B2X20 mowing survey

[ChuckinNH]

OK, I have a B2620, and because of some medical issues, I've been thinking about mowing with it. The deck on my garden tractor works well, but is difficult to R/R, and maintain the way I like to. So, here are the questions for those of you that do mow with this size tractor.
What tires do you have?
Do you find the drive over deck easy, or easier than other decks you have used to R/R, and maintain?
Is it a real pain to mow around obstacles?
Overall, what kind of review would you give this combination?
What size deck do you have, 54", or 60"?

I had thought about going to another mowing / garden tractor, and I can see an increase in manuverability over what I have ( a 10 yr old Simplicity Legacy) with some of them, but most look even harder to install the deck on. (Mine has the PTO shaft up front where it is pretty easy to reach. I've also thought about a BX to go with my B for just mowning, and snowblowing........... but I don't know that those decks are easier to handle either. I've also thought about a RFM, but I have MANY obstacles. ZTR's look good, but I need to be able to handle a trailer for wood chips from my chipper, and a hundred other things. Hard to pull a trailer with something usually mounted on the back of my B. Any input would really be appreciated. I mow just over 3 acres on a regular basis.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Don't know what R/R is. It will come to me as soon as I hit submit reply. Beautiful property.
I had a B7800 and used a cheap $1200 6' RFM with it and it kept tearing up so Barlows gave me my $1200 back for it on the purchase of a $1700 6' Landpride. I have fairly steep hills and the Landpride would sort of swing the tractor at the bottom of the hill when I turned, it was/is heavy. It's still here waiting on Barlows to pick it up or me take it by when I go that way with my trailer. I loved the RFM for ease of service, attaching and unhooking. The only issue was remembering that with FEL and 6' deck I was pretty long and just had to remember that. It has the rear discharge which I like how it lays the grass down spread out instead of rowed because I some times waited a while before mowing, got pretty high sometimes.
Your tractor will handle a deck like this one or this one since Barlows has it for sale.
In my opinion, keep your other mower for around the house trimming and add a RFM to your B.
I had R/I4's on my B's and now on my BX25, turfs on mowing BX's and F.

 

[radioman]

R/R ? not sure what that is either. remove/reinstall maybe? Like I said before- a BX MMM is easy but hard part is coupling the shaft. for someone who can't lift/push, crawl, I wouldn't recommend the MMM unless its a drive over type like john deer has. I can see your concerns with RFM, but its so much easier to hook, disconnect on a larger tractor like yours. My father has RFM on his MF1250 and use it regularly to mow . He does have a JD lawn tractor for smaller places though.

getting a BX just for mowing and snowblowing does sound attractive. As for size, 60 inch is easier to mow around trees, flower bed, etc due to less turning.

 

[KU Gator]

Hi Chuck,

I think I have emailed you on this, but will chime in again:

What tires do you have? - R4's. You know the drill, try not to mow when the ground is too wet, watch the turns, and keep it out of 4wd and it does ok about not chewing up the grass.
Do you find the drive over deck easy, or easier than other decks you have used to R/R, and maintain? - It is pretty easy. You lower the wheels to minimum before removing it. Put the tractor in 4wd and ease it over. Comes off really easy. In putting it back on, the front is easy. The back is easy enough, just a matter of getting those lower control linkages lined up. Most difficult is reaching under there to hook up the PTO. Not that hard, but you are reaching from the side or laying on your back under neath.
Is it a real pain to mow around obstacles? It is very easy to mow around things. I think easier than using my JD GT245 because with the garden tractor when you back up, it disengages the mower. Not so with the Kubota. Biggest issue goes back to watching that tight steering on damp grass doesn't tear it up.
Overall, what kind of review would you give this combination? I think it does a good job, at least as good as the garden tractor. It is more comfortable to operate.
What size deck do you have, 54", or 60"? I have the 60"

You can lock the mower deck in the up position, so you have a fair amount of clearance. I used the tractor Sat to pull a trailer with a bunch of trees around to decide where we wanted to plant them and just left the deck on. But if I was going to do something like use the box blade, I tend to take it off and it is easy enough that I don't think much about it.

I take the FEL off to mow. I know you have the QA on yours, that that may me enough, but I worry to much about running the bucket into something especially when backing up.

There is always this debate on stability. Personally I wouldn't be likely to take the garden tractor into anywhere that I wouldn't take the B.

I have had no trouble with the deck. I use it some of the time at our house and often on our other property where I mow about 6 acres.

 

[dodge man]

I have a BX and use it to mow with a 60" deck. Its a great mower, but the deck is really heavy. I have lifted it up on the storage wheels myself but its really heavy. I have just jacked the BX with a floor jack and taken the blades off to sharpen them. To take the deck on and off isn't really that hard or physically demanding, just akward. It takes 5 minutes on a good day, 10 minutes on a bad day.

 

[Tom_H]

I have a 60" on my BX. My MMM dolly makes it a cinch. The lighter 54" on the taller B should make R/R even easier. With the taller tractor, you could use bigger casters than I have on my dolly and you would find it amazingly easy. If you can't find the pics and description of my MMM dolly by searching the Kubota & Attachment archives, let me know & I'll find links.

I thought I wanted a NH with super-steer to get around obstacles, but that unbalances FEL loads. Just rocking back & forth on the pedal with HST, while changing the steering R/L @ the same time makes it quick & easy to mow around obstacles.

If I had the money, I'd buy the biggest F or ZTR I could for mowing and get a full sized UT for FEL, BH, brush hogging, etc. work. As it is, the BX is not the best at any one job, BUT it does get every job done at the most affordable price. For your medical situation with your tractor, the 54" MMM and a good dolly would serve you well. As for 3 acres of lawn mowing, that's a lot of time. You could go with a bigger deck to mow faster, but it's a tad more weight to maneuver @ R/R. If you don't have too many obstacles and the grass isn't too dense, could a gang-reel mower be feisable? That cuts more area faster.

 

[ChuckinNH]

R/R is remove, and replace. Mowing speed isn't a big issue since it is partly therapy, and I don't have to do it all at once. I appreciate all the input I'm getting here, and am open to any more folks might have. Yes, I have brought this up before, but my Yankee justification system rusted pretty bad over the winter, and I need it oiled. The commercial grade mower deck on my Simplicity weighs about 300# I guess, so the weight of these other mowers is about the same. The full width roller on the back of my deck makes it a bit tougher to slide. There are no hinged covers, grease fittings are underneath, etc. These days John Deere, and Simplicity use the same transaxle on the X700, and Legacy XL lines so the pto is in the same place on both, and very similar to the BX series. Nice thing about my Simplicity is that the cooling fan is high in the rear behind the seat. It is out of the way there, and cools you off when you are hitching up trailers, etc. Lets see, since I was supposed to be dead over a year ago, maybe I should just buy a ZD series to mow, a 4 wheeler to pull wagons, and a larger tractor to dig, and do serious play with. Yea, that's the ticket!

 

[Doug_D]

Without question, I would get a front mount mower. Any of kubota's F series would be fine. New holland makes a nice one too.

When you get into the F series type of mowers, you're in a different class of mowers all together. They are not your mower boy's fast $12k ZTR, but more along the lines of industrial mowing. Often times these mowers are small tractors turned around with the 540 PTO hanging off the front and the steer tires on the back (drive tires on front). If I am not mistaken my F series mower is a BX2200 tractor. The mower decks are very heavy steel, gear boxes rebuilt-able, spindles are rebuilt-able and use grease (not sealed).

They are not quite zero turn but 12" turn radius. I have no problems mowing in stripes (back and forth) if I desire.

The power of the machine is fantastic. I've use mine to pull my 16' trailer (empty of course), hay rake ( new holland 256), and 5' wide lawn roller while mowing.

Mowing 12" tall grass is not a problem.

Speed is not a problem either. I find the mower can mow faster then I care to go.

Again, this is not your average mower. I graduated from a very expensive ZTR I kept tearing up.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[PUSHINDIRT]

I have a 60" MMM for my 2920, it is pretty easy to R/R, 15 min at most. The cut is excellent even in deep thick grass/ brush. I have no complaints so far it is a quality piece of equipment and made really well. It is easy to mow around tree's and on hills as long as your rear's are filled. The plastic shoot discharge bends and flexes enough when you hit immovable objects (tree's). Good Luck!

 

[TripleR]

R/R is remove, and replace. Mowing speed isn't a big issue since it is partly therapy, and I don't have to do it all at once. I appreciate all the input I'm getting here, and am open to any more folks might have. Yes, I have brought this up before, but my Yankee justification system rusted pretty bad over the winter, and I need it oiled. The commercial grade mower deck on my Simplicity weighs about 300# I guess, so the weight of these other mowers is about the same. The full width roller on the back of my deck makes it a bit tougher to slide. There are no hinged covers, grease fittings are underneath, etc. These days John Deere, and Simplicity use the same transaxle on the X700, and Legacy XL lines so the pto is in the same place on both, and very similar to the BX series. Nice thing about my Simplicity is that the cooling fan is high in the rear behind the seat. It is out of the way there, and cools you off when you are hitching up trailers, etc. Lets see, since I was supposed to be dead over a year ago, maybe I should just buy a ZD series to mow, a 4 wheeler to pull wagons, and a larger tractor to dig, and do serious play with. Yea, that's the ticket!

There you go, that's what I am doing too; well except for the ZD mower, my wife hates them so we have a BX2660 with 60" deck.

 

[bgn007]

I traded my BX2200 for a B2620 and have used the 60 inch MMM on both machines. I really like the drive-over feature, although I am also considering using dollies. I find that the 60 inch MMM is much easier to R/R on the B vs. the BX, mainly because there is more space to work. The longer wheel base and higher ground clearance is an asset, particularly when it comes to attaching the driveshaft to the mid PTO, and accessing some of the grease points. All in all, I would give very high marks to the B2620/MMM combo in the areas of ease of use and serviceability. My only complaint would be that the top (lock) position pins are difficult to insert because the mounting holes do not align properly.

Both the BX2200 and B2620 produce a beautiful cut with minimal effort. The BX has a small maneuverability advantage when mowing around obstacles and is more stable mowing on across slopes. That said, I prefer the B2620 for mowing because the longer wheelbase and larger, wider tires produce a noticeably better ride over my irregular lawn surface. This, along with the 3 speed HST, helps shorten the time it takes to mow my 3 acres.

As for tires, I had both Ag and Turf sets for my BX2200, and currently have bar/turfs on my 2620. I prefer the bar/turfs for mowing because the rounded corner profile of the fronts help reduce tracks (on sharp turns) that can occur in damp conditions with the B2620. The rears are lower and wider than R4s, enhancing stability and weight distribution on the lawn. I also like these tires in winter for use with both the hydraulic front blade and front snowblower.

 

[ChuckinNH]

BGN007,
Thanks for the detailed comparison. It seems that many B2x20 owners that mow are a little quiet about it. The large number of used MMM's I saw at dealers during their open houses, etc. this spring had me worried that folks didn't care for them after they had bought them. The mower decks that I saw though, were all for the larger B's, but it prompted this poll. Looking under one B2620 with a 54" deck mounted at an open house, it did look like things were easier to reach than on the BX, JDX700's ect. When I'm a bit weak from chemotherapy, any pto shaft that isn't a straight shot can be a little extra work, but the more room the better.

 

[KU Gator]

Chuck,

Out of curiosity, I measured the clearance under mine this am with it up and locked and there was 5" under the bottom of the deck. I assume you know, but you can still lower an implement on the 3 pt hitch with the deck on and locked in the up position and the deck will stay up. I sprayed the yard for weeds with mine with the deck in place.

As mentioned, there is quite a bit of room to reach between the deck and the bottom of the tractor to hook up the PTO shaft, but still, you are either reaching from the side across the tractor doing it one handed or crawling underneath from the rear and reaching up. Neither or that big of a deal normally, but with your current medical status, only you can judge that.

Take care.

 

[TripleR]

Chuck,

Out of curiosity, I measured the clearance under mine this am with it up and locked and there was 5" under the bottom of the deck. I assume you know, but you can still lower an implement on the 3 pt hitch with the deck on and locked in the up position and the deck will stay up. I sprayed the yard for weeds with mine with the deck in place.

As mentioned, there is quite a bit of room to reach between the deck and the bottom of the tractor to hook up the PTO shaft, but still, you are either reaching from the side across the tractor doing it one handed or crawling underneath from the rear and reaching up. Neither or that big of a deal normally, but with your current medical status, only you can judge that.

Take care.

I didn't even take my MMM off my BX this year and used it in my woods and other places for FEL work and road maintenance. I would assume a MMM on a B would allow you to do a lot of work. I too am disabled and often have to find ways to work around that while staying as independent as possible. It may not always be by the book, but it gets done.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Though my current deck does a good job, I still have to remove it to sharpen blades a few times each summer, grease the deck, and to get packed grass out of the belt covers. I think I could handle the PTO on my B2620 OK but it looks like more of a pain on the BX, JD, and Massey. I think the PTO on the 2305 JD is maybe the easiest of the smaller tractors.

 

[TripleR]

Though my current deck does a good job, I still have to remove it to sharpen blades a few times each summer, grease the deck, and to get packed grass out of the belt covers. I think I could handle the PTO on my B2620 OK but it looks like more of a pain on the BX, JD, and Massey. I think the PTO on the 2305 JD is maybe the easiest of the smaller tractors.

Just throwing stuff out, but I don't remove my deck to take the blades off and use high pressure air hose to remove debris from all parts of the deck after mowing. Your deck may be different than mine though.

 

[bxowner]

Hey, Chuck:

You're more than welcome to come by my place and try it out - both mowing and install/removal of the mower deck. Don't know where you are in NH, but I'm near Middlebury, VT.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Thanks for the generous offer bxowner! I just may shoot you a PM if I don't just forge ahead. You are something over 100 miles from my place. ( Dated a woman from Vergennes for a while)

 

[bstrom]

Nice looking spot you got over there Chuck.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Yes, it's nothing special, but I really like it. I ran into a couple of old timers walking once, and they asked where I lived. I told them, and one of them said "hayed that with horses once, kinda bony isn't it?" I guess it's "bony" out in back are piles of rocks half the size of VW's, and you can walk from one to the other in many places for some distance.