Buying Advice BX2660 Going to be too small?

[CSW]

I've been a proud owner of a BX2660 for a couple of years now and have used it to mow (54" underbelly) a couple of acres and snow blow a 100' driveway and large yard. Last payment is next month and to our unexpected surprise, we purchased some land and we will be building a new home on 12 acres. I will have a 400' driveway and 5+ acres to mow.

I will be doing a lot of landscaping and am planning to get a rear hydraulic remote, toplink and a box scraper for grading. With 5+ acres to mow I am wondering if the BX2260 will be be up for the task?

Looking for any thoughts / suggestions?

Also, who is available online for rear remote hydraulic kit for the BX if I decide to stay with it.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[dodge man]

I think it will be up to the task just fine. What will hold you back the most is the mowing time. Depending on what the yard looks like, I'd expect it to take you between 3 and 4 hours to mow that much yard. There are some zero turns and such that could knock quite a bit off that mowing time.

 

[leonz]

I've been a proud owner of a BX2660 for a couple of years now and have used it to mow (54" underbelly) a couple of acres and snow blow a 100' driveway and large yard. Last payment is next month and to our unexpected surprise, we purchased some land and we will be building a new home on 12 acres. I will have a 400' driveway and 5+ acres to mow.

I will be doing a lot of landscaping and am planning to get a rear hydraulic remote, toplink and a box scraper for grading. With 5+ acres to mow I am wondering if the BX2260 will be be up for the task?

Looking for any thoughts / suggestions?

Also, who is available online for rear remote hydraulic kit for the BX if I decide to stay with it.

Cheers,
Chris

lots of folks have very long driveways/lanes and use a BX model with a snow caster.


It all depends on how much time you have AND how much time YOU can actually devote to it with the weather you have up there.

I mowed 6 acres every week with a 4 foot finish flailmower and it took about 4 hours or less when the grass was cut every week and a bit longer when it was high as well as wet.

A belly mower or rotary cutter only uses one half of each mowr blade with the other edge always following. A flail mower of any size uses its entire width of cut to mow and shred brush. In my case with a finish flail mower I have 64 knive stations and 128 knives with 3 inches of cutting edge per knive station exposed to the grass and brushwith the other three rows of knives following to overlap the cut of the previous row of side slicers.

One row of side slicers on my mower has 32 knives and 1.5 inches of cutting edge per knive and 3 inches per station giving the user 48 inches of "ACTUAL" cutting edge per row time 4 equals 192 inches of cutting edge
exposed to the grass at one time compared to the 60 inches of a belly mower. this gives you over three times the available cutting edge to mow.

Each knive has a second cutting edge on the opposite side which allows you to flip the knive over to the fresh edge without having to sharpen them.

It may be more cost effective for you to purchase the front loader for this BX and install the rear remotes at the same time as you will need a lot of "in the shop" plumbing to do this for the rear anyway.


The type of mowing your going to do for the acreage is going to affect your mower choices as well as your pocket book.

A four foot Caroni finish flail mower for the rear mount would allow you to mow quickly and leave virtually no clippings and save the belly mount for the good turf. The four footer would also allow you to mow the fine grasses if they get away from you because of rain and muddy ground too.

The nice thing about a flail is the grass can be recut and you will have virtually no clippings let to see and you will have no dead grass laying on top of the sod.

A rear front or mounted flail mower will not require the cleaing that a belly mower does at each mowing and that is real plus as well.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Where you been Leonz?
Hadn't seen any of your disertations on flail mowers being the answer for all needs for all people in so long that I figured you'd quit selling them, but alas I see that isn't true.
BXs will mow 1 acre or 5 acres and if the deck is the same size probably in about the same time. I've never had a BX that wouldn't mow average size grass as fast as I could stay on it, my yard isn't smooth.
I currently use F Kubotas for all of my mowing and tractors for tractoring.

 

[TripleR]

Will you be mowing 5 acres of yard or field or combination of both?

 

[Gods Country]

I know people that mow a lot more with a lot less.
I assume we're talking grass.

I plow my lane(s) with a scut.
The short one is 600' and quite steep.
The other is about 3x that length and still steep, but not as severe.

 

[CHDinCT]

CSW - sounds like a good excuse to trade up. If you do stay with the BX, Kubota offers a dual rear remote hydraulic kit for all the BX's except the BX25 (due to interference with the BH sub frame). It's a wholegoods item and needs to be ordered through a dealer's sales office and not parts. I ordered one for my old BX1860 from Messick's a few years back. I did have to call so I don't know if that qualifies as buying on-line.

 

[Notforhire]

we purchased some land and we will be building a new home on 12 acres. I will have a 400' driveway and 5+ acres to mow.

Cheers,
Chris

Is your 5 acres wide open, or are there lots of trees? For lots of ins and outs a zero turn works well. I use a 61" Ferris mower. I don't know the stats, but the blades seem to spin much faster on it than on a MMM tractor unit. I mow at about 10mph.
In my opinion tractors ride better. Good zero turns can cost around $10K, but they are fast.
You will save time, especially if it's not a open area. You would own an additional machine. Is the time saved worth the big investment to you?

Happy mowing, Bill

 

[CSW]

Thanks for the replies. Some more info...

The ground is wide open field with some slopes but nothing crazy steep. I already have a loader, 54" underbelly and rear 48" blower for the white stuff. the future driveway is marked out and is 350' long, 10' wide.

I will have quite a bit of grading and re-grading to do on the property after the house, driveway build and geothermal trenching so a box blade and landscape rake are most likely in the cards (as well as a rear hydraulic remote based on what I have been reading to make it much easier to use the box blade).

The entire property is 12 acres with 90% field. I won't be mowing all of it but for sure it will be a solid half being mowed. The boys want a place to play soccer so the field where the geothermal piping will be installed will most likely be re-graded to reduce the slope somewhat. Had some lengthy chats with the local dealer and of course they want me to upgrade but at the end of the day, I would be spending 7 - 10k more for a larger machine and would have to change out my implements for larger models. I am leaning hard towards a used zero turn 60" to add to the stable ($3-4k),.... or a used 2wd tractor with a rear 72" finish mower (under $7k). With the boys helping out, it would make things a lot quicker. Can you really have too many tractors?!

 

[Notforhire]

I am leaning hard towards a used zero turn 60" to add to the stable ($3-4k),.... or a used 2wd tractor with a rear 72" finish mower (under $7k). With the boys helping out, it would make things a lot quicker. Can you really have too many tractors?!

Just something to think about;

If you do upgrade, you will most likely need to get a mower of some type.

If your projects that require a larger machine are short term, would it be better (cheaper) to rent/lease what you need just to accomplish those tasks?

"12 acres with 90% field. I won't be mowing all of it but for sure it will be a solid half being mowed"
I would think that you would want to mow this area at least 2X per year maybe with a rough cut mower.

If you need a snow blower, will the blower for a larger machine be rear mounted? If so, you need to work in reverse.

It sounds to me like, you already have a nice rig. How about adding a 2wd or 4WD utility tractor with a large rear mounted mower. A scrape blade could take care of some of your grading and snow removal for light snowfalls.

One thing I always wanted was a combo. sports car/ dump truck. It would be nimble, get 50mpg, and could also carry twenty tons of crushed stone.:thumbsup: One machine can't be all things, I guess.