Rock Crawler
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2017
- Messages
- 2,227
- Location
- Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Tractor
- 2021 Kubota L3560 HSTC, 2011 Craftsman Excellerator GT (680hrs), 2018 Husqvarna TS354XD, 2017 Husqvarna HU800AWD, 2019 Kawasaki Mule Pro DX (Yanmar)
To the OP, you live in the mountain area, so your property may be sloped/hilly similar to mine over here in western Pa. If so, I would say to go as wide as you can with wheel spacers and as heavy as you can with loaded tires and the biggest tractor that you can justify. I had a BX for about 6 months and found it to be horrible in just about every way. It was narrow and tippy, the loader was weak, the small R4 tires are slicks and useless here in all but dry dirt. So I sold it off as quickly as I could and went to the B2650. I had the 1.5" Kubota wheel spacers installed and tires loaded with Rim Gard. The added stability over the BX is amazing. Traction and work ability over the BX is indescribable. Without the backhoe it would have been in the lower $20's, but I did get the backhoe that pushed to right around $30k before taxes.
Your not going to get an agricultural tax break in PA unless your making verifiable income off of the land. I guess some states are easier to get that break, and our state at one time also was much easier. That is no longer the case.
I would strongly suggest that you consider a 3 point mounted finish mower over a belly mower, it is very quick and easy to remove and will allow you to drop it in about 1.5-3 minutes to go do dirt work when you want and not be dragging the belly mower around under you. I would only suggest a belly mower to a person who lives on flat-ish ground and who plans to primarily use the tractor as a mower with occasional loader/dirt work.... or to a person that is doing a lot of mowing around obstructions, but even then I personally prefer being able to back my mower under things while I am not sitting on top of it getting torn up by branches and thorns. A rear mower is my strong preference, but opinions do differ. A mid mount mower sounds better in theory than it is in practice, and it costs a decent chunk more. Think about it.
For the price... I would not go with the small B unless the big B would not fit in the garage/shed that I wanted to store it in. The capability of the small B is not far enough above the BX for me to consider when I was looking at this change. The big B made a large enough jump in ability to make me willing to do the jump. My buddy at work has a B2601 and after him spending some time with me and my B2650, he is very upset with himself for letting himself buy the B2601. He agrees that it is no where near what the B2650 is but he is financially stuck in his position. He very much wishes that he went to the B2650 or even the L2501... that by the way.... is about $300 less equally equipped than the B2650 because the B2650 is a premium (luxury?) model while the L2501 is a more basic model with less frilly features. But while your racking your brains, toss the L2501 in there as well to at least partially consider.
Stop. Think. Act.
Try to really think about this, it is a big purchase and it will cost you aggravation (to keep) or money (to sell at a loss) if you make a mistake here. This is not something that you want to screw up and throw more money at it to make it right. I did that last year LOL! Luckily I bought the BX used and was able to almost wash out of it with minimal impact. Purchasing a new one would have cost me thousands of dollars in loss.
If I were doing this again, I would likely NOT buy the backhoe. I was told not to, but I would not hear it. Well, I used it for a few hours and finished what I needed... and it has been sitting in the back of my garage for most of the year. I believe I pinned it on 3 times this year. Sure, it is nice to have when you need it. But that is $9,000 sitting there doing nothing 99% of the tractors use time. Subtract that and I could have instead went with a heated and air conditioned cab and been ahead of the game! Then I could call a rental shop and spend $500 once a year for a weekend mini excavator rental and dig the heck out of anything I want for those couple days.
Let us know if you are on flat-ish ground over there in the snow ski area.... or if you are on slopes.
Your not going to get an agricultural tax break in PA unless your making verifiable income off of the land. I guess some states are easier to get that break, and our state at one time also was much easier. That is no longer the case.
I would strongly suggest that you consider a 3 point mounted finish mower over a belly mower, it is very quick and easy to remove and will allow you to drop it in about 1.5-3 minutes to go do dirt work when you want and not be dragging the belly mower around under you. I would only suggest a belly mower to a person who lives on flat-ish ground and who plans to primarily use the tractor as a mower with occasional loader/dirt work.... or to a person that is doing a lot of mowing around obstructions, but even then I personally prefer being able to back my mower under things while I am not sitting on top of it getting torn up by branches and thorns. A rear mower is my strong preference, but opinions do differ. A mid mount mower sounds better in theory than it is in practice, and it costs a decent chunk more. Think about it.
For the price... I would not go with the small B unless the big B would not fit in the garage/shed that I wanted to store it in. The capability of the small B is not far enough above the BX for me to consider when I was looking at this change. The big B made a large enough jump in ability to make me willing to do the jump. My buddy at work has a B2601 and after him spending some time with me and my B2650, he is very upset with himself for letting himself buy the B2601. He agrees that it is no where near what the B2650 is but he is financially stuck in his position. He very much wishes that he went to the B2650 or even the L2501... that by the way.... is about $300 less equally equipped than the B2650 because the B2650 is a premium (luxury?) model while the L2501 is a more basic model with less frilly features. But while your racking your brains, toss the L2501 in there as well to at least partially consider.
Stop. Think. Act.
Try to really think about this, it is a big purchase and it will cost you aggravation (to keep) or money (to sell at a loss) if you make a mistake here. This is not something that you want to screw up and throw more money at it to make it right. I did that last year LOL! Luckily I bought the BX used and was able to almost wash out of it with minimal impact. Purchasing a new one would have cost me thousands of dollars in loss.
If I were doing this again, I would likely NOT buy the backhoe. I was told not to, but I would not hear it. Well, I used it for a few hours and finished what I needed... and it has been sitting in the back of my garage for most of the year. I believe I pinned it on 3 times this year. Sure, it is nice to have when you need it. But that is $9,000 sitting there doing nothing 99% of the tractors use time. Subtract that and I could have instead went with a heated and air conditioned cab and been ahead of the game! Then I could call a rental shop and spend $500 once a year for a weekend mini excavator rental and dig the heck out of anything I want for those couple days.
Let us know if you are on flat-ish ground over there in the snow ski area.... or if you are on slopes.
