BX1500 - Any way to secure 3pt in upright position while I use MMM?

[Jettix2]

I'm a relative noobie here and have a 2002 BX1500..........with an LA181 loader and 48" MMM. I use the loader about every week on my property in the summer, and mow the lawn about once a week too. The loader is a PITA to put on and off so I just leave it on, but the tractor is fairly top heavy without ballast, so I've got my 3pt weight box on (that I use in the winter when I am snow blowing) with a couple hundred pounds of sand in it. Everything is A-Ok, except that when I lower the MMM to mow the lawn, the weight box lowers too, and drags on the ground at every incline in the yard.

I know the BX1500 shares hydraulics from the MMM and the 3pt. Is there a way to lock the 3pt in an UPRIGHT position so that it won't float down when I drop the mower deck? I know there are body mounts to lock the lift arms into, but they don't seem high enough to do much good. Perhaps using a second adjustable lift arm, I could thread them to the shortest position using the body mount and get the box far enough off the ground?

Any other thoughts? I realize I could ballast the tires and lose the weight box all together, but it's here, I own it, and it would be easy if it worked

Thanks!

 

[joshuabardwell]

Since the hydraulics are shared, the usual methods of preventing the three-point from lowering won't work, since the MMM must be able to be lowered. Part of the problem is that whatever you do to lock the three-point in the upper position must be able to take the substantial weight of the ballast box. Of course, the three point itself is designed to do that, but I'm hard-pressed to think of much else in the rear of the tractor that would be safe to tie off to or prop against.

Since I have a welder, an approach I might take is to weld on additional mounting brackets for the lower pins, or move the existing brackets, near the bottom of the box, causing the box to ride higher on the lift arms. With luck, this wouldn't require any change to the top-link bracket. Hopefully, the MMM would bottom out before the box did. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

 

[Jettix2]

Ok, that's a possibility,.....

Another thought, would a set of wheel weights in the rear give me anywhere near enough counterweight to use with the FEL?

Since the hydraulics are shared, the usual methods of preventing the three-point from lowering won't work, since the MMM must be able to be lowered. Part of the problem is that whatever you do to lock the three-point in the upper position must be able to take the substantial weight of the ballast box. Of course, the three point itself is designed to do that, but I'm hard-pressed to think of much else in the rear of the tractor that would be safe to tie off to or prop against.

Since I have a welder, an approach I might take is to weld on additional mounting brackets for the lower pins, or move the existing brackets, near the bottom of the box, causing the box to ride higher on the lift arms. With luck, this wouldn't require any change to the top-link bracket. Hopefully, the MMM would bottom out before the box did. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

 

[Leejohn]

Try some check chains to stop the arms from going all the way down. I haven't tried lifting the arms up by hand with a mower on it to see if they can float all the way up.

 

[RaydaKub]

I assume the BX1500 is the same design as my BX2230. It isn't just the same hydraulics, the arms of the 3ph actually do the work for the mower linkage also.

What do you find so difficult about dropping the FEL off? I can have mine off in less than 2 minutes. On in about 4. Are you trying to do this on a concrete pad or out in the dirt somewhere? I did mine in the dirt 1 time, but never again. On the pad, no problem.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Another thought, would a set of wheel weights in the rear give me anywhere near enough counterweight to use with the FEL?

Wheel weights provide additional ballast for stability and traction, but they don't provide any counterweight at all r.e. the FEL because they are centered on the rear axle. To provide counterweight for the FEL, the ballast must be located behind the rear axle, creating a seesaw effect with the rear axle as the fulcrum. This is why most/all compact tractor specs, when describing FEL capacity, call for either a lot of rear ballast or some rear ballast and some wheel weight ballast, but few/none of them allow for wheel ballast alone.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I assume the BX1500 is the same design as my BX2230. It isn't just the same hydraulics, the arms of the 3ph actually do the work for the mower linkage also.

If that's true, then anything that locks the arms in the upper position will also lock the MMM deck (obviously). I had kind of hoped maybe the same hydraulic cylinder drove the MMM and the three-point lift arms, but that the lift arms could be raised off the cylinder and locked in the upper position without affecting the operation of the MMM.

 

[George the Beagle]

My 1860 has loaded rear tires which work well with the FEL. I believe you'd have the same result with wheel weights if you didn't want to bother with the liquid. Having said that, I agree with RaydaKub about ease of FEL removal, although I understand yours is older and may be a different design. I always remove my FEL before mowing; it's that easy.

 

[GolfAddict]

On my BX there are a couple of what they call "holder plate" just above and to the right of the lifting arms. You can detach the lifting rods from the lifting arms and attach them through these plates instead. That will keep the arms for the 3pt in place, while the lift arms are free to travel with the MMM. I'm not sure if you have these "holder plates". They are kind of triangular shaped with a hole through them (for the pin), bolted to the frame just above and to the right of the lift arms.

The thing I don't know, and can't find info on, is how much weight the 3pt can have on it and expect these holder brackets to be up to the task. Also, you'd have to raise the ballast box and put something under so you could detach the lift arms and put them in the holder plates...

 

[TripleR]

We have fluid in the rear tires on our BX2200 and weights on our BX2660 and they do help, but do not allow you to get the full use of the FEL. As mentioned the 3PH raises the MMM, so you can't do anything like we have on our JD 2305 which is a separate cylinder for the MMM so the MMM and 3PH can operate independently. The FEL is more difficult on the BX1500 than the BXxx60 series due to looping the hose back into the tractor and it tends to leak down, but we have found that to be the best option.