A day in the life of a Kubota BX25D

[Cherokee140]

Over 68 hours so far, and the dealer is coming out to the house to do the first service (eh a little late). Did some new things with the tractor over the long weekend. And to all you that could not come back to play in the yard on your weekend thanks, Those of us that came back never forget you guys

Anyway...

Did tons of front loader work....and I imagine it really was tons. Wife had a rose garden she did not want to take care of anymore....so it had to go. I scooped up all the rock, it was about a 50' x 30' section of ground we worked on. It has three round oval things that had three/ four pretty good sized rose bushes built up on raised beds with concrete blocks...kind of part rounded in the front. I would guess about 100+ blocks per raised bed. Then there was a circle in the center that had a water fountain in it. When you get older you find out you want to make your yard more simple to take care of....this was a bit of work to care for. The rose bushes all got/ will get trans planted....It rained on us every day.

The ground was VERY uneven making getting just the rock with the bucket a bit of a chore. I got most of it pretty clean, but to the end I just started taking scoops of dirt as well. Let me tell you guys something that piranha tooth bar is FAN-TASTIC it turns your machine into a digging machine. Full buckets....FULL buckets of wet rocky dirt no problem at all. This is the first time the bucket really got too heavy for it to lift up all the way. I was trying to stack the old dirt pile as high as I could....ended up making a little dirt ramp and rolling up it to keep the pile of bad dirt in the same general area.

Had a few issues.....first the power steering would seem to "give up" for lack of a better word when the bucket was real heavy, is this normal?

Second is a general tractoring question....you guys know I am a noob.

When taking "stuff".....lots of stuff from A to B, you know you get those Lanes.....tracks in the grass where you keep driving to drop off whatever that "stuff" is. It does not take long...even when you have not mowed in a while...to make a real mess of the grass. In general is it better to keep going in the same spots, keeping the damage in the one area, or should you change your route to try to give the grass time to recover.

The small size of the little tractor was really handy in cleaning out this old bed, Lots of small trees I did not want to damage are in the way and you can really get close to them and not hurt them....you can really make the little machine fit into spaces you did not think you could squeeze into.

Anyway if the rain holds off I will be mowing after work today, not sure I will mow with the BX or the 650, Most likely the 650 as it is a little larger but no power steering and the front yard that is getting mowed is about 800' long and about 300' wide....nice long straights so not much turning....more turning the BX gets its deck put on....I have really only mowed with the BX about 4 hours.....I have a long way to go to get my money out of that deck....might should have bought the chipper.

 

[Cherokee140]

Oh and I am getting a different phone today so pick and vids will be coming again. Only other cameras I have are a REAL old PAS and a real nice DLSR...and I am not bouncing my good Nikon around on a tractor. So the phone will give us new pictures. Tonight if it is not raining I will try to remember to take some pics of the area we are working in and the piles of gravel and dirt.

Pics and vids again YEA!

 

[rbarker]

Had a few issues.....first the power steering would seem to "give up" for lack of a better word when the bucket was real heavy, is this normal?

The steering and the loader hydraulics are both using the same pump so I have experienced what could be described as the steering cutting out under a heavy load. In my case it's usually only momentary.

Second is a general tractoring question....you guys know I am a noob. When taking "stuff".....lots of stuff from A to B, you know you get those Lanes.....tracks in the grass where you keep driving to drop off whatever that "stuff" is. It does not take long...even when you have not mowed in a while...to make a real mess of the grass. In general is it better to keep going in the same spots, keeping the damage in the one area, or should you change your route to try to give the grass time to recover.

The times I have done projects like you describe I have taken the same path. My thinking was that I would rather not damage the whole lawn and my experience was that it recovered pretty quickly. But there are a ton of variables to consider such as type of soil, grass type and whether it's well established, how many trips to be made, dry vs. wet weather, etc. I would just keep an eye on it and try not to let it get too bad in any one spot.

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[Cherokee140]

71.? hours now. I needed to mow the front yard, and wanted to give the BX a shot again. I have said before that I think the shorter wheel base makes for a more bumpy ride, but I wanted to try airing down the tires a bit (suggested here) and give it another go. I must say it did make it better, I mowed for about 2hrs and I could still walk and did not have to take a pain pill after getting finished. I also ran into another thing with that stupid roll bar.....and I had the F-ing thing down this time. We have about a 100' dog run on our front yard. It is a long cable that is tied to a tree at one end and to a porch rail at the other end. The little lock nut on the roll bar got tied around the loose cable at the far end and.....you guessed it....I darn near ripped the house down. Well the porch support is just for show but it did pull it loose and damaged the siding on the roof....gotta fix that now. And I was careful, but not careful enough I guess. DRAT...ticks me off but my own fault. You really have to be careful when using even the little machines....they are powerful. I said I was going to put everything in here, and I did mean EVERYTHING....even my own dumb a-- mistakes.

Back to mowing. It was much better with the tires at a much lower pressure. I did not check to see where they sat before, I just let air out then said that should do it....I think I left them at about 15-20lbs....I will have to look at what the book says to air them back up. The power steering was fantastic, and I think one reason I did so much better this time around....easy to turn. I am still not sure what I will use for mowing most of the time. We really have quite a few machines that can mow, Little JD lawn mower 115 I think 48" a Craftsman with a 52" a little ford with a 42" the brush hog with a 5' deck the JD650 with a 60" and now the BX with a 60" The wife and kid usually mow with me, and when the inlaws come out they usually play in the yard as well....actually the FIL bought the little JD mower. I don't HAVE to mow with the BX, but I just wanted to.

Just a quick update....and I will still try to take some photos, I could not last night as a pop-up thunder shower ran us all inside.

Have fun out there.

 

[Mowbizz]

71.? hours now. I needed to mow the front yard, and wanted to give the BX a shot again. I have said before that I think the shorter wheel base makes for a more bumpy ride, but I wanted to try airing down the tires a bit (suggested here) and give it another go. I must say it did make it better, I mowed for about 2hrs and I could still walk and did not have to take a pain pill after getting finished. I also ran into another thing with that stupid roll bar.....and I had the F-ing thing down this time. We have about a 100' dog run on our front yard. It is a long cable that is tied to a tree at one end and to a porch rail at the other end. The little lock nut on the roll bar got tied around the loose cable at the far end and.....you guessed it....I darn near ripped the house down. Well the porch support is just for show but it did pull it loose and damaged the siding on the roof....gotta fix that now. And I was careful, but not careful enough I guess. DRAT...ticks me off but my own fault. You really have to be careful when using even the little machines....they are powerful. I said I was going to put everything in here, and I did mean EVERYTHING....even my own dumb a-- mistakes.


Back to mowing. It was much better with the tires at a much lower pressure. I did not check to see where they sat before, I just let air out then said that should do it....I think I left them at about 15-20lbs....I will have to look at what the book says to air them back up. The power steering was fantastic, and I think one reason I did so much better this time around....easy to turn. I am still not sure what I will use for mowing most of the time. We really have quite a few machines that can mow, Little JD lawn mower 115 I think 48" a Craftsman with a 52" a little ford with a 42" the brush hog with a 5' deck the JD650 with a 60" and now the BX with a 60" The wife and kid usually mow with me, and when the inlaws come out they usually play in the yard as well....actually the FIL bought the little JD mower. I don't HAVE to mow with the BX, but I just wanted to.

Just a quick update....and I will still try to take some photos, I could not last night as a pop-up thunder shower ran us all inside.

Have fun out there.

Man, the hours are piling up! I have 30+ on mine as of today!

 

[Cherokee140]

78 hours IIRC....moving dirt, and I actually took some photos....but left my stupid cell phone at home. I really have a love/hate relationship with that stupid thing.

Anyway moving dirt and gravel....lots of gravel, lots of dirt. I started on rebuilding my range this sunday. Plan is to level the ground on the back side of a pond, build a wall up and pile dirt behind the wall. The backstop will be a "U" shaped affair with a roof to stop the splatter from the metal targets. Last one the metal roof took such a pounding it was full of holes....this time it will be load bearing and have dirt on top....so it will be kind of a cave I am building.

I am amazed at just how much dirt there is in about 4" of rise up to this pond....good greif there has to be tons of dirt. The back side of the "U" is just a tad over 20' and about that long. I had hoped to get a little more done sunday then I did but ended up building a chicken coop (don't ask, but if you must check out the new life thread in rural living).

Rain last night so if I am not out tonight I will try to upload some pics....yea I know you have been told that before.

 

[Cherokee140]

A long time for an update here. I have been on and off the machine as I can....been having a rough couple of weeks.

Machine now has 95hrs and I am still as happy with the machine as I can be.

This is going to be the last cell phone video I hope, just got myself a new camera so you are going to see more videos hopefully. This is just moving some gravel from spot A to spot B. Driving running the loader and holding a camera is a bit rough so if I am on the machine tonight I will hopefully have the new camera figured out.

I might try to mow again with the tractor again. I don't want to give up on it. Perhaps the first video from the new camera will be me cussing out the machine for putting on the deck.....On another forum I let an F-bomb out while doing something and my video got flagged.....I will try to control the language....or perhaps dub in some unicorns farting rainbows or something.

On to the last cell phone video.

 

[rbarker]

A long time for an update here. I have been on and off the machine as I can....been having a rough couple of weeks. Machine now has 95hrs and I am still as happy with the machine as I can be. This is going to be the last cell phone video I hope, just got myself a new camera so you are going to see more videos hopefully. This is just moving some gravel from spot A to spot B. Driving running the loader and holding a camera is a bit rough so if I am on the machine tonight I will hopefully have the new camera figured out. I might try to mow again with the tractor again. I don't want to give up on it. Perhaps the first video from the new camera will be me cussing out the machine for putting on the deck.....On another forum I let an F-bomb out while doing something and my video got flagged.....I will try to control the language....or perhaps dub in some unicorns farting rainbows or something. On to the last cell phone video. YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzP7nUGp_Jo

LOL this forum doesn't take to kindly to the F-bomb either. Still a great place to come and share your tractor experiences though.

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[dragoneggs]

Yeah agreed but sometimes real life causes the proverbial F bomb. If in context and we are all adults... I can see it as appropriate. I say this at the same time I try to keep my mouth clean and endeavor to raise my clan with the same sentiment.

 

[madmax12]

A long time for an update here. I have been on and off the machine as I can....been having a rough couple of weeks.

Machine now has 95hrs and I am still as happy with the machine as I can be.

This is going to be the last cell phone video I hope, just got myself a new camera so you are going to see more videos hopefully. This is just moving some gravel from spot A to spot B. Driving running the loader and holding a camera is a bit rough so if I am on the machine tonight I will hopefully have the new camera figured out.

I might try to mow again with the tractor again. I don't want to give up on it. Perhaps the first video from the new camera will be me cussing out the machine for putting on the deck.....On another forum I let an F-bomb out while doing something and my video got flagged.....I will try to control the language....or perhaps dub in some unicorns farting rainbows or something.

On to the last cell phone video.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzP7nUGp_Jo

LOL this forum doesn't take to kindly to the F-bomb either. Still a great place to come and share your tractor experiences though.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

Yeah agreed but sometimes real life causes the proverbial F bomb. If in context and we are all adults... I can see it as appropriate. I say this at the same time I try to keep my mouth clean and endeavor to raise my clan with the same sentiment.

I hear foul language everyday at work and occasional slips from neighbors. I prefer not to hear it on purpose. So I appreciate when someone makes clear that it is present in their video. I like to show my kids some of the videos, too.

A heads up about it, is kind of like a movie rating. Then it is up to me to be ready for it.