Bx1860 vx B2320 - Contrast/Compare

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I to subscribe to "Bigger isn't always better". I've been at the bottom of the BX scale with a BX1500 MMM for 3 years and I've been as big as a L3240 Grand HST for almost a year and several BXs and Bs in between. Currently running a B2620 FEL BH for tractor work and often look back at the BX25 and look at the one beside Barlows front door every time I go there (I've started going in the side door so I won't see it) and think how I believe I like the BX25 better than any of the others.
Like you, my needs/jobs have changed as well as my age over the past 11 years of Kubota ownership and to believe these machines are like children that you hold on to forever.....well, they ain't. They are for helping us do some jobs and maybe get some enjoyment and back saving assistance out of them. I to would rather move a BX than a B on a trailer and I like being a little closer to the ground and I can usually live with hauling more smaller fel loads and taking a little longer to dig a hole with the BH. I'll probably trade my B2620 FEL BH which has about 40 hours on it now to a BX25 in a year or so. By then I'll have some more equity in it and the price will not go down during that time, the drop has already happened. This all depends on Barlows giving me another fair trade deal. Maybe he'll take my B7100 in trade also before I get it sold or traded.:cool2:

 

[bp fick]

JT, you're correct. We could have "made do" with the BX, I suppose, but the B just made life easier the last three years. It worked bigger loads of firewood and easily pulled implements like the cultivator and super heavy disc gang that the BX couldn't. So, that "trade" was a good one. I don't actually trade anything in. I list it for sale and go right on with life. Took me better part of half a year to sell the BX. Not a problem. Just keep on using it, but one day a feller comes along and off it goes. Always done the same thing with boats, implements, take out appliances, and most everything else. Sometimes they sell in a day, sometimes it takes a bit longer, but they always sell.

I don't know how long it will take me to sell the B. Not too awful long, I shouldn't think. Might even go get that BX I found and be cash poor during the transition. My wife will love that. Not! But, she's a good sport and for 42 years together has seen this always work out and usually, work out very, very well. It's just stuff. It comes. It goes. And, you're not gonna take it with you anyway, as they say. I take good care of stuff and that usually bodes well for the next guy. Buyers usually comment positively about that. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Baby Grand]

Thanks, BP, for starting this thread and updating it as new thoughts & experiences have come and gone. It's been a big factor in my decision to get a B2320, earlier this year. The B5100 was not working out well in the vegetable garden and the L3240 is way too big for most of the garden work, except for deep tilling after harvest and before planting. But the B2320 even handles these tasks, now. I had been concerned that 23 HP wouldn't be enough, but as you have noted, it's the traction that gives out first - and we're wearing R1's. I'll continue to follow your BX/B/BX journey with great interest!

-Jim

 

[TripleR]

BP, I don't know if you have seen this, but it's worth a thought: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/258009-step-my-dads-7610-kubota.html

I recently had my brother do a Waxman step modification on my L5740. Surprisingly I have no trouble with the M8540 due to the grab rails, I don't know why these smaller tractors don't have them.

I am a big fan of the BX, we have two and they sure can do a lot of work.

Good to see you posting again.

 

[bp fick]

Thanks Jim

The R1 on a 75% garden oriented machine would be the cat's meow!!!! That's what our 2320 should have had, frankly. The R4s probably saved me in the woods a number of times, as they are hard as nails against punctures, but are certainly a compromise tire. There just isn't a "prefect" tire for all situations. Most of us want the R1s when we're gardening, R4s when we're in the woods, and R3's when we traverse the yard or similar. The debate between all the tires is a silly one. Each have strengths and weaknesses. Golly, kinda like people and life in general, eh?

The B2320 is an outstanding gardening machine, of that there is no doubt. About the perfect blend of ground clearance, grunt, light weight to fight compaction, nimbleness, etc. Very hard to beat. Not so unlike the machines of the early 50's and 60's found on the truck farms, onions fields and tobacco patches everywhere; the Massy 14 and 16, the little Farmall's, etc.

 

[bp fick]

TripleR

Yes, I had seen that step and yes, they adapt quite well to the B's I do believe. That'd be a pretty nifty little addition and one I would highly recommend for guys that are ? well more mature and/or perhaps inseam challenged, as they say. :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

TripleR

Yes, I had seen that step and yes, they adapt quite well to the B's I do believe. That'd be a pretty nifty little addition and one I would highly recommend for guys that are ? well more mature and/or perhaps inseam challenged, as they say. :laughing:

It seems the older I get the stronger gravitational pull becomes; we won't even talk about inseam.:laughing:

 

[bp fick]

This doesn't or won't apply to every situation. However, in some cases, wives also come into the equation and they can tilt that old reasoning balance sheet very, very quickly. If they do chores on a tractor, my guess is that most women speak their minds as to their preference pretty quickly, at least mine does. She's going to figure greatly in this process. She loved the BX and while it has been well over 3 years, she's never warmed to the B. Just hasn't. To a man, the geometry and such is not THAT different, but to the citizens from Venus, details that residents from Mars might over look or adjust to without undue concern can be be very big deals to the women. I'll just say that.

This kinda started last week when the snows just kept coming and coming. Once I've got my Carhart bibs on and insulated boots, it isn't as easy for me to negotiate that step up. After pushing snow for 4 of 5 days and coming in a bit peaked looking, she brought up the BX issue. She had some good insights. I listened. 42 years? Yeah, I'd better listen. She ticked off the list of BX virtues pretty quick like. I hadn't thought she'd even paid that much attention, to be honest. I was sure wrong.

This same Venus native was the one who informed me the gardening would be changing this year as well. I think the whole deal is a plot of some kind.

 

[TripleR]

BP, about a year ago, I mentioned selling one of "my wife's" BX's, it didn't take me long to realize the error of my thinking.:laughing:

My wife uses the BX2660 almost exclusively as a mower and we leave the FEL and tiller or box scraper on the 2200, so she can mow or move stuff without much trouble, less trouble for her means less trouble for me.

 

[bp fick]

Well, was out pushing the snow banks back today. The sun was bright as we're having a two day respite from the brutal weather. A truck pulls in the drive. Nice fellow starts chatting me up about my B2320. Says he'd been pricing BXs and John Deere 1 series. Asked all the usual questions and I said to him, "Well, I'll sell you this one".

Didn't quibble about my price, and left. Was back in 40 minutes with his wife, who said, "Well, this is just a God thing". I told her I couldn't argue with that. She wanted it and told him to get it. Left a deposit.

So, that's that. Lives about 4 miles away but wisely is going to arrange with his neighbor who has a dual axle trailer to come pick it up after the New Year's holiday.