New (to me) bx23

[bx23barry]

Hi folks! This is a great forum! I’ve just joined the ranks of the little Kubota owner/operators with the purchase of a used bx23. I think the thing has 236 hard hours on it but I figure that is just broke in and I’m not gonna be working it to death (I hope). This ain’t exactly little tractor country (Calif. central valley) and there just isn’t much around used (they go quick and high). I paid too much at $13,000 but it still beats $16,500 for a new one. And resale seems to be pretty good.
I got about 3 level acres up next to the foothills on the east central valley (about 20 miles southeast of Sacramento) that used to be a small walnut orchard (most of the Trees have died (root-bound in the hardpan) and I’ve removed them). About two acres are split into three horse pastures for the wife’s pets. The rest is the house, gravel drive/parking, garage/shop, small lawn, small vegetable garden and some open space.
I used to have little (big for craftsman) old craftsman with a tiller and front blade but the pto box blew up and I couldn’t get any parts. So it went the way of ebay. Been without for about 5 years and it has just been a pain to find people to do little stuff and they want an arm and leg even to rent stuff (this is Calif.). Now there is just a bunch of stuff that needs doing. I figure it would just be easier to do the stuff around here than find someone to do it. Hence tractor purchase. It will be used mostly for tilling, leveling, planting the pastures, cleaning stalls, leveling the gravel areas, weed spaying and digging out irrigation lines for moving and repair. I’ve got a few projects piled up; Replacing the sewer line from the house to the septic tank (about 40’) (they want $4500 to do that). Filling the old postholes they pulled when some new fence went in (1500’). Cleaning out/opening up the 200’ drainage ditch that goes through the place. Filling/leveling a little slope/lowspot that turns into a mud hole in the winter. The driveway needs more gravel. Need to plant some trees. The front lawn needs redone. And I’m sure I’ll find more stuff just cause I have this thing. It seems a lot of you do a lot of mowing but the dry heat here turns everything brown by May and only stuff that gets water lives through the summer. We have a lawn tractor to mow the one front lawn but the push mower is almost as fast and I need to get it out for the two small side lawns anyway. I do mow a 15’ strip along the road and some of the open area but that only needs mowing a few times in the spring. So mowing isn’t an issue.
I’ve been around cars trucks and equipment most of my life (operator/mechanic/Parts/sales/supervisor/manager) but have no experience with these sub compacts and my ag tractor/farm experience is 30+ years old. So I got some questions.
Anyway I got a Maschio L125 tiller (chain drive, 49inch wide, 4 tine, 320lbs) for it. I was told these are the tillers JD paints green and sells as frontier. I’m not sure this tiller is the same as the little DJs but they do look like the bigger green tillers. I am surprised the tiller does hardly work the pto. I can’t say as much for the ground working the tiller and the tractor. I watered about 16 hours before tilling the pastures and still the tiller did a lot of bouncing on top and shoving the tractor around even set only a couple inches deep going real slow. None of this ground has been touched in the last 5-6 years. I got it tilled up pretty good with three passes in different directions in about 15 hours over a few days (felt almost like when I was a kid driving real tractors on real farms). Anyway this all shook some pins out of the tph and loosened some bolts (went over all the tiller bolts twice) along with shearing a couple pins (darn buried t-posts and logs). Other than losing some paint on the inside the tiller seems fine but some of the tines are worn to a point already. I’m not too excited about replacing tines every year (or less). I used to run the tiller over the gravel to clean it up and level it without much wear. I’m afraid that will wipe the tines out completely (especially since the gravel is packed like concrete now after not touching it for 5-6 years). How long do your guys tines last? I know I got some hard ground but this is silly.
I also got a gearmore bb20-48 box blade (48” 340lbs). Thought it would be good on the gravel areas and leveling the pasture and the rippers might be helpful in the hard pan. I have run A lot of farm equipment plus dozers, graders, loaders and scrapers but never a box blade. I haven’t done much with it yet but I did try to run the rippers in the pasture to loosen the soil before tilling. I put the 4 shanks in the center of the three holes and they would float along the top awhile then stop the tractor (wheels a spinning) when they bit. I put the two outside one up and tried again. It would float then bite and the tractor would pull the box full and spin (the top link was as short as it would go). I raised the hitch till it would go again and lowered it again. Made a couple passes than switched the shanks (outside down inside up) and did it all again. Then all four, then two deeper, other two deep, and finally all four deep. This was a lot of passes to get 4 shanks 6-8” deep. I do remember pulling a (one) 4 foot ripper with a d8 and spinning tracks though so maybe I’m asking too much of this little tractor? This was before I watered. After I watered it just made a mess and tried to stick the tractor. Besides not pulling the rippers it seemed like the box would just keep filling up and not put the dirt back down. It just wanted to dig (again with the top link as short as I could get it). I even went back to the dealer to see if my top link was too long (same as the other bx’s in the yard). Do you have to run with the blade raised? Seems pretty short coupled to really do any leveling. I’m thinking of putting gauge wheels way out front and back to make a kind of land plane and just tow the thing. Or maybe I just need some more seat time with it. Haven’t tried it on the gravel yet.
I’m pretty disappointed the bucket won’t raise the front wheels off the ground. Dealer says it should so maybe the relief is just set too low. I’ve seen photos on this forum with all the wheels in the air so I’m hoping it is an easy fix. I don’t have the manuals yet (should be in towards the end of the week) so I haven’t messed with it.
Went out and started digging a trench with the hoe for some more irrigation lines and it is real slow going (I’ll take some credit for slow being totally out of practice). The relief is blowing a lot and it takes a good two or three bites to get a bucket full but even at that it beats the pick/bar/shovel act.
The e-flashers were going on by magic so I pulled the fuse. Read on here about the flaky switch but I don’t really have a use for the flashers right now anyway. Also the air cleaner bracket was broken where it bolts to the head when I got it so I welded that up. I just bought some linch pins to replace all the hairpins on the three point pins. I’ll have to drill the holes out for them but I’ve already lost one pin when the hairclip fell out. I’ll have to safety-chain them all on. Really needs a toolbox too (I can’t believe a tractor with no toolbox).
After reading this forum and doing some serious shopping, I went with bx23. Other choice was New Holland tc26 but that was $5000 more and it’s hard to justify what I spent on this one. Hope this little thing can “git her done”.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Nice to see another central Kalifornian!

You said it, they go quick and high. I coundn't find a used one at all. I think you did pretty good at 13K.

Don't really know what to tell you about the tiller. I got an old Yanmar and was going to use it to breakup fields, old range land, for smoothing. I didn't even attempt it last summer. I did test it during a dry spell this winter, ie, dirt just barely moist, and it worked very well. If I use it again, it will be under similar conditions.

I settled on using the box blade rippers just like you. Yep: short top link so the ripper points are at about 45°, go slow so you let the chatter work for you, zig zag or do anything to get one of those rippers to catch, sometimes you get a basketball size clod ... that's the way it goes. Always use 4WD and use the diff lock a lot. Also I run about 15psi in the tires. If the clods get to be too much of a pain to drive thru I smash them with my ranch truck. The BX will to the work but it will take some time. Surprisingly, I fornd that an old springtooth will do a pretty good job ripping also under certain conditions. Depending on what you want to do, a rear blade may be aggressine enough to do some grading without ripping. I'm doing it that way on my back field now.

Between the loader performance and the backhoe, your relief MAY need to be shimmed. Can you lift a heaping loader full of wet dirt?

There's a lot of techniques to using the boxblade. To me all of them require skill and are a pain in the butt to me. You're right, the BX is too short coupled. I thought about the land plane too. The simple gauge wheel arrangement I made is all you'll ever need to do any leveling/smoothing. It's impossible for me to overstate how easy grading is with gauge wheels on a box blade, rear blade or rake. Check out my pix.

I welded my air filter strap 3 times. The last time I even annealed it to try to get the brittleness out. I gave up. Then I used a nylon zip tie. It broke. Now I use a small piece of rope. So far so good.

Cheers!

 

[bx23barry]

< I think you did pretty good at 13K.>

Good to know

<. I got an old Yanmar and was going to use it to breakup fields, old range land, for smoothing.>

I almost did the same thing but bought new just cause I knew it would get a workout. I had to replace bearings on the old craftsman tiller each year I used it. The tines held up though.

<I did test it during a dry spell this winter, ie, dirt just barely moist, and it worked very well. If I use it again, it will be under similar conditions.>

I really plan to till in the spring (as soon as it dries up enough to get on) but hey, I got the thing now.

<short top link so the ripper points are at about 45°>

Did you shorten the link or move the mount? I can’t get much angle on them.

<go slow so you let the chatter work for you, zig zag or do anything to get one of those rippers to catch, / Always use 4WD and use the diff lock a lot.>

You know all my tricks too 

<Surprisingly, I fornd that an old springtooth will do a pretty good job ripping also under certain conditions.>

I am thinking I need some kind of drag harrow. I see something called a Drag Chain Harrow in the gearmore catalog. Looks more aggressive than a piece of chain link and can be flipped over to be less aggressive a just cover seed. Anybody use one of these? But maybe I’ll build a spike tooth harrow and get a piece of chain link. Also, we used to use something called a ring roller to break clods, smooth and pack before and/or after planting. It seemed to work great but I can't find anything on google. ??????

<Between the loader performance and the backhoe, your relief MAY need to be shimmed. Can you lift a heaping loader full of wet dirt?>

I think it pretty weak. I haven’t done much with the fel, but I wouldn’t lift a dana 60 rear end I wanted to move. The back hoe did lift it but the front wheels got pretty light so maybe it was a too much but it shouldn’t be much over 400#.

<The simple gauge wheel arrangement I made is all you'll ever need to do any leveling/smoothing. It's impossible for me to overstate how easy grading is with gauge wheels on a box blade, rear blade or rake.>

I really like your gage wheels. Especilly how far thay can be moved back. I just need to play with the bb some more but I see at least gage wheels in my future.

<I welded my air filter strap 3 times. The last time I even annealed it to try to get the brittleness out. I gave up. Then I used a nylon zip tie. It broke. Now I use a small piece of rope. So far so good.>

I’m thinking about rubber mounts between the engine and filter but really the hoses keep it from going anywhere anyway. Tie straps will be fine. Far back burner project.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Top links: Actually I bought 2 new ones of the el cheapo variety found almost any where. One is shorter and one is longer than stock. I have a Bushhog box scraper and it has 2 top link holes that one may have worked better than the other for the rippers. Of course, you need a long adjustment for smoothing so the box rides on the rear blade so the front one doesn't keep cutting.

Ring roller: I couldn't get any hits either but found they seem to be called ring pulverizers or floating-ring pulverizers. Schmeiser roller and cultipacker also were related searches. Never could find a small one.

 

[bx23barry]

<Ring roller: I couldn't get any hits either but found they seem to be called ring pulverizers or floating-ring pulverizers. Schmeiser roller and cultipacker also were related searches. Never could find a small one.>

Found this: http://www.chiliimp.com/search.cfm?Id=7920 One of the wing sections may be just the ticket. Of course the freight may kill the deal. Brillion makes a 5’ pull pulverizer and at nearly 800# should work pretty good. Couldn’t find a price through. I’m just gonna keep my eyes open for something local. Wouldn’t be too hard to cut down a long one I guess.

 

[Jimbrown]

Sounds like it working about right. the bucket will not lift the front tires unless it is in the full dump position, it will not do it in the level position at least mine will not. The poor little back hoe will struggle in hard dirt. I have some that I am luckey if it will get a hanfull of dirt per scoop plus it takes a little while to get the feel for the thing It will not dig like a full size hoe so you got to kinda go gentel with it.

 

[Volfandt]

To get the most out of the hydraulics you've got to run the BX23 at just a hair off full throttle. That way you'll get all of the rated 5.5 gpm. (they've upped the BX24's gpm a full point btw) Seems I've read a post awhile back about someone shimming up a BX23 to get mo' pow'r but don't recall the proceedure, I'd also be interested in alittle more pow'r.....

Likes been said, breakout force is more powerful than lift on the FEL so to lift the front wheels you need to use the rollback. You should be able to get all 4 wheels up.
I've found when digging with the BH is that the 1st bite is the toughest and it's generally the smallest bite I get. Once I've broken through, which takes one or two bites I don't generally have any problems filling my 12" bucket on each bite. I've got clay and lots of rocks....
I've only got 160 hrs and the infamous bracket hasn't broke yet. Now with that said I've probably jinxed it
Only time my e-flashers act up is when I pressure wash the tractor's dash. I"ve found that if I stay away from the dash when washing I don't have 'em going off on their own. Course I keep it in the dry and wonder how long my battery would last if it set outside during a couple storms......

Your report is good and hits on the performance of the BX23 pretty good. I've often said that it'll dig it's little heart out but it takes more time because of it's size. It works out good for me and what I use it for and even though you can never cost justify a BH, my back hasn't ached not once in all the digging I've done since the BX23 arrived at my humble abode.

I don't have a tiller attachment (wish I did) but do have a Gilson Bros rear tine walk behind. And when breaking new ground it's all over the place. The tines turn in the same direction as the wheels so it's nothing for it to take off. It does pretty well once I get through the crust. I suspect all tillers are like this to some extent. I've had it for about 10yrs and the paperwork says the tines are self sharpening, I haven't done anything to 'em and it seems to work fine.

Most all the scuts have similar performance so inorder to get more power and speed you'll have to move on up to the east side

I can see a B3030 w/cab in my future one of these days.......

Volfandt

 

[LBrown59]

*I don't have a tiller attachment
(wish I did) but do have a Gilson Bros rear tine walk behind. And when breaking new ground it's all over the place. The tines turn in the same direction as the wheels so it's nothing for it to take off. It does pretty well once I get through the crust. I suspect all tillers are like this to some extent. I've had it for about 10yrs and the paperwork says the tines are self sharpening, I haven't done anything to 'em and it seems to work fine.
*************
*Neither do I.
But I do keep the tiller attachment on my 1966 Bolens 850;which BTW was 40 years old last month.

 

[rdsaustintx]

HOMEBREW -- you are the attachment KING

Where did you get the parts for your box blade gage wheels?? I gotta try that. Between the short wheelbase and cheapo 3ph valve on BX23, controlling BB gets too tuff for me...

Russell in Texas

 

[bx23barry]

<Sounds like it working about right. the bucket will not lift the front tires unless it is in the full dump position, it will not do it in the level position at least mine will not.>

I can just get the front wheels off the ground if I lower the fel (with the bucket dumped) before lowering the outriggers. That just seems “weak” to me, but it may be the nature of the beast

<The poor little back hoe will struggle in hard dirt. I have some that I am luckey if it will get a hanfull of dirt per scoop plus it takes a little while to get the feel for the thing It will not dig like a full size hoe so you got to kinda go gentel with it.>

I dug a trench about 60’ long 3’ deep and got better. I got some layers so hard the teeth will scrap about ½” at a time (lifting the rear in the air). Very slow going but still better than the pick /bar/shovel (can stand/jump on a shovel forever and go nowhere).

To get the most out of the hydraulics you've got to run the BX23 at just a hair off full throttle. That way you'll get all of the rated 5.5 gpm.>

Yea, the hyd do nothing at idle. I noticed at the dealer how slow the hyds are. It would be nice to have a bigger pump (wonder if anyone has done that?) to speed things up but this is a small tractor. My problem is more pressure than speed though as I’m retired.

<Seems I've read a post awhile back about someone shimming up a BX23 to get mo' pow'r but don't recall the proceedure, I'd also be interested in alittle more pow'r.....>

I’ll post something if/when I start messing with it.

<Likes been said, breakout force is more powerful than lift on the FEL so to lift the front wheels you need to use the rollback. You should be able to get all 4 wheels up.>

The roll back just stalls (blows the relief) when I try it on mine.

<I've found when digging with the BH is that the 1st bite is the toughest and it's generally the smallest bite I get. Once I've broken through, which takes one or two bites I don't generally have any problems filling my 12" bucket on each bite. I've got clay and lots of rocks....>

I am really pretty impressed with the bh in this hard ground. In regular (even this stuff with some moisture) dirt I’m sure it would pull bucket after bucket. I wouldn’t even start digging this time of year without it.

<Only time my e-flashers act up is when I pressure wash the tractor's dash. I"ve found that if I stay away from the dash when washing I don't have 'em going off on their own.>

I just hosed the dust off to set it off. I may mess with it this winter and get around to putting some useful lights on (got caught finishing up tilling in the dark). I’m thinking the large round flashers are in a good spot for some rear floods (for 3-point stuff). Then some lights on the rop. Does this thing have tail lights are those just red reflectors on the back?

<Your report is good and hits on the performance of the BX23 pretty good. I've often said that it'll dig it's little heart out but it takes more time because of it's size. It works out good for me and what I use it for and even though you can never cost justify a BH, my back hasn't ached not once in all the digging I've done since the BX23 arrived at my humble abode.>

I think it will prove to be true in my case too. I’ve already done stuff with it I wouldn’t even have thought about doing without it and I got nothing but time (too many projects through) since I’m retired.

<I don't have a tiller attachment (wish I did) but do have a Gilson Bros rear tine walk behind. And when breaking new ground it's all over the place. The tines turn in the same direction as the wheels so it's nothing for it to take off. It does pretty well once I get through the crust. I suspect all tillers are like this to some extent. I've had it for about 10yrs and the paperwork says the tines are self sharpening, I haven't done anything to 'em and it seems to work fine.>

I also have an old craftsman 5hp rear tine that will pull ya all around the yard but does pretty good in the spring to make the wife’s garden (she wants a bigger one now that she saw the tiller on the tractor work). The tines do indeed “self sharpen” but they seem to be doing too good a job of it on this new one.

<Most all the scuts have similar performance so inorder to get more power and speed you'll have to move on up to the east side>

Yea While more power is a good thing, anything bigger on my little place would just limit where and how I could use it. I think this is really more than I really need.

<I can see a B3030 w/cab in my future one of these days.......>

Man, a cab with ac would sure be nice this last week of 110 days.

One more thing: How much weight do ya get filling the little tires on the bx and does it really make a difference? It does have more horsepower than traction and that bb really takes all the traction it’s got and than some.