A day in the life of a Kubota BX25D

Cherokee140 · Mar 21, 2014

I also wanted to put in another post with a few photos showing the old girl the orange one replaced. She is old and has some problems, but she still wants to work hard. Going to try to take care of some of her issues. (the tractor not the wife)

polarred21 · Mar 21, 2014

That ratchet rake is one wicked looking piece of equipment, first I've seen. I can see where it really does a good job on that small brush.

I wonder how this compares to a tooth bar like the pirahna? The tooth bars I've seen bolt on the sides and seems like if you pulled backwards like you are doing here with the rake that it would flex off the bucket in the middle...

Again, nice review.

robertm · Mar 21, 2014

polarred21 said:
That ratchet rake is one wicked looking piece of equipment, first I've seen. I can see where it really does a good job on that small brush. I wonder how this compares to a tooth bar like the pirahna? The tooth bars I've seen bolt on the sides and seems like if you pulled backwards like you are doing here with the rake that it would flex off the bucket in the middle... Again, nice review.

You don't get flex in the middle with a good toothbar. My toothbar from H&H is solid. I bet it weights 75 pounds and is tough. If I go to a 50" bucket on a B2620, I'll add spacers and keep using it. What's nice is a toothbar allows you to dig. That ratchet rake you can only push in so far before the 90-degree rake creates resistance.

Cherokee140 · Mar 21, 2014

That is why I went with the Ratchet rake and not the other tooth bar. It is bent at a 90 so you have teeth that point out of the bottom of the bucket. On the teeth IIRC they are cut so they don't cut the same space....If you put the bucket in such a way that the tip is on the ground and drag back you get a nice contact where it will pull out trees. Also on the driveway (sorry I did not video that) you leave the bucket flat like you are going to scoop up something and just go forward slow....the teeth move the gravel out and make good looking lines in your driveway. On the thicker stuff it will overflow into the bucket so you do get a little build up in there....but you can then dump that in the lower places.

There is NO WAY you are going to dig with this thing on.....but it is so simple to put on and take off....the ratchet straps make is super easy....takes longer to get on and off the tractor.

I can see a tooth bar having its place but I think this is really a different tool.

snpower · Mar 21, 2014

The HST fan on his unit (and mine) appears to be better protected with a factory shield. Not as robust as BxPanded's product, but I sent to change the rear fuel filter recently and it looks like it provided decent protection.

Cherokee140 · Mar 24, 2014

20hours and counting.

Did some more rake work. Getting a little better feel for it, the real small saplings are just too thin and springy to come up with the rake pull out...drat. From pinky finger size and up no problem, but the little thin twigs that come up no luck.

Sorry no pictures I really went out to cut some more barbed wire out of the fence...did about another 50' or so and while I had the tractor out I just scraped for about an hour.

Pretty short update, but ever thing is still going.

smitesmash · Mar 24, 2014

Cherokee140 said:
I also wanted to put in another post with a few photos showing the old girl the orange one replaced. She is old and has some problems, but she still wants to work hard. Going to try to take care of some of her issues. (the tractor not the wife)

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Makes me miss my old JD650. I'm kinda wishing id kept it when I got my new one.

Cherokee140 · Mar 24, 2014

smitesmash said:
Makes me miss my old JD650. I'm kinda wishing id kept it when I got my new one.

I REALLY like that tractor....it does have an overheating issue when under load, and the front PTO has shelled....so no MMM anymore. But I do have a soft spot for that machine. I plan on doing a little body work to it and cleaning it up a bit....I was going to sell it but changed my mind.

Cherokee140 · Mar 31, 2014

Well a few days have gone by and I have been lazy about updating....so several days in one post.

Machine now has 24'ish hours on it and all is well so far. Had to put new tires on the kids Firebird so the bug pan had to come out of the shop. Having a little tractor to go into my shop hook onto the pan on the bug and pull it out was great. What normally is a boy and man job was now just a broken down man and tractor job. Made life SO EASY. Then went to pulling out grape vine, and brush from along the tree line. Some old hedge posts just refused to budge so I had to dig those out....good god whoever put those things in there did not want them to EVER come out. I bet they are all 4-5' in the ground with another 4 feet above ground. All old hedge....that stuff sure does hold up well...it has been at least 30 years that my place was last farmed....and had cattle on it. Back part of my land still is a moon scape from the foot prints, but that is a project for later on down the line. On to grape vines....these things are everywhere, and some of them very thick. Think tarzan vines....they are that thick and will easy hold your weight...but chomp them in the mouth of the tractor and they USUALLY come out. This is one area where a larger more heavy machine would have been handy....the vines would actually pull the front of the machine off the ground while I was pulling them out of the tree....then as it would let go the front wheels would come back down. If I would go real slow I could keep the wheels on the ground...play with the angle of the grapple on the front arms I kept the front wheels close to the ground...but a heavy machine would have been faster. But so far that is the only time I would say a larger machine would have made the project go any better....I will also toss in a few photos of the new back shoes for the tractor.

What is in the arms of the grapple are grape vines, not brush or tree parts....grape vines.

Anyway on to the photos.