Price for 205

   / Price for 205 #1  

Hiptfarms

Gold Member
Joined
May 23, 2013
Messages
303
Location
Fairfield County, SC
Tractor
Kubota M6800 with BH FEL, Kubota L4400 HST with FEL, Polaris Ranger, BCS 720
Help please! I'm going to look at an old 205 (with sickle bar mower only) tomorrow. The guy said his grandfather bought it new in 1992. It runs only with the throttle maxed out- wont idle at lower settings. It's a 6 hp engine so I guess acme or bcs engine. They want 450 but I think that's a bit steep. What do you guys think?
 
   / Price for 205 #2  
If it were a very good running machine, I'd say it is worth $450. As they're selling it, more like $250. With the engine only running at full throttle, it is unusable. The sickle mower will be shook to death running it that way. The engine mightcould be a briggs as well. My first BCS was a 205 with a briggs engine. They're good units, but were made for a lower price point to compete with lower quality brands. There are no factory made adapters for other series attachments. If you want a tiller you MUST buy a 200 series tiller. They had a tiller, sickle mower, 22" lawn mower, and snowblower attachments only.
 
   / Price for 205
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks for the info. How common do you think it is to find the 200 series tiller attachments? Wondering if i would be better off waiting on a newer model or even considering a Gravely. I saw a 1960s model listed as a LA (8? Maybe?) With several attachments- a brush mower, sickle, tiller, and sulky for 600.00.

This BCS is the first I've seen for sale in the area and I've been looking for about 7 months.
 
   / Price for 205 #4  
I wouldn't call them rare, but they can be hard to find when you're looking for them. I looked for a snowblower for 5 years before I gave up and bought a 715 with tiller and snowblower for $750 off fleabay. The 200 series were good for what they were, but support is slim to none. About the only dealer to go to for info and parts is Earth Tools. You may be best to wait for a 700 series.
 
   / Price for 205 #5  
The last new 205 was made in 1994 and, as mentioned, all 200 series tractors only use 200 series attachments which are getting harder to come by all the time.
 
   / Price for 205
  • Thread Starter
#6  
The guy who owns it and I couldn't come to an agreement on price so I'm waiting on another BCS to come up for sale. It's just as well cause when I went to look at it he demonstrated it by slamming the cutter bar into a 7' tall oak sapling about one inch in diameter! Not exactly gentle treatment of the old machine. That demonstration actually split off half of one of the cutting teeth. I hope one shows up in the area soon or I might go get that old Gravely.
 
   / Price for 205 #7  
You may have to expand your search area. BCS machines are only sold when the owner dies or loses interest in gardening. Most are kept a Loooooooong time. I've driven 6 hours to the twin cities to buy them, and have had them shipped from Washington state, Maryland, Texas, etc. I haven't recently because i quit the job i was working back then. The company I worked for had a national account with FedEx and it was crazy how cheap I could get a machine from California to Wisconsin.
 
   / Price for 205 #8  
The BCS 205 with either the 5hp BCS branded engine or the 6hp Acme A220B engine should run at all speeds after a thorough cleaning of the carburetor. Parts or the carburetor are a bit expensive but we sell many of them. Cleaning a carburetor with cold parts cleaner from Gunk and a good acetone based spray cleaner takes time but is usually effective. Used tiller attachments show up on ebay several times a year.
Personally I'd prefer to find a good used BCS 710 with a Honda engine. There are lots of them out there and most current attachments bolt right on. I got one for free when the rental shop could make the engine run and the tiller transmission was stripped from them mounting the rental tines backwards. I now have about $160 in it and it is our loaner unit.
 
   / Price for 205 #9  
They also sold the 205 with a 5 hp Briggs at the end of their run.

Unless someone is just tilling, they should stay away from the 710. It only has a single speed forward and reverse. Even tilling, one is better off with two speed options - one for breaking ground and one for faster finish work or cultivating They were fine for a rental fleet, but lack greatly for someone using them for multiple attachments. The 715, 725, 720, or 730 are much more useable units with 2 or more (the 725 has 4 in tiller mode and 2 in mower mode, but the 715 only has one in mower mode) working speeds forward and back, plus a transport speed in tiller mode. They can be had for good prices.
 
 
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