BX-25 step

[Gcorron]

I have severe arthritis. That's not nearly as much fun as it sounds!

I take the mower off my tractor during the winter because we do get snows over 12" (OK, not this year, but who knew?) and the mower would be a major impediment. I have a lot of pain stepping up to the tractor floor from the ground, and because of that, avoid using it, and that's just not right!

I made a fairly simple step to ease up on this heinous, non-tractor using, condition. My neighbor thought I should post it in case some other poor crip would like to copy. It's reasonably simple, hey, I'm a simple guy, and I can get affadavits.

If you had to buy the material, a piece of 1" angle, 1/8" thick X 24" long would do it. Lucky me, as a major junk collector, I had an old bedframe rusting behind the shop and repurposed that, I'm frugal, not a cheap old bas@#$d like my wife claims!

Hope all the attachments loaded as intended.

If this can help someone, I have achieved my goal!!

George AF4JH

 

[Code54]

Looks good and sounds like it is a very valuable addition for you. Great use of old material!

 

[milkman]

Thanks for posting, I need a step like that on the passenger side of the RTV for the wife. Nice project.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Do you have to remove it when you install the belly mower?

 

[Gcorron]

Yes, the step has to come off when the belly mower is on.

I went through several options to install a step, including one that hangs. The hanging one would twist the frame too much for my liking, and it was difficult to make it nearly as strong. Anything you put together like that and was not bolted would be subject to vibrating off not to mention the vibratory noise.

This iteration puts the least stress on the frame of the 2 or 3 cardboard mockups I did.

So I settled on what you see, a minute with a 9/16" socket removes it, and puts it on. That was the best compromise I could make without some very elaborate set up. Like I said, the KISS principle was my goal!

It's made my tractor time much better. You don't feel like using the tractor when getting on/off yields a lot of pain.

I hope this helps somebody, I figure I'm NOT the only arthritic old so and so out here!