Buying Advice Is the BX2380 capable of doing what I need v. Land prep for seeding

[darrylgmc]

THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE: As I have one, naturally I am biased toward the BXs. Mine is a 25, 2011 vintage, with 1500 hours on it, mostly doing a lot of what you contemplate. Its small size is an advantage when working in tight spaces.If time is your enemy then get a bigger one, but you mention a multi year project, so! No matter what you get be sure to add a tooth bar on the FEL, makes a non-digger into a digger. I made mine; more agressive than you can buy. After the warranty expires raise the HYD pressure to 2000#, huge difference. Most projects I never get over 2200 RPM and have plenty of power. Wide open the BXs tend to get a little jerky, especially the BH. If you are doing irrigation, digging out trees and stumps and bigger rocks, planting trees you will kick your self if you do not have the BH. Thought I would never need it but it now gets used a lot. When you have it you will find misc things to do with it like moving tree logs and big rocks. I would definitely use my BX for your type projects as I am not in a hurry. Get 4 forks for the bucket and you will be amazed at how much brush and limbs you can pickup and haul.

Bite the bullet on the top soil. Subdivisions around here scalp the top soil as it has high value. The county makes them add amendments to the sandy/rocky soil before planting as a lawn in the front yard is a required item for final inspection. The requirement is for a 2" base of amended soil. The grass never gets looking nice as the root is too shallow and it never gets to be a lush sod. Even sod has to have a good top soil base or it will also fail as the roots have nowhere to go in that sand. As mentioned before rocks will keep on coming up if you till so don't bother, especially around the trees and stuff as you will damage the roots and be continually be unwinding them from the tiller tines. There are some good ideas in the previous posts just temperate the wheat from the chaff. At my last place I had a huge garden plot that had a lot of humus to begin with, about 6" on top of that sandy/rocky sub-grade. The rocks had migrated up into it. Over 8 years I tilled and tilled it added another 4" of compost tilled in, great garden soil. Every time I tilled I dug up more rocks. I made a path down the center of the garden with the rocks; 6' wide 80' long and 6" deep at the end of the 8 years when I sold out. Rocks! Rocks! you never get rid of them. I probably dug 500' of trenches for various water, power, comm lines, storm drains, and sewre drains in making improvements to the property.

Sorry about the long winded story but trying to give you info to help decision making. The new BX23S has a lot of improvements, around here you can buy one for between 17,000 and 20,000 depending on add-ons. Definetly get the KTAC insurance, they did a damage claim for me to the tune of $8K that had nothing to do with the machine size or overloading it.

Ron

Thanks for the write up, Ron. Speed is not a concern for me, but I am concerned with the FEL capacity. The BH is about an $8000 option, which is why I basically dismissed it, especially when I could probably do most of my required digging with a tree scoop/spade on the FEL bucket. I like the idea of a smaller tractor on my small property, especially regarding the FEL bucket size. A 66" bucket might be difficult to maneuver around.

As far as the soil composition goes, I'll get it tested professionally and see what they have to say. I had top soil bought in when I seeded my front lawn and my grass still disintegrates by the end of August. I'm not saying that's the fault of the top soil, but it's not a panacea, and I have to get to the root (pun intended) of the issue. I've lost all faith in professional landscapers, so I'm trying to do everything myself now.

Good tip on increasing the pressure, I'll consider that.

Another voice of experience, with ownership if a BX25 since 2008. A lovely machine, and I use it on two properties, one of which is 25 acres and one of which is 3/4 of an acre.

Ryan, I am very interested in the fact that you bumped up the pressure to 2000. I measured mine and it was exactly on spec at 1700. But I am paranoid about bumping it up that high. Has anyone else done this, and has anyone had any holes bursting or other problems? If not I think I'm going to do the same as Ron. And Ron, did you happen to measure or notice how much your lift capacity increased on the FEL? And how about the effects on the front tires and front suspension?

Do you use the BX to mow the 3/4 acre property? I was initially not considering getting the mowing deck, but it sure would be nice during leaf cleanup season.

My consultant's invoice will show how aware I am of being helpful. Double time today; its a holiday.



One FEL, LA525; two bucket options: 1) standard and 2) light materials bucket.

SSQA is a separate option.

This stuff is only confusing the first one hundred times you study it.
Increasing your consumption of rice may speed cognition.

Are you over $10,000 yet?

Just put it on my tab

However, message received - I went to the deal to get some of these questions answered. You definitely deserve the commission. I got a quote for the L2501 they had on the lot, and it didn't even itemize the options equipped. The salesman just said it's got everything I would want. He's probably right, but I'd like to know what I'm getting. FYI it was $19.8k for the 4wd HST with the FEL. $500 cheaper if I don't finance.

During my working years I was in sales and marketing.

It is an adage in marketing: ANTICIPATION IS 50% OF SATISFACTION.

As an engineer, this is the longest relationship I've ever had with someone from marketing/sales.

I'm just messing around, we don't actually have a marketing/sales department. I'm one of those rare engineers who doesn't make a consumer product.

Know that pallet forks are available for the Three Point Hitch at the rear.
LINK: King Kutter Tractor 3 point hitch Pallet Mover pallet fork attachment

L2501 Three Point Hitch lift capacity 24" behind eyes (center of a 48" pallet) 1,389 pounds, including weight of forks.

If your ground is flat, you can drag your pallet of bricks a reasonable distance using is 1/4" or 5/16" Grade 70 chain attached to tractor rear/center drawbar. The oversize rear wheels provide tremendous mechanical advantage when pulling any type of load. (1/4" Grade 70 chain would be my choice.)

Some buy the engine hood of an old car at a salvage yard, using the hood as a sled to pull heavy boulders or other heavy stuff.

Now that's a good idea! I have not considered dragging a load like that. it could get tricky on some slope parts, but it would introduce me to the new neighbors after I need to retrieve a boulder from their yard.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Darryl, FEL capacity. The factory rating of the FEL is based on bucket capacity. W/2000 PSI just this week I put on the pallet forks and lifted over 500# of concrete blocks. I loaded them close to bucket. With the new QH diret mounted forks attachment I would estimate the fork capability as around 750# as you are getting 2' closer to the tractor.

Ron

 

[dragoneggs]

Thanks, Ron. Actually, I already have the bxpanded.com kit (complete with shims), so I can do it myself. Given the feedback here, I think I will go ahead and do it - maybe set it at 1900.

Me too. Checked the pressure once some time ago and it was to spec. But lately it feels to be lagging and thus I have been running at higher RPM which is extra noise that I don't like. I think it is time to try the shims and give it a boost.

 

[airbiscuit]

You're absolutely right, once the project is finished I won't have much use for the heavy duty tractor. Maybe I'll look into buying a used L2501 and sell it after I'm done (I expect the project to take a few years to ultimately finish), then put it towards a BX2380.

But just another thought, the base tractor appears to be $16500/$12000 for the L2501 and Bx2380 respectively. So maybe I could just go with a used L2501 and it might come up with similar pricing as a new bx.

I think the BX2380 suits your needs well enough today, and perfectly in the future. Here is exhibit A ...

 

[dragoneggs]

My :2cents: Get the BX and rent or hire any big league work.

 

[bunyip]

My :2cents: Get the BX and rent or hire any big league work.

We have a BX2370 which is great for everything we need but we have a 1 acre horse arena being put in and it was full of concrete blocks and rocks.
To do this myself would have needed a bigger machine and taken up several hours of my time so we hired a a bobcat and operator for AU$100 per hour and the job was done in 3 hours.
Best $300 I spent as I charge over $500 an hour for my time so I think I am in front, I even gave him a six pack of Becks so he was really happy.

 

[darrylgmc]

Thank you for all the help guys. I'm going with the BX2380. Now my question is - if I buy out of state do I give anything up? Stupid question but, will my local dealer still service the tractor if necessary?

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

It would have to be a really major savings for me to be willing to destroy my relationship with my local dealer on a new purchase. Yeah, he'll service it, but there is a big gap between "doing the bare minimum of what the manufacturer requires dealers to do", and, "giving you his best efforts as a loyal customer".

You'd be starting out what should be a long relationship by kicking him in the nuts, and then expecting him to just forget about it.

On a purchase that big, a two thousand dollar discount wouldn't even be slightly tempting for me, and I'm not made of money.

 

[darrylgmc]

It would have to be a really major savings for me to be willing to destroy my relationship with my local dealer on a new purchase. Yeah, he'll service it, but there is a big gap between "doing the bare minimum of what the manufacturer requires dealers to do", and, "giving you his best efforts as a loyal customer".

You'd be starting out what should be a long relationship by kicking him in the nuts, and then expecting him to just forget about it.

On a purchase that big, a two thousand dollar discount wouldn't even be slightly tempting for me, and I'm not made of money.

It is around a $2000 difference, but it's more than that because they seemed disinterested in dealing with me. Maybe because it's only a BX, and they know they have a captive audience since they're the only dealer within 2 hours.

How often do you require dealer assistance? I can only compare this to a car dealer, whom I typically never see again after I buy a car. I assume 95% of tractor service can be performed by the owner.

 

[jeff9366]

How often do you require dealer assistance? I can only compare this to a car dealer, whom I typically never see again after I buy a car. I assume 95% of tractor service can be performed by the owner.

All Kubota tractors have their first service interval at 50 engine hours. You can certainly do the 50 hour service yourself. There are numerous threads in the T-B-N archive documenting the process.

You will be learning to "drive" from zero on the tractor. You will have learning incidents like most tractor tyros. It is unlikely you will not have to return the tractor for operator error repairs one or two times during the first year. I recommend Kubota's KTAC insurance.

(I have owned three tractors.)