Decision Time

[stvman]

Del

Owning both an L35 and a BX you would be a good judge, so if you could only have one or the other which would you choose???

 

[Thomas]

Yes indeed it can be fun when doing the home work toward your new purchase./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Thinking in the lines of the HST I'm sure glad you did,for your 6'2" and the last thing you want to do would be put more wear and tear on your knees and ankle's joints...believe me[shock]

I wish you the best toward your new investment,and a long term investment will be what your making./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH

 

[Anonymous Poster]

That would be a tough one. Before I got the BX I wouldn't have considered anything smaller than my Ford 1710 (5000lbs tractor loader backhoe) as theres been as many times that I've cussed it for being too big as too small.

We bought the BX strictly as a mower that could mow some hills we have on other property that sometimes has TALL grass, and the ground is rougher. I figured a 2WD mower "garden tractor" would just flounder around.

I purchased a loader for it as a toy, something for the wife to pay with, moving beauty bark an the like.

Now that I have actually used the tractor, the loader hardly ever comes off (although it will QUICK) and we purchased a JD Garden Tractor for the house mowing.

I've found the BX to be far more capable then it's cute looks would make you think.

And although the hydraulic flow on it is relatively low (5 something vs 17gpm on the L35) it's small loader cylinders operate faster than my Ford does, so you can do finish grading and be able to bump the loader up and down quickly as terrain changes.

Except for my concerns about the exposed steering linkage, which probably won't be a problem because normally the L35 will blaze the trail first, I like the fact that it's lower than "normal" especially given it's narrow track. I think I'd be a titch nervous on something higher that small.

I could live with just the L35 but knowing what I know now I'd miss the BX terribly. And I wouldn't want to compromise and get a B2410-B2710. But that's just because I've played on both ends of the spectrum of "compacts"

(The longer wheelbase 43 and 46's I consider something bigger)

The BX is so much like when I had dirt bikes, I had 100 200 and 500cc. Everybody laughed at the 100 but nobody wanted to give it up when they were riding it!

del

 

[JimBinMI]

stvman,

WOW! Take a breathe man, let that blood pressure go down a little! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I wasn't trying to rattle anyone with my post...I went back and read it and don't know how you got so rattled?????

I'm already convinced that I bought the right tractor for me, and the reference to "hp/acre" was meant for entertainment purposes only. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I don't have any 3000# rocks that show themselves anywhere on my 8 acres, so I don't see a reason to be able to move them if they're not there. You are right on the TC18 FEL, it lifts 600 lbs. The TC18 does take a backhoe...I don't plan on either a backhoe or a FEL.

Read my profile, I am a school teacher don't have time or ambition to buy/own/rent/work a farm.

If I need any big jobs done, I don't mess with any of the "toys" that we talk about here...for $80/hour I can have a Hough 350 hp diesel front end loader with an 11' wide bucket with operator (a co-worker of mine), or I can do the job much much slower or not at all with my TC18.

As I stated, I bought the TC18 to mow 2 1/2 acres, move snow and hopefully in the future rotary cut about 4-5 acres a few times a year. Is it OK to keep using it for this or should I sell NOW? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

JimBinMI

P.S. - I'm glad for your Chevy!



We boys and our toys!

 

[_RaT_]

Jim, I have never heard of a Hough, nor seen a 11' bucket,. All I do know is that this guy with this tractor must be a neighbor, because using county roads requires permits to move a piece of equipment of this size. He would have to be a heck of a friend, because the costs he would have to charge you, you could buy you a loader for your TC18. Minimum moving cost of about $500 (one way)including pace car(s) to warn of oversized loads, tedious permit time and delegated moving times. Lets see, a CAT 980 goes for about $600 a day not including fuel, delivery is about $400 to $500 one way, but then does not need a pace car as the Hough would so you could save a little there, it is not an oversized load in terms of width, just very heavy and tall. Of course, one day is all you would need because with a 4 yard bucket, you could move about 300 yards of material easily in a day. Now the Hough with an 11' bucket must have a capacity of about 6yds so he could get the job done a little quicker providing it is 4WD, articulates and has a shuttle transmission. In the end, you would have more fun putting the loader on the TC18 and moving anything yourself. A front end loader is so nice and you will find more things to do with it then you can even imagine. I think you should save up for one for the TC 18 and forget the the guys Hough, you would owe him big time. Rat...

 

[JimBinMI]

Rat,

He lives about 2-3 miles down the road and drives it here.

He cleared the area for my pole barn and finished spreading the fill sand and compacting it after I moved it around a bit with the TC18. It is 4x4, the tires are over 5' tall, all the same size and it steers in the middle of the frame. Looks like a piece of earth moving equipment. It is used, has R4's on it and he probably bought it at auction or for a good price. It's really fun to see him work it. Pulled out some smaller oak trees like they were toothpicks! /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

I have never disagreed that a FEL would be a great tool. I just don't plan on getting one. I have the rear scoop and can move what I need to so far with it.

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Some of the Hough's have 10 yard or more buckets, my neighbor used to work on them at a gravel pit. To move them the wheels had to be removed and the loader bucket went on a separate truck.

He said the company he worked for always scrimped on maintenance on their stuff, wouldn't let him put new brakes shoes on one of the Hough's because of the cost, guy coming down the hill towards the parking lot couldn't stop. He said the guy just put the bucket down and scraped up the asphalt parking lot like you could scrape frosting off a cake.

This is the same guy who helped me countless times with my Ford TLB. Before he reworked the loader, said it looked to be designed to load potato chips onto the conveyor belt for boxing.

When I first asked him if he an extra pin for my loader bucket he smiled and said..."What's that for, your seat pivot?"

People do drive those things around, but if you get caught it can be a major dollar fine due to weight on the axle on the road, it's not just tires that cause those trailers to have 40 tires, it's weight in one spot.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

When I was in the car business we had an snow storm that turned into an ice storm leaving us with a mess that the plow truck could not touch. We hired one of our customers, a farmer, who had a 375 Hp. Steiger with a 15' blade on the front. He drove it 6 miles to the dealership and cleaned up our mess. I asked him how he got that thing through the center of town, his reply. "anyway I want to" .

 

[stvman]

Jim,

It wasn't this post it was a culmintion of posts,one inparticular where you stated it was a disservice to suggest more power to new members. All my point comes down to is, most people are making a lifetime investment and you never know what the future holds. So for me I would rather err on the overkill than be under powered, plus if I need a smaller tractor I'm sure I can find someone willing to swap for a few days, it would be much tougher the the way around./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

P.S. Jim I have red your profile and I know you are a school teacher, it's just that I have gotten the impression(right or wrong) from some of your posts where you made comments like" incredible waste of resources" to I believe Rick Jay for buying a larger tractor. I just felt how could you make a statement like that not knowing his situation and future goals???..

 

[W5FL]

I will buy that. Just last week I needed a smaller tractor to mow around the trees in the orchard. My wife said I could use her riding lawnmower if she didn't have to use the M6800 while I was using hers! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif So much for swapping tractors. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I really don't find many jobs when a smaller tractor would be any more useful, so it is extremely unlikely that I would trade down.

My dad has 150 acres South of me and his advice was to get the 68HP tractor as he had a 45HP and there were many times when he sure would like to have had the larger tractor, but no times that he would like to have a smaller tractor. If I had to go down to help him, you need to be able to pull any implement that you tie onto or you might as well stay home. If my tractor couldn't lift over 2000#, he would just laugh at me and say "Wonder how you are going to unload that when you get it home."