Buying A FEL In A Crate

dodge man · Mar 19, 2010

I can't remember how much mine took when I put the loader on, but a gallon is a pretty good guess.

SARG · Mar 19, 2010

Had a local "tractor guy" who grew up on a farm and whose brother owns a tractor dealership tell me that the smaller tractors should only have the FEL on the machine when you need to use one.

That the weight on the front end actually wears the machine out prematurely.

The conversation started with my complaint that the small scut with the small tires kill your kidneys when trying to mow a field. His simple response was.. take off the loader and it will be much better.

bp fick · Mar 19, 2010

Yeah... the dealer missed an opportunity to sell me some more sudt!!!

Anyhow, I put a quart I had in, and it still isn't up the stick, so I will be making a run later to get some fluid to top it off with. Got a coupon to use up today at TSC anyhow.

As for the bleeding, it took a full 15 minutes before the function appeared anywhere near normal. Then, it sprang leaks, which I had to stop and tighten up. Then another 10 minutes and now it operates wonderfully.

Well, here it is, by the dawn's early light!

sxs191 · Mar 19, 2010

So shiny and new...

That won't last long. :thumbsup:

bp fick · Mar 19, 2010

YouTube - Backhoe Loader Dolly Installation Demonstration

OK, this is BX Expanded's video. Sure makes it look easy to re-load.

Still gotta slime that left front tire, BTW. I got one of those assemblies from Orange K that "always leaks" pile at the factory. Sure hope JohnThomas is right and they have used up their quota of those!!

radioman · Mar 19, 2010

yeesh ! your tractor looks toooo new! Time to take it out and get it dirty! :thumbsup: Oh BTW- the FEL looks good on it! You will find that it only takes 2 mins off, 5 mins on maybe 2 so all your hard work will be forgotten. Trust me- you will love the kubota's easy on/off feature of the FEL.

bp fick · Mar 19, 2010

Oh man, it was filthy!! Note carefully the yellow garden hose in the background. BUT... you gotta wash them and make 'em shine. It's like pushing the reset button. Shoot it was Step 14 in the Installation Guide.

I didn't bother with the waxing stipulated in Step 15.

JOHNTHOMAS · Mar 19, 2010

bp fick said:
YouTube - Backhoe Loader Dolly Installation Demonstration

OK, this is BX Expanded's video. Sure makes it look easy to re-load.

Still gotta slime that left front tire, BTW. I got one of those assemblies from Orange K that "always leaks" pile at the factory. Sure hope JohnThomas is right and they have used up their quota of those!!

I've almost ordered Slime for my right front BX2660 several times. One time I was going to TSC when they had it on sale. I just can't bring myself to do it. I talked to my dealer about Warranty on tire and Gray was checking, I brought him info on Kubota New England region replacing tires and told him replace tire or pay for tube, didn't matter to me. He said fix it with tube and bring him the bill, they'll pay. That's what I'm going to do. They had not used the bad stack by the time they got to putting tires on mine.

buckeyefarmer · Mar 19, 2010

Evil the Weasel said:
This is not quite correct. You dump the bucket slightly before lowering it. You don't ever want the legs/stands to make contact first and risk bringing the front wheels off the ground with the weak stands taking the load.

yes, once the legs barely touch, use the bucket. I touch the legs first because I put a board under them, and sometimes I don't get the board in the right place or it slides a little. you don't want to put lots of weight on the stand by lifting the tractor.
I thought about making a video, but see that has already been done.
I gotta go visit Neil one of these days, his Abbottstown shop is not that far from me, about an hour, and I see their truck drive around my area sometimes.

I've been wanting to buy a riding mower for my kids to mow with, any more I'm thinking of a good used BX instead of another gas engine.

Water Boy · Mar 20, 2010

bp fick said:
My wife and I reached an agreement on upgrading from a BX1860 to a B2320. In a nutshell, the ONLY reason for upgrading at all would be the added ground clearance for cultivation in our organic gardening field. Our agreement simply is that if this year's contract pays out, we will step up to the B in fall. If we find that our contract doesn't provide the monetary returns we hope, then we will certainly not bother buying a tractor larger than our needs to the rest of our private gardens, yard work, drive maintenance and snow removal. The BX we have now certainly does all those things.

While at the Kubota dealership today, working through all these things, our salesman, Steve, who is genuinely helpful and not a hard sell guy, suggested he could help us out in the meanwhile. In anticipation of selling our BX, I had sold the front hydraulic blade and Quick Hitch last month, during the snows, for what I had paid for it, $1750. Those plows were in short demand.

Steve suggested that if we kept the BX through next winter, we'd have to replace the blade with something to push snow. Further, if the crop does pay out and we did upgrade to the B in fall, we would get 120% (that's right) of our investment back in buying a FEL from him, either in trade in value or sell it outright.. Knowing those LA203 FELs usually sell, with tax, out the door for $2300, I asked, "So, what's the price?"

$2000 out the door. So, what's the catch, if any? He'd load the FEL, still in a crate into my trailer and I'd install it myself. Looked at my wife and she had "the look of total agreement" on her face. What's a guy to do?

In a few minutes, a big burly guy, driving a fork lift, appeared from behind the barn. Slipped it right into my 5x8. I guess those 6 bales of straw we were going to pick up will have to wait for another trip. There wasn't any more room in the trailer for straw. We had lunch and drove home, but the smile hasn't left my face yet!!:licking: