07:40:09 - 00:07:50:12
Bill Holton
Well, I think we can do this for X. And now you can go back to the records from the machine and from the telematics and either verify or adjust for the next future job.
00:07:50:18 - 00:08:08:06
Bryan Furnace
You went exactly where I was going to go with that. It is as a small contractor, you know, there's so many times that you may look at a job typing. You go, we make money every time on those jobs. I just I bet it right off the hip because I know exactly where we're going to land. And there's other jobs that you go if those are just not worth it.
00:08:08:08 - 00:08:36:14
Bryan Furnace
And it's not until the end of the year that you're going back through your books that everyone, everyone's kind of doing this on what your fuel burn was and what job it was. And we can and again, yeah, we really make money. And and to me that's the power. That's the true power of telematics is instead of kind of hit firing on that stuff, especially against all of your competitors who are doing the exact same thing, you're able to go back through and go, okay, that was one of those jobs that we thought we made a lot of money on.
00:08:36:14 - 00:08:53:21
Bryan Furnace
And it turns out we did twice as many hours as I thought we did. Every time we had one of those jobs and our fuel burn rate was higher. And and it turns out our margin was actually smaller than this job over here that I thought I didn't make any money on. You're no longer kind of guessing on that stuff like guys have traditionally done.
00:08:53:23 - 00:09:02:12
Bryan Furnace
And so I think that's a lot of the power of the telematics that a lot of small contractors haven't really tapped into, and they're leaving money on the table as a result.
00:09:02:13 - 00:09:10:10
Bill Holton
In your experience with other telematics type programs on other brands and machines, did you have to get into a subscription for this?
00:09:10:12 - 00:09:29:00
Bryan Furnace
So that's a great point. A lot of the telematics packages I'm familiar with, it is a paid subscription to, you know, it's it's one of those things like like buying a car, you get your first year free and then they're going to charge you for the six months, and then they're going to charge you for it. So that means that do you guys have a subscription-based service on that?
00:09:29:01 - 00:09:47:17
Bill Holton
So there is and the way that it works with us, the Kubota now telematics includes three years of service with the purchase of that program. At the end of those three years, the customer can opt out or go down. It's a low rate, about $10 a month or $100 a year to keep all the same features on.
00:09:47:17 - 00:09:48:09
Bryan Furnace
That's nothing.
00:09:48:09 - 00:09:57:19
Bill Holton
So yeah, when you think about what you can get out of it, what it can do for you, I think $100 a year, that's that's really, you know, pretty peanuts.
00:09:57:21 - 00:10:03:20
Bryan Furnace
Absolutely. So are there any other features on these new dash fives that, that you want to highlight the kick.
00:10:03:20 - 00:10:22:09
Bill Holton
KX045 I really like to talk about this one because we've taken the 40-5 is one of our top-selling machines. It's a great rental piece. It's in that category where it's fairly easy to trailer from job site. The job site you're going to spend some hours of each day in that cab or in that ROPS unit.
00:10:22:09 - 00:10:45:08
Bill Holton
Well, if you're in a fully enclosed cab unit number one, you get full climate control. So AC and heat, you get a comfortable operator station ergonomic design to the controls. But while you're in there, you can actually Bluetooth connect your phone to. Now you can listen to your radio, you can listen to your podcast or whatever you like over the satellite stuff, and you can make and take your calls all while sitting in the seat.
00:10:45:10 - 00:10:52:13
Bill Holton
You put the phone in a cup holder. You can plug it in and charge it via the USB port, and you can actually make and take your calls while sitting in the cab.
00:10:52:19 - 00:11:17:07
Bryan Furnace
So this is where I'm going to hold your feet to the fire, because this Bluetooth technology in these machines is not necessarily new, but I will say the making phone calls aspect, it's great being able to listen to music and everything, but the making phone calls aspect has always been the most garbled mess you can ever imagine. And I always end up pulling my phone back out and taking my hand off the controls because it's unusable.
00:11:17:09 - 00:11:21:14
Bryan Furnace
So Bill, how good is the quality of the Bluetooth calling?
00:11:21:16 - 00:11:40:11
Bill Holton
So I have sat in the cab of the machine with it running at full throttle AC on max. I hear my phone ringing. I can stop what I'm doing and it's not any lesser than what we have right now. On this video call. It's equivalent to. I like to call it my wife's 2020 Yukon. It's equivalent to sitting in the car.
00:11:40:12 - 00:11:42:05
Bill Holton
It's a newer car is five years old.
00:11:42:09 - 00:11:42:22
Bryan Furnace
Yeah.
00:11:43:00 - 00:12:01:03
Bill Holton
Excellent sound quality inside. And I get that same quality of sound both in the microphone and the speakers. I get that same quality of sound in that cab of that machine. So I highly recommend that you get your hands on a 45 as soon as you can, and you test that theory out, and then you call me back and let me know how you like it.
00:12:01:07 - 00:12:18:18
Bryan Furnace
Yeah, absolutely. That's huge. That's such a game changer to not have to take your hands off the controls, obviously, especially when going around, people stop the machine, focus on what you're doing. But boy, if I'm just digging a trench through the woods, if I can keep working while I'm chatting on the phone, that is a that's a huge production boost.
00:12:18:20 - 00:12:23:12
Bill Holton
So, Bryan, how much do you get into the larger machines like in that eight-ton category?
00:12:23:14 - 00:12:31:10
Bryan Furnace
So in our particular business, our eight ton is the workhorse of the company. That is one when you take a machine out it is generally going to be that eight-ton class.
00:12:31:12 - 00:12:54:18
Bill Holton
So I consider the KX080-5 the Cadillac of our lineup. Because a lot of these features that you get on these other machines, from our K008, which is our just under one ton machine, all the way up to the full eight-ton category, the 80 comes with all these optional features as standard. So you're automatically getting dual line auxiliary service ports.
00:12:54:20 - 00:13:16:07
Bill Holton
You're automatically getting the seven-inch LCD screen. You automatically get the telematics. You automatically get the rearview camera. The one thing it does not have right now is going to be that Bluetooth Connect ability, where you can make and take those calls, but everything else is in there as standard for this machine. It's a large, roomy cab, big foot pedals, easy to control.
00:13:16:09 - 00:13:22:20
Bill Holton
And you know, those bigger machines? Yeah, they weigh a lot, but they just they balance so well out there on the jobsite.
00:13:22:22 - 00:13:39:06
Bryan Furnace
Those eight tons, they are just the perfect size. It's a small enough footprint. You can get it in most residential lots, but at the same time it's got the umph behind it that if you need to dig a basement, you need to go. You know, we use them for septic fields all the time. Those things will move a lot of dirt for a small footprint.
00:13:39:08 - 00:13:56:05
Bill Holton
Yeah. And you've still got the option of the straight blade or the angle blade there. We don't have the six-way blade option for that machine, but I don't know how much a six way would really benefit you there, because now you're adding extra weight to the machine that you may not necessarily need. But you're on rubber tracks.
00:13:56:07 - 00:14:18:08
Bill Holton
You have the option to go steel tracks or even steel wire tracks. And if you want steel tracks with rubber pads, that's another option as well. So we can add that versatility to that machine. On top of all that, we've engineered design, build, create all our attachments. The majority of our attachments, I should say, are in-house. So they're all performance matched.
00:14:18:08 - 00:14:19:08
Bill Holton
Back to the machine.
00:14:19:14 - 00:14:39:02
Bryan Furnace
I was going to say you nailed it on the head with the versatility. That really sums up those eight-ton class machines. The fact that you can, you know, if you're going to be on turf or dirt all the time, you can go full rubber pads. The fact that if you're going to be on asphalt or pavement, you can switch to steel and then there's that perfect in between with the bolt on rubber pads.
00:14:39:04 - 00:14:56:11
Bryan Furnace
It just gives you so much flexibility. And again, you're in this nice little footprint that will get into most small lot, but you have enough lifting capacity that you can start craning some stuff around. You can throw a bigger bucket on there. You can really hog some material that is the workhorse of our company, and there's a reason for that.
00:14:56:11 - 00:14:58:15
Bryan Furnace
It is just a versatile machine.
00:14:58:17 - 00:15:18:06
Bill Holton
Absolutely. So there's a lot of bonuses here. You know, you've got your five newest generation of the machines. And we've got a whole lineup of those. We've got the seven-inch full color screen inside. You've got the option of a ROPS unit or the enclosed cab unit with full climate control, the comfortable seating, the large floor spaces.
00:15:18:06 - 00:15:34:11
Bill Holton
You can raise the top glass on the dash five machines that have caps. The bottom glass comes out and stows inside the cab with the operator, so you're not having to leave it in the truck. You don't have to worry about it getting cracked on the job site. And then all our telematics. Our full lineup. Is telematics available.
00:15:34:15 - 00:15:40:19
Bill Holton
It doesn't matter if you're a large company or a small company. You could have one machine or ten machines. It's going to be a benefit across the board.
00:15:40:21 - 00:15:54:14
Bryan Furnace
Well, I'm eager to get my butt in one of those seats because in all honesty, you guys have quite the reputation already in the industry with your machines. And it sounds like these are just really great improvements all the way around. So, Bill, thank you so much for the time. And and I'm looking forward to getting in one of these.
00:15:54:16 - 00:16:08:12
Bill Holton
Thanks, Bryan. We couldn't be the number one selling excavator all around the world with 20 years plus running without having good reliability and easy serviceability of plus all the comforts of home in the cab for the operator.
00:16:08:18 - 00:16:23:23
Bryan Furnace
Absolutely. I'm. I'm in total agreement there. So thanks again, Bill. Well, thank you again for Bill coming on the show to discuss the new dash five models from Kubota, the new mini excavators in the lineup there. As always, I hope this helps you and your business. We'll catch you on the next episode of The Dirt.
