New BX25 owner, first weekend adventures.

[Rock Crawler]

We got the BX last week used with 93 hours on the clock and noted that the 50 hour service was not completed. So the start was to run to a dealer and buy all fluids for engine, front axle and rear axle as well as all filters including the 2 fuel filters. Around $300 later we were off to the garage to do a complete change of fluids and filters including the hydro screen. That was completed in a couple hours and out of the way, so we wanted to get a feel for the little machine and what we could do.

So next we head down into the property to a camp fire party area that we use that naturally is on a slope. We don't have flat property where we live, so I really was interested in collecting clay/dirt and moving it to the camp fire area so that it would be level. You know, minimize the drunks falling over in camp chairs!

First thing noted was that unlike a larger machines, you loose a ton of lifting/curling power to the front loader while you are pushing forward with the machine, it is as if the hydraulic power is being split or shared between the 2. So if your pushing forward into dirt/clay and you get stopped, you often can not simply curl/lift and get moving while spinning the tires, your forced to stop motion so that you gain the ability to curl and them get moving and rotate the bucket in again. It's a baby tractor, so I guess this is part of the technique.

The backhoe has a similar issue, if your trying to multi-control the curl, the dipper and the arm to dig the power is greatly reduced across all. Use 1 or 2 at a time and you can often find more power. It just does not have the hydraulic performance to work the controls as you would on a larger backhoe. Baby machine limitations.

My buddy told me on day one to get a skid on it right away. Well, 4 days in and I cleaned the fan blades off of the HST fan. A stupid little stick went up and hit the blades and in less than a second I heard the fan hit and the blades went scattering around me. I need to get a skid! I have the old fan off, and it's waiting for new parts.

Overall, I had to learn the techniques for working with such a small and limited machine. It will work, and it will do what you want, you just have re-learn how to work around the limitations.

In 10 hours of engine time I was able to move a massive amount of dirt to level out our camp fire area, I used the loader to cut dirt from logging roads above the camp area and carry it down to dump, back drag and pack in layers until I built up around 3 feet to the low end of the fire pit area.

I also put my 11 year old boy to work removing stumps from an area that my older son once built some form of cabin. He flat topped small trees to use as floor supports, and the cabin thing has fallen, but the tree stumps remained. I put my younger boy to work with the backhoe and he got amazingly good at controlling it in just 15 minutes. Heck, he is better at the backhoe than me with maybe 2 hours of total life exposure to a backhoe. Kids learn fast.

Overall, my impression changed from disappointment to respect of this baby tractor. It's not a construction grade machine for doing hard work fast, but it will do hard work and a lot of it at a pace that you and a shovel would die trying to do. Once I learned how to work with it, it becomes a pretty effective and efficient machine for getting work done. A larger tractor (Kioti CK2610?) would surely dig better and faster, but is it worth over 2X the money when I am not doing this for pay? Likely... no. Plus, I can throw a belly mower under this and cut my near 3 acre yard in similar fashion to my garden tractor where a CK2610 would an unwieldy beast.

Back to the HST fan, I did not like the idea of stripping the seat, controls, removing the rear body, remove the hood and lift and pull the engine forward to get to the fan. That sounded painful. Instead, I pulled the front driveshaft CV from the crankshaft yoke. Removed the front CV from the shaft. Removed the crankshaft yoke. Removed the rear CV from the shaft. Spun the fan so that the half circle cut out was at obout the 8 o'clock position and removed one transmission bolt, then reached into that half circle cut out with a shallow 12mm socket on a 3/8" universal and a 6" extension and got the rear axle/driveshaft yoke clamp bolt out. At that point I was able slide the entire yoke forward and remove the 2 bolts holding the broken fan hub on. I plan to reassemble in reverse order. Total time to disassemble was about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Everything is being done with the tractor on jack stands and working from underneath. I do not want to make a habit of doing this, so I am ordering a skid plate pronto!

A picture of the celebratory camp fire after getting the fire area all leveled out and smooth. I like it!

 

[Rock Crawler]

Random question, If I added KTAC insurance on the BX, would things like this be covered under that insurance plan, or is it only for more catastrophic damages? I did call KTAC and asked about insuring a used BX that I paid cash for and they said no issue at all. It's around $15.70 per thousand dollars covered, per year. Used makes no difference. Cash vs finance makes no difference. I just need to call them back with the serial number and they will sell me the insurance. I think it's worth having so long as it covers me should I roll it or do some other act of stupidity.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Oh, and I did get the tires filled with 10 gallons of Rim Guard so it's 110 lbs per rear tire.

 

[Tractor Dell]

Glad to see you are liking the new toy! I know you were a bit disappointed at first. You are right in that the hydraulics are shared, so unless you really have the RPM's up, you will really notice it when you try to do too much at the same time. Also, sorry about the fan. I read all the horror stories about that before I bought my BX23S, so I ordered my BXpanded under armor before it was even out in the yard. Since then, I have heard that plate get hit a lot when in the woods. When I look under, I see all kinds of scratches on it, but nothing got through.

I had my 7 year old on my backhoe when digging a huge fire pit. I swear in 5 minutes he had the controls down better than me. His comment was, "This is just like the digger at the park!" haha :laughing:

 

[anthonyv]

Glad to see you are enjoying the little tractor. Just a suggestion I noticed in your pic's there is no tooth bar on the loader bucket. Most recommend the Bxpanded Piranha, you will find that the BX will dig more efficiently & with less effort. I have one on my BX24 & I noticed a major difference in digging. The subcompact's are not construction machines, but for around the property can't be beat.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Glad to see you are liking the new toy! I know you were a bit disappointed at first. You are right in that the hydraulics are shared, so unless you really have the RPM's up, you will really notice it when you try to do too much at the same time. Also, sorry about the fan. I read all the horror stories about that before I bought my BX23S, so I ordered my BXpanded under armor before it was even out in the yard. Since then, I have heard that plate get hit a lot when in the woods. When I look under, I see all kinds of scratches on it, but nothing got through.

I had my 7 year old on my backhoe when digging a huge fire pit. I swear in 5 minutes he had the controls down better than me. His comment was, "This is just like the digger at the park!" haha :laughing:

I've been using 2,700 RPM as my working revs, at the rated 3200 it sounds like it is buzzing hard. If you push the throttle lever to the hard stop it actually way over revs to 3,500 RPM, not sure why they allow it to be over fueled past the limit? Am I giving up a notable amount of performance by limiting the engine to 2,700 RPM? Fuel consumption was about 4.5 gallons in right around 10 hours at that level. Pretty economical compared to my 26HP Kohler V-Twin that burns about a gallon per hour in super unleaded cutting the field. So fuel consumption per hour on this thing is way the heck less than I am used to seeing while mowing with the Craftsman.

It bothers me emotionally to run an engine at maximum rated RPM (3,200 in this case) because I feel as if it would be like driving my truck down the highway in 2nd gear at the red line.... At 2,700 RPM I am not up against the physical limitations of the rotating assembly and the valve train parts.... But maybe I am looking at it wrong? Would you blast it up to 3,200 all of the time when using the loader and hoe?

 

[Rock Crawler]

Glad to see you are enjoying the little tractor. Just a suggestion I noticed in your pic's there is no tooth bar on the loader bucket. Most recommend the Bxpanded Piranha, you will find that the BX will dig more efficiently & with less effort. I have one on my BX24 & I noticed a major difference in digging. The subcompact's are not construction machines, but for around the property can't be beat.

Anthony, I do plan to get the BXpanded plate for the bottom, and the tooth bar. I also want to get a cheap Amazon weld on BH thumb. That is about all I think I'll need other than a LED bar hanging from the top of the ROPS. I hate that the headlights are perfectly placed to be blocked by the loader. Bad design.

My father ran to Kubota near us and got the CV boot for $3 and the new HST cooling fan for $7. Dirt cheap, but my... what a pain in the butt to change!

 

[Tractor Dell]

I've been using 2,700 RPM as my working revs, at the rated 3200 it sounds like it is buzzing hard. If you push the throttle lever to the hard stop it actually way over revs to 3,500 RPM, not sure why they allow it to be over fueled past the limit? Am I giving up a notable amount of performance by limiting the engine to 2,700 RPM? Fuel consumption was about 4.5 gallons in right around 10 hours at that level. Pretty economical compared to my 26HP Kohler V-Twin that burns about a gallon per hour in super unleaded cutting the field. So fuel consumption per hour on this thing is way the heck less than I am used to seeing while mowing with the Craftsman.

It bothers me emotionally to run an engine at maximum rated RPM (3,200 in this case) because I feel as if it would be like driving my truck down the highway in 2nd gear at the red line.... At 2,700 RPM I am not up against the physical limitations of the rotating assembly and the valve train parts.... But maybe I am looking at it wrong? Would you blast it up to 3,200 all of the time when using the loader and hoe?

I use mine right about 2300 for the most part. I only bump it up higher when I am really trying to push it to do something hard, but then bring it back down. Like you, the sound of the engine running that hard is just against my nature, even though most people say it will be fine. In my non-expert opinion, I think you are doing it the way I would then. As you said, you just need to learn how to work with the smaller sized tractor.

Oh, you may want to get consider getting a pressure tester for your hydraulics. Sometimes they are set kind of low from the factory. When I got mine, I tested it and it was in the middle of the specs, but I bumped it up to 1950 and noticed a huge difference in what I could do with it, and at lower RPM's. Just a thought.

 

[timswi]

I use mine right about 2300 for the most part. I only bump it up higher when I am really trying to push it to do something hard, but then bring it back down. Like you, the sound of the engine running that hard is just against my nature, even though most people say it will be fine. In my non-expert opinion, I think you are doing it the way I would then. As you said, you just need to learn how to work with the smaller sized tractor.

Oh, you may want to get consider getting a pressure tester for your hydraulics. Sometimes they are set kind of low from the factory. When I got mine, I tested it and it was in the middle of the specs, but I bumped it up to 1950 and noticed a huge difference in what I could do with it, and at lower RPM's. Just a thought.

I run my BX23 at WOT all the time except when using the BH--Gotta be careful as that will easily over-power the machine. Had it since 2004 and never had a mechanical issue with it. I leave the MMM on all the time for fan protection--I almost never run it in the woods though.

 

[anthonyv]

Have to agree on changing out the fan, biggest pain ever. My older BX2200 didn't need to move the engine to remove the drive shaft, somewhere there is a Kubota "eganeer" that got quite an atta boy for the new design, more labor charges. As for the other post i also leave the mower on for the summer grass cutting, too much trouble removing it. But in the cooler seasons I remove it & opt for the under armor because it makes it easier to maneuver through the trees cleaning up fallen limbs with the reduced width. The one thing you will start to realize with owning one of these machines they are worse than golf ,fishing, or hunting when it comes to buying accessories. Seems to always be something else you just can't live without.