BX2200 first impressions

[dwb]

Wow! What a time saver. I moved some pretty big boulders today and the BX performed great. I was really impressed at the ease at which I could pick up and move uphill a large boulder, and then gently place it right where I wanted it. At one point I got a little quick on the foot pedal and felt the rear end lighten up but nothing to get excited about. I just filled my ballast box to the top and had no more problems. I was very surprised with the power of this machine and the ease of use. The joystick for the FEL is really sweet. Today was the first day I've really got some time on it. I'm a happy guy!

 

[r0GuE]

Is this your first tractor? Mine was my first tractor and I am starting to get the feeling that the BX is the first tractor for many of its owners. I wrote my review of the tractor with this in mind. The BX is an awesome little machine. I'm thinking of getting a tooth attachment for the bucket to make it a little more usefull for me in digging/scraping of small amounts of soil. The better solution would be a box scraper or a tiller, but its not in the budget this year (I'm lucky I can keep the tractor). I'm slao going to get a mulching kit this/next year. Some will tell you that the BX cuts it small enough as it is with the fantastic deck it has. I disagree. The deck cuts perfectly, but it spits out the grass at whatever length it cuts, no mulchin.
A great tractor though,... I will one day own a BX22 I suspect, a backhoe is a good thing.
Well, enough about me,.. you be careful and have fun!

 

[Thomas]

I take you folks down there didn't get the rain and t-storm we got up here yesterday. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Tractor w/fel does indeed make life a whole lot easier,also brings new ideas how to improve the home stead..as long as those black flies don't attack. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[dwb]

rogue,
Yes this is my first real tractor. I had a JD GT225 before this, a nice little machine. I think your review is right on the money, nice job. I hear you about the box scraper I want to stay in the good graces of the Finance Minister (wife) so maybe next year. Hve you checked out the Land Pride 1560 or 1575 BH? They have a special mounting kit for the BX it looks like they did a nice bit of engineering on it. On the Land Pride site look under manuals you'll find an installation manual.

 

[skipperbrown]

I now have 10 hrs on my, oops, our bx2200.

Sunday the CFO and I moved 2 10ft trees from the front of the house to the back. I hope we got enough root ball so they survive. NO way we could've done that without the FEL. The CFO manuvered the FEL ("Honey, this is fun!")while I manhandled the tree out of the hole (grunt, grunt) digging and pulling w/ the FEL. Once to the new planting site. I used the FEL as a convenient bucket to put the soil from the hole I dug keeping the dirt off the grass.

Then we hauled a Wally World catch of azelas, banana trees, hibicus, fertilizer, and shovels from the truck around the yard in the FEL. What a great wheelbarrow.

Then I used the FEL to turn the compost pile over a few times. It would have broke my back to do it w/ a shovel. I got a flat frt tire running over a stick but this was quickly patched w/ a Wally World tire repair kit.

I used the 4' KK tiller for the first time on a 60x8 flower patch on the side of the house. The tiller worked great even when it yanked a sprinkler head out of the earth. However, I think I may have too much tiller for the small areas I want to work. I didn't remove the mmm and it was never in the way in the locked up position (Nifty feature). It was a bit wet for tilling and I got a little tire slippage. This was instantly cured by going into 4wd. The Dif Lock wasn't required. It cut a good fluffy 6" in our sandy soil.

I removed the tiller (10 min and 2 busted knuckles) and the FEL (3 min [a record] never a busted knuckle) and mowed the front yard. This was the first time I've mowed w/o the FEL and this is definitely the way to go. The turning radius isn't the greatest, but w/ HST I can get around a 4" tree in just a few seconds (Three fwd and reverses). I've never had HST before and for mowing it cannot be beat for speed ranging and more importantly going forward to reverse.

I had a MF35 on the family farm as a kid and a MF1225 in a former life in the early 90s. Both were gear tractors. HST blows away gears for my applications of slow/fast, fwd/backwd.

Yesterday evening, the CFO looks at all the work we did and said, "I still don't know what you paid for that tractor, but whatever it was, it was worth it. Look at what we've done w/ it already and this is the 2nd weekend." What can I say? This is one hellofva nice large lot/small farm tractor.

BTW, the dealer WAY over inflated my tires by 50-60%. I brought them back to max and now the ride is smoother.

mark