BX2200 - What Attachments?

[JudeK]

I am looking at purchasing a BX2200. Originally I was going to purchase a garden tractor, but when I started doing a little research, I realized that was not the way to go.

I own approximatley 12 acres, with a 1/4 mile gravel driveway and a little over an acre of lawn. My terrain is hilly and I have ledge everywhere.

I want to be able to cut the grass, plow my driveway, clear some additional acreage, drag trees (cut up), move large rocks, maintain my driveway and keep up on the garden/flowerbeds.
Presently, every spring I literally spend days clearing the traprock off my lawn from the snow plowing, and I want to be able to control this better, as well as get rid of all the potholes on my gravel drive.

In addition, my wife wants to rebuild some of the old stone walls on the property.

I have been looking at the BX2200 with the loader, 60" belly mower and the box scraper, with the best price (so far) at about $12,500.

Are there any other attachments I might need to accomplish what I am looking to do?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Bird]

JudeK, sounds like you're off to a good start. And you may find that the implements you've mentioned are enough. Of course, a lot of us started off that way, then as we find more projects we want to do, and have the money, we buy more implements. You may, or may not, do the same. Hooks on the front end loader bucket are very popular so you can pick up things with chains carefully. With 12 acres, you may later want a rotary cutter (brush hog). How much gardening do you do? Are you going to want a plow or two, or a tiller? Hilly terrain? How about a tiltmeter? What's the climate like where you live? Do you need a canopy for some sun protection (a necessity where I live)? Or how about having a look at Muhammad's new book? Lots of ideas and information there. Good luck with your shopping and have fun.

Bird

 

[JudeK]

I've been pondering some more.
How about a rake to remove the stone from my lawn? What Would be the best type of rake to accomplish this? Is there an implement that can both rak and dethatch?

 

[Bird]

JudeK, the "landscape rakes" are apparently quite popular and what I've read about them sounds good, but I don't have one and the only rakes I've used behind a tractor were hay rakes.

Bird

 

[WVBill]

JudeK

I recently bought a 6' landscape rake for my B6100 and it's quickly becoming my favorite implement.

I boight it for two primary uses:
1) to collect the twigs & branches that blow off the trees during the winter, and
2) to maintain my gravel driveway.

I haven't gotten to the driveway yet but I found that for collecting the tree trash the rake works quite well. Caution: I would not use it on a "manicured" lawn - it definitely does tend to heavily scratch up the grass as it goes. Perhaps guage wheels might help this but I don't have any. With my rough "lawn" and the fact that I'm doing it before the growing season I'm sure the "damage" will quickly disappear and might even be beneficial. I'm thinking of running it over the area of my "lawn" where I want to overseed.

I also used the rake to re-fill the trench I dug for electric conduit using my middle buster plow (see thread under "Tractor Projects"). This worked VERY well. By angling the rake and running at just the right place, I was able to pull the dirt back into the trench on just one pass each direction. Another couple of passes to clean up and the job was done. The teeth of the rake are very strong and almost act like a rear blade for anything that won't pass easily between them (like gravel or light/dry dirt).

 

[JudeK]

I am slowly learning and want to make a correction - Implements not attachments!
It would appear that "attachments" are what "implements" for smaller tractors!

 

[DavidH]

JudeK: I think the landscape rake would be a good tool for your purposes. The tines are approx. 3/4 inches apart and will therefore rake up the bigger rocks and branches, but leave the dirt behind. They do scratch up the ground, but it's controllable with the 3 pt. hitch, but still could mess up a manicured lawn if you let it get too aggressive. Should be able to get one for around $300.

DaveH

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Jude you might want to look at the Landpride brand of rear blade because the blade can be removed from it's frame at the pivot point and replaced with a rake. The rear blade can be handy for plowing snow when reversed and set at an angle to roll it off the side.
I have the RB1560. One note, don't let a dealer talk you into the smaller RB0560 with the cat 0 hitch, I tried one and had some geometry problems when raising and lowering mainly because of the shorter height of the upper attachment point for the top link. The arguement for that model was it's narrower spacing between the lower arms which made it tad easier to put on the BX.

 

[Roy]

JudeK; Only one item I can add to what has been mentioned so far, which is not an implement, but an accessory, is work lights. You will need them for those tractor projects, which run past sunset. Like a lot of people on this board, I created my own ROPS-attached lighting from various parts. Since then, also from this board, I found out that Kubota sells a work light unit. Since you haven't purchased yet, see if the dealer will throw them in to the package at a reduced cost, or maybe even per-gratis /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Roy