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In honor of Labor Day here in these United States, I want to celebrate an innovation meant to make our workload just a little bit lighter. (And don’t worry; I’m not actually working today. I scheduled this story to publish well in advance of this beloved holiday.) It’s a Kubota tractor from the 1980s that you could operate yourself, but didn’t have to. That’s because it was remote-controlled, with all kinds of computer wizardry onboard that seemed especially futuristic to farmers who’d only ever heard of Star Wars but never watched it.
Kubota called it the PX-2100, and while you can learn a lot about the machine by looking at it, the tractor’s history isn’t especially well-documented. What’s for sure is that it was loaded with tech you wouldn’t find on many other machines at the time. Yes, the RC functionality is the headliner, but it also had four-wheel steering and crab-walk ability. All this was managed via fly-by-wire rather than a physical connection between the funky-looking steering yoke and the wheels.
The remote control supposedly had a 100-meter range. Messick’s Farm Equipment
An electronic control box sits below the seat, and as someone who’s intimidated by almost every wiring job, it looks like a real headache under the lid. I’m perfectly content observing it from afar, thank you. But on a more informative note, that’s the effective hub that manages the Kubota’s network of systems that were admittedly too complex for the time. If you thought farmers cared about repairability now, imagine the attitude toward newfangled contraptions like this some 40 years ago.
The 20-horsepower, three-cylinder engine was nothing special. However, it does feature a hydrostatic transmission, which wasn’t super common on compact tractors at the time.
Kubota apparently marketed the PX-2100 to governments and municipalities as a solution for mowing in tricky spots. It was paired with a PTO-driven mower deck that was rightly sized for roadside ditches and so on. Surely, owners could have adapted it to whatever their use case was, but it wasn’t all that powerful. Big jobs, then, were out of the question. There was also the $22,000 starting price, which equates to nearly $75,000 in today’s money.
Not much else is known about these rigs, as Neil Messick of Messick’s Farm Equipment explains in this video uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel. He’s a farm machinery specialist who’s obviously passionate about ag history. Messick points out that this tractor came to life when Kubota was still new to the U.S. market, long before becoming a household name. He wants to restore it so he can display it in his showroom, and if you know anything about the PX-2100, you should shoot him a note.
Super Rare Kubota Tractor from the 1980s
The only other information I see comes from this video uploaded by B&T MacFarlane Equipment back in 2022. That machine wears serial number one, and it was fully restored. Hopefully, Messick’s will be able to source the parts necessary to do the same with its PX-2100.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com
From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.
