Landscaping tasks, looking at a BX24, will it be enough? Pictures included!

[Taiser]

Wow lots of action on this thread

Henro...

Thanks for the input. I understand a "B" is better than a "BX" and an "M" is better than a "B", this game can be played forever, what I'm wondering is if the "BX" will suit my needs and so far it sounds like it will. The backhoe is the tool (toy) I want the most and getting a "B" simply will not allow me to get one now, not to mention that getting one later will cost a small fortune I'm sure.

I'd have to settle for "B" without one, and the "B" I'm looking at has less HP than the "BX" anyways. I'm not financing this thing, I'm paying cash, simply because I hate monthly payments, even a 0% financing deal. Paying cash the "BX" seems good for the money. I don't need too much ground clearance, my lot is flat and sandy. A plastic fan is not that scary, nothing I can't weld a cage of some kind under I'm sure. How much tractor am I gonna need in two years or so when the worst of the landscaping is done. Again I don't want a 30k lawnmower...that's overkill and besides, I doubt I'll get rid of my Cub anyways, it does a superb job mowing !

 

[kwolfe]

Taiser,
As for the plastic fan, you can get a nice Brotec skid plate for about $150 I think. Glad to see you are getting a lot of input.

Like I said before Limited Cat 1 is BS. I can spread the lower link arms of my bx1500 over 30" wide . I have a standard 5' back blade for grading and snow removal of my 150' driveway. It works great.

I only wish I had the BH.

 

[bird1968]

Taiser,

All I can say, if you get the BX24, you will have no regrets...unless your neighbour has a B3030 & he let you try it (to tease you)

From my experience & your photos, the BX24 is more than capable to do the job!

I could list the things I've done with the BX22, but even the dealer that sold it to me ,almost did not beleive it!

The BH is a must!

Bird

 

[Qrazy]

Well, I dug up about 35 cedar stumps this past summer with my BX24. Several of them at least a foot in diameter. I usually did 3 or 4 a night after work. As long as you are patient and have the time, you can do lots with this little sucker....In fact I dug them all up with the mower deck still attached....To date the FEL, mower deck and BH still haven't come off my machine....Yes, I mow that way too....My dealer told me it was ok, and he services it, so, thats my stance...

Good luck on your decision,
Qrazy

 

[Jim_Becker]

I recently did some relatively heavy duty landscaping work with my BX22...moving around large rocks and digging a few larger stumps out. It was slow work, but that machine got it done...even with a not-so-welcome hydraulic hose leak in the middle of the job. Some of the rocks likely weighed 1000+ lbs, yet I was able to slide/shuffle/roll them with the BH to where I needed them to be. Surprised the heck out of me! (Not that a bigger, badder machine wouldn't have been fun, mind you... )

Oh, and the new mounting formats of the BX24 really look interesting as compared to my "older machine"...

I do remove the FEL and BH when mowing and remove the MMM when doing heavy FEL and BH work. The FEL takes about a minute and a half to remove or install and I have the BH down to 3-5 minutes. The MMM is a bit more of a pain in that respect...

 

[DanR67]

Henro...

Thanks for the input. I understand a "B" is better than a "BX" and an "M" is better than a "B", this game can be played forever, what I'm wondering is if the "BX" will suit my needs and so far it sounds like it will.

Taiser -

I guess I disagree with the term "better" - I think "more capability" is more accurate: an M has "more capability" than a L - which has more than a B which has more than a BX etc.

But a BX would likely be "better" than an M if you only had a 1/2 acre lot to maintain - not that the M isn't "capable"...but you probably can't drive one over your septic system for example...it's simply a question of "having the right tool for the job."

In short - from what you have described (pulling small-ish tree stumps / levelling - landscaping) as your primary NEEDS (not "wants" / "dreams" / "just to have one") - the BX23/24 should work fine for you.

I think the reason that one often hears "bigger is better" - is that a new owner may underestimate the tasks they plan - or come to realize the additional work they could accomplish if "they'd only gone bigger..."

From the other BX owners who have replied - and the various posts I have seen here at TBN showing projects completed by these small workhorses - I don't think you need to worry about a BX24 "not being enough"

The backhoe is the tool (toy) I want the most and getting a "B" simply will not allow me to get one now, I don't need too much ground clearance, my lot is flat and sandy.

The thing to remember when buying a tractor is clearly separating NEEDS from WANTS. Since you plan on keeping your Cub Cadet as a mower - your NEEDS (as I understand them) are for a backhoe (tree removal / ditching) and a FEL (moving / levelling soil) AND keeping to a certain budget - while at the same time NOT having any time constraints (ex. finishing project X so that a foundation can get poured etc etc) in which to complete your projects.

From the pictures and descriptions you posted - the BX24 has the CAPABILITY you NEED (as time is not a factor) - at the price you are comfortable spending. Enough said!

Not to say that you might someday dream / fantasize / WANT a larger tractor...but you don't NEED one.

***************************************************

Maybe to help clarify "NEEDS vs WANTS" - here is a link to one of my first posts - where I laid out what I was looking for in a tractor:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/buying-pricing-comparisons/33820-1st-tractor-jd-2210-vs.html

My NEED - first and foremost - was to replace an aging riding lawn mower - which had my wife pushing for a great deal on a barely-used JD subCUT - but I also knew that we NEEDED a larger CUT for dealing with larger rocks / boulders that pop up through frost action in our "yard" (like Henro - I don't have a "lawn" - rather a nicely groomed yard... )

Since I knew I would also venture into the woods a bit - ground clearance was one deciding factor for me in favor of a B-Series - as well as greater FEL / 3PH lifting capacities etc.

Certainly a BX or other subCUT would have met my primary mowing needs - but I honestly don't think it could have handled some of the chores that my B7610 has done. (Any outraged BX owners: please look through my pics linked in my signature And I am near the lifting limit with my 3PH forks as it is...)

Having said that - I have rented a larger TLB on several occasions - and even if I did have a BH on my B7610 - it simply would not have been capable of performing what the larger equipment could do (so much for my BH dream... )

As someone suggested - perhaps you could ask your dealer for a test drive - or just go out and rent a BX24 (or similar) for a weekend - and prove to yourself that it meets your needs.

Hope that helps - and happy tractor buying!

Dan

 

[LBrown59]

Wow lots of action on this thread

Henro...

Thanks for the input. I understand a "B" is better than a "BX" and an "M" is better than a "B", this game can be played forever, what I'm wondering is if the "BX" will suit my needs and so far it sounds like it will. The backhoe is the tool (toy) I want the most and getting a "B" simply will not allow me to get one now, not to mention that getting one later will cost a small fortune I'm sure.

I'd have to settle for "B" without one, and the "B" I'm looking at has less HP than the "BX" anyways. I'm not financing this thing, I'm paying cash, simply because I hate monthly payments, even a 0% financing deal. Paying cash the "BX" seems good for the money. I don't need too much ground clearance, my lot is flat and sandy. A plastic fan is not that scary, nothing I can't weld a cage of some kind under I'm sure. How much tractor am I gonna need in two years or so when the worst of the landscaping is done. Again I don't want a 30k lawnmower...that's overkill and besides, I doubt I'll get rid of my Cub anyways, it does a superb job mowing !

That's not how it works in the tractor game because bigger is not always better .

 

[Taiser]

So I visited the Kubota dealer today because I've decided to get the BX. I've upgraded my purchase date looking at early January when my overtime payout arrives (before the wife gets it and spends it on something else ). I'm having second thoughts about the dealer here, who is the only dealer in town. Here's why.

First is the price. He is asking just under 22k for the basic machine, but that includes dealer prep, freight etc. Does NOT include taxes. I've done some calling around and there are dealers near me in the USA (I'm only a half hour from the border, dealers are about 2 1/2- 3 hours away) and the going price there is roughly 17.5K US. With the exchange rate that comes to about just over 19K. Now I'm willing to pay a little more here for the local economy and the fact that the dealer is local, but I'm looking at 25k here with taxes. A full 3k over what I can get it in the US for. Don't get me wrong I'd still be willing to pay this price if that what the demand for these is getting him.

I got a buddy who works at customs and thanks to Free Trade there is no duty on these tractors, because they are manufactured in the USA. I'd just have to pay the Federal and Provincial taxes at the border. I told the local dealer all this and he started telling me that Kubota would NOT honor the warranty here in Canada if I bought from the US. Seems strange but I've had similar problems with a Home Theater projector I bought in the US, so it's not unheard of. I got no problem with that because if warranty work came up I would just bring it down to the US to fix, we go there all the time anyways. I'm sure lots of garages here would do non-warranty work, but most could probably be done by myself anyhow.

When I told him of this then he told me that Kubota would not even let the US dealer REGISTER the warranty if they find out that it was bought in the US and taken to Canada. Now the dealer I spoke to in the US was very friendly and I told him where I was from and he never mentioned any of this to me. In fact he says he has lots of Canadian customers! Does it sound like my local dealer is feeding me a line???

He has one machine on the lot left and says the previous ones went fast! He says the 22k price is a combination of his sale and a kubota sale at the same time and only applies to the machine he has on the lot. He does not know when Kubota will take the sale away but at the end of November it may be a couple of thousand more than it is now IF kubota decides to drop the sale price. ????

OK no problem, I told him I can give him a BIG deposit if he can hold it until January (only six weeks away folks!). He hummed and hawed about this and decided against it. He said I could finance it for 6 months then pay the balance (with all those happy financing fees to go along with it). OK maybe they are selling fast and he will sell it no problem good for him (it's been on the lot for about a month now though, how many guys buy a tractor in December anyways???).

I told him I don't want to finance anything (I'm funny that way) and would pay him CASH the first week of January. I'm going to wait out until January anyways and see if it's still on the lot, if it's not and he can't get me the same machine then I'd be shopping elsewhere, politely said though . I thought I was making a pretty decent offer, his asking price, huge deposit and cash balance in just over a month? Seems weird to me.

I may have to go green after all if this keeps up.

Thoughts/comments???

 

[Stargazer]

Sully2:

I can't speaK for the bx-22 (or 24 or others) but my bx-23 does take standard cat 1 implements. Bought the $70 harbor freight Quik tach which works just fine with the 5' woods HD rear blade (it turned 180 before fine) and a TSC middle buster. Had bought a handi-hitch trailer setup (narrow) that I had to jury rig with long pins to fit QH. And the 4' box blade TSC sold me also is the narrow orange not the yellow I had in the brochure so am going to have to do same (and maybe spread lower arms with portapower to fit QH/strength of pins issue). I can now back into blade and hook up from seat except for pinning the front blade standup holder up. I do think the top link adjuster is not standard size 1 maybe 2" shorter than std.

 

[Stargazer]

Taiser:

I think green is going to run you even more esp for a BH on the small series if even availble. Last year a similar sized (1-2 hp more) 4310? green was just less than 2k than my 23 when bought. Green only had fel/mmm no Bh plus got the high amp alternator block heater a set of rear wheel weights on mine. Hard to do since JD has big plant just 10 miles away but (figure) they make mostly cotton pickers here in Iowa. gut level is cand dealer is giving you a line but verify with the us dealer on warranty stuff. Could of had 40 hr used farm progrees show same dealer 2350? with woods fel/bh (no 60"mmm 2 k$) for 14,5k instead of 18.5 with 2.5 hrs on mine.

IMHO jd is aweful proud of its shade of green.

Pat R