Buying Advice Is the BX2380 capable of doing what I need v. Land prep for seeding

[darrylgmc]

My soil jar test finally settled.

Im seeing the following percentages:
Sand:50%
Silt:37%
Clay:13%

So this puts me in the "loam" category.

I'm going to perform this test in a few more locations, but if they all come up loam, I don't see a need for top soil. Thoughts on that logic?

 

[darrylgmc]

How well do you think the bucket spade would handle rocky soil?

I used my Bucket Spade on B3300SU bucket for several years without difficulty, however prudence is advised. I am age 70 and prudence comes naturally at this stage. I believe B3300SU and L2501 have identical buckets. Bucket Spade should be fine in the soil you photographed, if the soil is moist, rather than dry.

A quick search shows I can get a bare L2501 for under $10k (minus shipping cost).
I suggest you outfit L2501 appropriately considering you have a multi-year project.

I suspect I would need 4wd if I wish to plow/snowblow? YES, indubitably.

Is HST necessary? With HST you get a contemporary PTO. The resale on a clutch and gear L2501, with old style PTO, would be ZIP. Clutch rebuilds are $1,200 per each. Kubota HST transmissions are bullet proof. The HST is three range.

L2501 HST LINK: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...523-warning-those-considering-gear-drive.html

Which front loader package do I want? There is only one; LA534A.
Is the 2 lever style the same as the SSQA? YES.

HERE ARE MY KIT SUGGESTIONS:

L2501/HST + 4-WD.

FEL with SSQA and standard bucket. (May be all you need for moving snow.)
Aftermarket Ratchet Rake bucket attachment. Aftermarket Bucket Spade.

R4/industrial tires. + Aftermarket tire chains.

Telescoping Lower Link Stabilizers

Kubota Rear/Center Drawbar. + Aftermarket Clevis Grab Hook.

Cruise Control

KTAC Insurance

(MAYBE Folding ROPS.) (MAYBE GRILL GUARD)

Around $22,000 MSRP - 10% = $19,800 tractor consumer cost (plus aftermarket options)


Ag and Forestry equipment is sales tax exempt in Florida. Ask your dealer about sales tax in NY.

Thank you, Jeff you've been extremely helpful.

I am still a bit confused about the loader packages. When I go to the kubota build sheet, there are 2 options. See the confusing amalgam of pictures below (sorry, kubota's website won't allow both options open simultaneously, so I had to mspaint things together)

you can see when option 1 loader is chosen, the "square back bucket" option is grayed out, and option 2 is chosen the "quick coupler" is grayed out.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE: As I have one, naturally I am biased toward the BXs. Mine is a 25, 2011 vintage, with 1500 hours on it, mostly doing a lot of what you contemplate. Its small size is an advantage when working in tight spaces.If time is your enemy then get a bigger one, but you mention a multi year project, so! No matter what you get be sure to add a tooth bar on the FEL, makes a non-digger into a digger. I made mine; more agressive than you can buy. After the warranty expires raise the HYD pressure to 2000#, huge difference. Most projects I never get over 2200 RPM and have plenty of power. Wide open the BXs tend to get a little jerky, especially the BH. If you are doing irrigation, digging out trees and stumps and bigger rocks, planting trees you will kick your self if you do not have the BH. Thought I would never need it but it now gets used a lot. When you have it you will find misc things to do with it like moving tree logs and big rocks. I would definitely use my BX for your type projects as I am not in a hurry. Get 4 forks for the bucket and you will be amazed at how much brush and limbs you can pickup and haul.

Bite the bullet on the top soil. Subdivisions around here scalp the top soil as it has high value. The county makes them add amendments to the sandy/rocky soil before planting as a lawn in the front yard is a required item for final inspection. The requirement is for a 2" base of amended soil. The grass never gets looking nice as the root is too shallow and it never gets to be a lush sod. Even sod has to have a good top soil base or it will also fail as the roots have nowhere to go in that sand. As mentioned before rocks will keep on coming up if you till so don't bother, especially around the trees and stuff as you will damage the roots and be continually be unwinding them from the tiller tines. There are some good ideas in the previous posts just temperate the wheat from the chaff. At my last place I had a huge garden plot that had a lot of humus to begin with, about 6" on top of that sandy/rocky sub-grade. The rocks had migrated up into it. Over 8 years I tilled and tilled it added another 4" of compost tilled in, great garden soil. Every time I tilled I dug up more rocks. I made a path down the center of the garden with the rocks; 6' wide 80' long and 6" deep at the end of the 8 years when I sold out. Rocks! Rocks! you never get rid of them. I probably dug 500' of trenches for various water, power, comm lines, storm drains, and sewre drains in making improvements to the property.

Sorry about the long winded story but trying to give you info to help decision making. The new BX23S has a lot of improvements, around here you can buy one for between 17,000 and 20,000 depending on add-ons. Definetly get the KTAC insurance, they did a damage claim for me to the tune of $8K that had nothing to do with the machine size or overloading it.

Ron

 

[check]

THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE: As I have one, naturally I am biased toward the BXs. Mine is a 25, 2011 vintage, with 1500 hours on it, mostly doing a lot of what you contemplate. Its small size is an advantage when working in tight spaces.If time is your enemy then get a bigger one, but you mention a multi year project, so! No matter what you get be sure to add a tooth bar on the FEL, makes a non-digger into a digger. I made mine; more agressive than you can buy. After the warranty expires raise the HYD pressure to 2000#, huge difference. Most projects I never get over 2200 RPM and have plenty of power. Wide open the BXs tend to get a little jerky, especially the BH. If you are doing irrigation, digging out trees and stumps and bigger rocks, planting trees you will kick your self if you do not have the BH. Thought I would never need it but it now gets used a lot. When you have it you will find misc things to do with it like moving tree logs and big rocks. I would definitely use my BX for your type projects as I am not in a hurry. Get 4 forks for the bucket and you will be amazed at how much brush and limbs you can pickup and haul. Bite the bullet on the top soil. Subdivisions around here scalp the top soil as it has high value. The county makes them add amendments to the sandy/rocky soil before planting as a lawn in the front yard is a required item for final inspection. The requirement is for a 2" base of amended soil. The grass never gets looking nice as the root is too shallow and it never gets to be a lush sod. Even sod has to have a good top soil base or it will also fail as the roots have nowhere to go in that sand. As mentioned before rocks will keep on coming up if you till so don't bother, especially around the trees and stuff as you will damage the roots and be continually be unwinding them from the tiller tines. There are some good ideas in the previous posts just temperate the wheat from the chaff. At my last place I had a huge garden plot that had a lot of humus to begin with, about 6" on top of that sandy/rocky sub-grade. The rocks had migrated up into it. Over 8 years I tilled and tilled it added another 4" of compost tilled in, great garden soil. Every time I tilled I dug up more rocks. I made a path down the center of the garden with the rocks; 6' wide 80' long and 6" deep at the end of the 8 years when I sold out. Rocks! Rocks! you never get rid of them. I probably dug 500' of trenches for various water, power, comm lines, storm drains, and sewre drains in making improvements to the property. Sorry about the long winded story but trying to give you info to help decision making. The new BX23S has a lot of improvements, around here you can buy one for between 17,000 and 20,000 depending on add-ons. Definetly get the KTAC insurance, they did a damage claim for me to the tune of $8K that had nothing to do with the machine size or overloading it. Ron

Another voice of experience, with ownership if a BX25 since 2008. A lovely machine, and I use it on two properties, one of which is 25 acres and one of which is 3/4 of an acre.

Ryan, I am very interested in the fact that you bumped up the pressure to 2000. I measured mine and it was exactly on spec at 1700. But I am paranoid about bumping it up that high. Has anyone else done this, and has anyone had any holes bursting or other problems? If not I think I'm going to do the same as Ron. And Ron, did you happen to measure or notice how much your lift capacity increased on the FEL? And how about the effects on the front tires and front suspension?

 

[Tractor Dell]

Another voice of experience, with ownership if a BX25 since 2008. A lovely machine, and I use it on two properties, one of which is 25 acres and one of which is 3/4 of an acre.

Ryan, I am very interested in the fact that you bumped up the pressure to 2000. I measured mine and it was exactly on spec at 1700. But I am paranoid about bumping it up that high. Has anyone else done this, and has anyone had any holes bursting or other problems? If not I think I'm going to do the same as Ron. And Ron, did you happen to measure or notice how much your lift capacity increased on the FEL? And how about the effects on the front tires and front suspension?

I bumped my BX23S up to 1950 and I have had no issues at all. I am using mine to dig out stumps and move some nice size rocks. You can tell the difference. Mine started at 1800 at idle and 1850 at 2200 RPM. Now it is 1900 at idle and 1950 at 2200 RPM. If you look at youtube, or on this forum, you will find a lot of guys do it. As long as you do not go over 2000, you will be fine. I actually have an older post on here where I built my own pressure tester and got some shims from Messick's. It is very easy to do.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Another voice of experience, with ownership if a BX25 since 2008. A lovely machine, and I use it on two properties, one of which is 25 acres and one of which is 3/4 of an acre.

Ryan, I am very interested in the fact that you bumped up the pressure to 2000. I measured mine and it was exactly on spec at 1700. But I am paranoid about bumping it up that high. Has anyone else done this, and has anyone had any holes bursting or other problems? If not I think I'm going to do the same as Ron. And Ron, did you happen to measure or notice how much your lift capacity increased on the FEL? And how about the effects on the front tires and front suspension?

I did not really measure the added capacity but stuff I could not lift before I can now lift, like a 6" chipper. No apparent problems except maybe it causes the BH to be kinda jerky at wide open throttle. I have put 1300 Hrs on since the bump up. I pretty much stay around 2000-2200 RPM. Seems lifting capacity does not change after 2200 RPM.. If you have the WSM, recommend it highly, it will show you the procedure for the shim add. I made a pressure tester with a tee, guage and M & F QCs from Surplus Center. Just put it in the P line at the BH hookup.

Ron

 

[jeff9366]

Thank you, Jeff you've been extremely helpful.

I am still a bit confused about the loader packages. When I go to the kubota build sheet, there are 2 options.

My consultant's invoice will show how aware I am of being helpful. Double time today; its a holiday.



One FEL, LA525; two bucket options: 1) standard and 2) light materials bucket.

SSQA is a separate option.

This stuff is only confusing the first one hundred times you study it.
Increasing your consumption of rice may speed cognition.

Are you over $10,000 yet?

 

[jeff9366]

During my working years I was in sales and marketing.

It is an adage in marketing: ANTICIPATION IS 50% OF SATISFACTION.

 

[jeff9366]

good catch. I was looking at the tractor's hydraulic spec "Lift capacity at lift points: 1918 lbs", not the FEL's capacity.

Enough for me to move trees, but not enough to move my pallets of brick.

Know that pallet forks are available for the Three Point Hitch at the rear.
LINK: King Kutter Tractor 3 point hitch Pallet Mover pallet fork attachment

L2501 Three Point Hitch lift capacity 24" behind eyes (center of a 48" pallet) 1,389 pounds, including weight of forks.

If your ground is flat, you can drag your pallet of bricks a reasonable distance using is 1/4" or 5/16" Grade 70 chain attached to tractor rear/center drawbar. The oversize rear wheels provide tremendous mechanical advantage when pulling any type of load. (1/4" Grade 70 chain would be my choice.)

Some buy the engine hood of an old car at a salvage yard, using the hood as a sled to pull heavy boulders or other heavy stuff.

 

[check]

I did not really measure the added capacity but stuff I could not lift before I can now lift, like a 6" chipper. No apparent problems except maybe it causes the BH to be kinda jerky at wide open throttle. I have put 1300 Hrs on since the bump up. I pretty much stay around 2000-2200 RPM. Seems lifting capacity does not change after 2200 RPM.. If you have the WSM, recommend it highly, it will show you the procedure for the shim add. I made a pressure tester with a tee, guage and M & F QCs from Surplus Center. Just put it in the P line at the BH hookup. Ron

Thanks, Ron. Actually, I already have the bxpanded.com kit (complete with shims), so I can do it myself. Given the feedback here, I think I will go ahead and do it - maybe set it at 1900.