Buying Advice What can a BX25 Do? Bushog? Mow? Dig?

[Scooby074]

I have a bit of a delima.

Last summer i bought a Deere x540 garden tractor. As a lawn mowing machine its preformed above expectations. Comfortable, fast and powerful.

However, im now in my first winter at the new property (hillside) and need to have a more year around machine that can handle more tasks.

This may mean buying a bigger machine such as a BX if finances allow and i wont lose my shirt on trade-in

So today i stopped into the Kubota dealer for a chat. I also plan on stopping by the massey (2300) and deere (2305) dealers as well. Il likely post up question threads in their respective forums after i visit and have questions.

After that background, heres what i need to do.

1. Maintain a 500' gravel drive and about the same in pavement. This includes snowplowing and sanding. Dealer says i need to remove the loader to plow as the loader arms cant take the strain??? If thats the case.. eek/.

Also i will have to use a back blade to reshape and slope the gravel. Does a BX have enough traction to loosen up and grade a compacted gravel drive? this will be annual maintenance from water runnoff.

2. Mowing . approx 3 acres of treed lawn . 1 plot of 1 acre, 2 at another location. Some with soft areas and less than ideal drainage. which leads to

3. installing french drains and uprooting an established lawn. this area will be graded to direct runnoff away from the house. Also a few hundred feet of reditching existing and digging new open drains

4. Annual bushhogging of ~750' road consisting of mostly <1" hardwoods, however id also like to break trail and this would mean mowing over larger material ~2- 2.5", some in "clusters" of 5-10 alders of varying sizes sharing a common root.

The dealer said the Bx couldnt handle over 1-1.5". Is this correct? How has the BX handled "larger" materials in real world situations? Especially "clusters"?

I guess those are my main criteria. The dealer was trying to sway me towards a B2320. I think for the bush hogging and digging this would be a much better machine (heavier with better ground clearance), however it just seems huge for the smallish lawns i need to take care of. Plus it seems to have a higher CG and the lawns i mow are on slopes.

I should say i have experience on a b21 and b26. The dealer warned me not to expect anything close to the performance of those machines from either the BX or the B2630.

Any advise is helpful. I need a jack of all trades and hope to make a better decision and not have to go through this again.

 

[Tom_H]

I have a BX2200 and it will do everything you discuss.

Taking the loader on/off is a cinch. After you get the learning curve down, it will take you 3 min. off and 5 min. on. Taking off the FEL to put on a front blade or a snow blower is not difficult. Using quick attach might make swapping the bucket for a blade faster than removing the entire FEL, but I doubt it's that much harder to go ahead and take off the FEL. There are plenty of people on here who just use their FEL to remove snow, so I imagine there will be some who disagree with your dealer regarding the FEL frame being too weak for pushing with a blade.

If you want to brush hog with a BX, you can go up to 48" with a rotary cutter in weeds. For thick material, there is only one single "Heavy Duty" brush cutter in small enough size for a BX and that is the Gearmore 40" model. I cut 2" clusters of Poplar sapplings with it all the time with no loss of RPM. 2.5" hardwood might require you to put a tooth bar on your loader bucket and knock them down the first year, or even pull out some big clusters with the bh. I think the Gearmore HD brush cutter would do fine after that if you hit that area early enough every year thereafter.

It will take you a little time to mow several acres of lawn, but it will go a whole lot faster than any garden tractor, regardless of whether you want to use an MMM or an RFM. At the same time, in the soft mushy soil you mention, a BX is as heavy as I would go. A bigger tractor would likely sink. I drive my BX through soft places all the time.

For maintaining your gravel drive, the Land Pride scraping grader is the most effective and easiest implement for the cost. Now there are other implements, such as a box blade that are more versatile, but that require more skill and time, and arena implements that cost multiple times as much. The LP scraping grader has no learning curve-you drop it and drive, and it is fast. I have a rear blade, a box blade, and the LP grading scraper. The latter is the easiest and fastest.

The BX25 backhoe will dig the French Drains just fine in almost any soil. I have to dig in Duripan, a sedimentary rock that is soft as far as rock goes, but harder than regular hardpan. I have a Woods bh on my BX2200. and digging in this stuff is difficult when wet following winter rain, and impossible in summer. Digging my clay topsoil, however, is easy.

If you need follow up info. on any of this, or links to threads on discussions of any of these, just ask.

 

[radioman]

scooby-
I have my BX24 for 4 years going on 5 now. It can do everything you listed. I cleared snow over a foot at times but mostly 3-6' range at times with no problems. I put a truck plow on my FEL arms and its been 2 years with no issues. but then I don't ram into things with it. I just push snow up and over with it. As for grading your driveway- BX is capable, you might want to get a boxblade with scarifiers instead of backblade. If you want to clear brush that is over 2 inches, you would want to get heavy duty equipment anyways, but you mentioned its only 750 ft. It might be better to cut with chainsaw and clear rest with smallest bush hog you can get like 40-48". Anything larger then 2 inch is firewood in my opinion. once its done, you can maintain with your bush hog.

Your dealer is right though- don't expect to get same power you were used to with b series. The projects you listed sounds like a one time thing and then maintain. perhaps a BX or low end B is just fine if your pocket isnt deep enough. you just need a mindset to understand things are smaller and can do job WITH time, not a one weekend thing.

 

[keyman1808]

Not sure why the dealer said that the FEL shouldn't be used for snow. You drive into a dirt pile to load it so snow isn't any different. I use mine for snow constantly (every 5 days a major storm lately). Works well and no problems. The BX is a stout little machine. I almost went with a B series but the cost with a BH was just too much for me. I dig oak tree stumps about 10-12 inches around and it does it but you need to dig completely around and work at it. Its will not just rip them out like a full sized machine. So the digging you mentioned should be no problem. I dont mow or brush hog so I can not comment on that.

 

[Scooby074]

Thanks guys for the replies/

I figured the BX would do what i want. The larger B is just too big IMHO for the mowing aspect of things which is probably 90% of what it'll do.I will freely admit that im impatient . Even the B26 i found too slow/weak due to having run true, fullsize backhoes, loaders and excavators commercially but i eventually got used to it.

I was more curious about the bushhog and plowing experiences. The dealer left me with a few questions that needed clarification.

Ideally id keep the deere for mowing and have a ~30 Hp for the other stuff... but thats a waste in my opinion,,, plus financially its not in the cards.

 

[AHNC]

I have a 2660 with FEL/48 rototiller, 48 Bush hog and next week likely getting a 48"box blade. I chose to forgo the back-hoe due to cost and the fact that there are some jobs that I don't mind hiring out. And, yes, i kinda/sorta regret it, but it is an expensive implement. My bush hog has handled probably 1 1/2" ok, but it isn't a chain saw and I don't give it a steady diet of it. To my mind this falls in the "right tool for the job" category. If you have a lot of heavy work that once done is not going to be regularly repeated, then rent a bigger piece of equipment and get the daily use machine you need.

I've been really happy with my BX, when I can keep air in the damned front tires that is. I'm having them tubed as i write this and would make it a condition of sale if I was buying today. Once I bought my tractor, I try to stay off this "Buying/Pricing" side of the Kubota site because I'm impressionable and could easily be talked into a new B.:thumbsup:

 

[Grandad4]

Just a little guesswork here about what your dealer was saying regarding snow plowing with the loader.

There are two ways to put a snowplow on the front: 1) remove the bucket and put one on the loader arms; and b) remove the FEL and mount one to the front of the tractor using a dedicated mounting system.

Lots of people rig an old 4x4 snowplow in place of or actually attached to the FEL bucket, which puts the blade way out in front of the tractor. If you smack a curb or something while plowing snow, particularly if you are going any speed at all, you can just envision the likelihood of damaging one of the FEL arms. Especially if you hit it at an angle or on one side only. So there is some measure of risk doing it that way.

Doing it the other way you get a really neat setup, but it costs you some extra $$$ to get the mounting setup. I think the mounting kits work with either a blade or a blower on many, if not most, tractors. And, unlike a blade mounted to the FEL, this setup connects the snowplow to the front axle and frame area directly, similar to the setup on a truck mounted snowplow, so it's more robust.

You sounded kind of puzzled by what that dealer told you. I hope this explanation makes some sense.

 

[dodge man]

I agree with others, the BX isn't a bad choice. Mowing is one of its high points compared to a B. Some of the smaller B's aren't that much heavier than a Bx though. Ground clearance and bigger tires are what you gain with a B.

When I first got my BX, it seemed plenty fast for me in terms of doing loader work. Now that I've gotten to be a little better at running it, the loader came seem slow at times. Thats just the nature of the smaller tractor.

 

[leonz]

I have a bit of a delima.

Last summer i bought a Deere x540 garden tractor. As a lawn mowing machine its preformed above expectations. Comfortable, fast and powerful.

However, im now in my first winter at the new property (hillside) and need to have a more year around machine that can handle more tasks.

This may mean buying a bigger machine such as a BX if finances allow and i wont lose my shirt on trade-in

So today i stopped into the Kubota dealer for a chat. I also plan on stopping by the massey (2300) and deere (2305) dealers as well. Il likely post up question threads in their respective forums after i visit and have questions.

After that background, heres what i need to do.

1. Maintain a 500' gravel drive and about the same in pavement. This includes snowplowing and sanding. Dealer says i need to remove the loader to plow as the loader arms cant take the strain??? If thats the case.. eek/.

Also i will have to use a back blade to reshape and slope the gravel. Does a BX have enough traction to loosen up and grade a compacted gravel drive? this will be annual maintenance from water runnoff.

2. Mowing . approx 3 acres of treed lawn . 1 plot of 1 acre, 2 at another location. Some with soft areas and less than ideal drainage. which leads to

3. installing french drains and uprooting an established lawn. this area will be graded to direct runnoff away from the house. Also a few hundred feet of reditching existing and digging new open drains

4. Annual bushhogging of ~750' road consisting of mostly <1" hardwoods, however id also like to break trail and this would mean mowing over larger material ~2- 2.5", some in "clusters" of 5-10 alders of varying sizes sharing a common root.

The dealer said the Bx couldnt handle over 1-1.5". Is this correct? How has the BX handled "larger" materials in real world situations? Especially "clusters"?

I guess those are my main criteria. The dealer was trying to sway me towards a B2320. I think for the bush hogging and digging this would be a much better machine (heavier with better ground clearance), however it just seems huge for the smallish lawns i need to take care of. Plus it seems to have a higher CG and the lawns i mow are on slopes.

I should say i have experience on a b21 and b26. The dealer warned me not to expect anything close to the performance of those machines from either the BX or the B2630.

Any advise is helpful. I need a jack of all trades and hope to make a better decision and not have to go through this again.

Buying the smallest Caroni flailmower with the B rotor
will allow you to mow sod and maintain brush land and
will serve you for years.


The flailmower mows acrs the entire width of the cut where a
rotary cutter only mows half the mowing width with one blade
at a time.

A flail mower also operates a a higher R.P.M. than a rotary cutter
and will leave very fine cuttings that will degrade to much quickly.


A Caroni flail mower with the B rotor and the cup knives will do everything for you and mow nice sod and will outlast your tractor also.

Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware

 

[TripleR]

Again, I really can't improve on the advice given. It sure sounds as though a BX will fit your needs and I second or third hiring out the one time projects or renting a unit for that. I thought I wanted a B, but wound up with another BX and it has met all of our needs.

My recommendation is to stay away from the John Deere 2305 and look at the new model that replaces it. I believe it has position control 3-point and no HST fan to break. Look at all of the makes before making up your mind. I am partial to Kubota, but all the top manufacturers make excellent tractors.

Good luck.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Buying the smallest Caroni flailmower with the B rotor
will allow you to mow sod and maintain brush land and
will serve you for years.


The flailmower mows acrs the entire width of the cut where a
rotary cutter only mows half the mowing width with one blade
at a time.

A flail mower also operates a a higher R.P.M. than a rotary cutter
and will leave very fine cuttings that will degrade to much quickly.


A Caroni flail mower with the B rotor and the cup knives will do everything for you and mow nice sod and will outlast your tractor also.

Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware

There you go!!!!
I wondered when another opportunity to push the flail mower would appear with all this snow plows, blades, throwers and doing engine tuning which none of us have ever done to our BX's and are completely satisfied with them.
Hang in there.
Is it true you have a Wheel Horse and not a Kubota?
I had a Wheel Horse riding mower (30)years ago. Sold it to a friend and I think he still has it.

 

[TripleR]

Buying the smallest Caroni flailmower with the B rotor
will allow you to mow sod and maintain brush land and
will serve you for years.


The flailmower mows acrs the entire width of the cut where a
rotary cutter only mows half the mowing width with one blade
at a time.

A flail mower also operates a a higher R.P.M. than a rotary cutter
and will leave very fine cuttings that will degrade to much quickly.


A Caroni flail mower with the B rotor and the cup knives will do everything for you and mow nice sod and will outlast your tractor also.

Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware

Leon, I may have missed something, but it looks like the smallest Caron flail needs more power than the BX25 pumps out; like I said, I may have gotten confused as that happens from time to time.

 

[Scooby074]

I know where the dealer was coming from on the plow thing. he was pushing the kubota QA system that attaches directly to the frame.

I understand its a light machine, but could the arms be tweaked that easily?


On the caroni, assuming the BX has enough HP, can it handle ~2" alders? What about clusters? Bx is 17.5 pto and the 48 flail requires 20 minimum. This might work for lawns, but i wonder how being this low on hp will work out in woody growth?

 

[Tom_H]

I respectfully disagree with the advice about getting a flail mower. They are very expensive in comparison to rotary mowers or cutters (3 to 4 times the cost), and there are three categories: light duty have knives to cut grass, heavy duty have hammers to break, not cut, heavy/stemmy material, and medium duty is in between. Size is not related to light, medium, or heavy duty; you can have a narrow heavy duty and also a wide light duty model. Flails are designed to work in areas where there are bystanders. Rotary mowers and cutters can launch rocks and hurt people. Flails will not launch projectiles. Flails also have numerous knives or hammers to maintain. A light duty flail will indeed give a fine cut on lawn, but will not cut heavy material. A heavy duty flail cuts stemmy material well, but does not have the fine cut on lawn that a light duty gives. Rotary mowers just have three blades to sharpen and brush hogs require little to no sharpening at all on the two free pivoting blades they typically have. If you want to mow lawn and also cut 2" sapplings, you really need two implements, regardless of whether you go with two rotaries, two flails, or one of each. I know of one single implement, the Woods RM990, that will cut both; it is a hybrid between a rotary mower and a rotary cutter, and requires around 80 PTO hp, so that is out of the question for a BX and also for use on a bigger tractor on your soft sod.

As to the 48" brush hog mentioned, I know of no heavy duty brush hog in that width. The 40" Gearmore is heavy duty and is the exact width of the BX body (42" body, 40" cutting swath). I find that ideal when cutting brush between trees; if the tractor fits, the RC is going to match the tractor chassis going through the same opening. The wider the blade on a given RC, the more the torque is dissipated. The HD blades, being massive, build a lot of inertia to break stemmy material. The medium and light duty rough cutters have less mass in the blades, thus less inertia, and depend on sharpness and relatively unimpeded torque to cut material. On a heavy duty model, the weight and inertia in the blades break the material that they hit.

Some have suggested getting a B rather than a BX, and while it's correct that the very lightest B is not too much heavier, I do not see it having the versatility of a BX. It is true the B has higher clearance, but the converse of that is that the BX has a lower center of gravity.

For mowing several acres of lawn, you might consider a really wide RFM rather than the OEM MMM. Again, going with a heavier tractor would not be good on that soft sod, and while the BX might take more time than a big tractor, it is going to be much faster than the garden tractor.

In my own opinion, the BX25 is the correct tractor for the situation you describe.

 

[Grandad4]

I know where the dealer was coming from on the plow thing. he was pushing the kubota QA system that attaches directly to the frame.

I understand its a light machine, but could the arms be tweaked that easily?

Tractors aren't bulldozers and any tractor FEL can be "tweaked" if you run into a solid barrier at an angle. Even on the largest of agricultural tractors. Considering the way you "plow" snow often requires you to build up a little speed to roll snow off an angled blade, it's profoundly easy to snag it on something. Can't tell you how many shear pins I broke that way plowing snow with a 4x4 long ago...

 

[CompactTractorFan]

The BX25 sounds like it would be a good fit for you...Go for it!!! :thumbsup:

 

[radioman]

I understand its a light machine, but could the arms be tweaked that easily?
[QUOTE/]
in a word- no .

On the caroni, assuming the BX has enough HP, can it handle ~2" alders? What about clusters? Bx is 17.5 pto and the 48 flail requires 20 minimum. This might work for lawns, but i wonder how being this low on hp will work out in woody growth?

That is a good question- but with all respect- you stated you only have 750 ft worth to clear for a path. A couple solid weekend cutting them down with a saw and digging out the stumps with BX is doable.

 

[Scooby074]

I understand its a light machine, but could the arms be tweaked that easily?
[QUOTE/]
in a word- no .



That is a good question- but with all respect- you stated you only have 750 ft worth to clear for a path. A couple solid weekend cutting them down with a saw and digging out the stumps with BX is doable.

Actually the 750 has already been cleared.Its the driveway into a 100ac property. That will just require ongoing maintenance. Typically <1" growth.

The larger diameter stuff would be encountered in trailmaking. I also would like to clear a road to a hilltop at the country property to build a cabin or park a trailer as a guess id say another 750' . I would also need to build a pad for parking the trailer on or building the camp.

I anticipate having to remove many larger stumps in building the pad and road. Say 12-20". The easy answer is to contract the roadbuilding out... but wheres the fun in that . Plus as we all know roadbuilding = $$$$$

 

[LBrown59]

I will vote for a BX.

I will admit i may be a little partal to them since i own 3 of them

 

[LostInTheWoods]

I can't expound much on the excellent advice you've been given so far, but I will share my personal experiences with my BX2660. The two models are so close, I doubt you'd expect much difference in performance.

After that background, heres what i need to do.

1. Maintain a 500' gravel drive and about the same in pavement. This includes snowplowing and sanding. Dealer says i need to remove the loader to plow as the loader arms cant take the strain??? If thats the case.. eek/.

Also i will have to use a back blade to reshape and slope the gravel. Does a BX have enough traction to loosen up and grade a compacted gravel drive? this will be annual maintenance from water runnoff.

I use a box blade w/ scarifiers to maintain our long, hilly gravel drive. The BX does a great job, and the learning curve isn't bad at all. I'm not sure what your history is with tractors. There are very good videos on the use of tractor implements online that were helpful for me as a tractor neophyte.

2. Mowing . approx 3 acres of treed lawn . 1 plot of 1 acre, 2 at another location. Some with soft areas and less than ideal drainage.

Can't give you much help, here. I don't use our BX for mowing.

3. installing french drains and uprooting an established lawn. this area will be graded to direct runnoff away from the house. Also a few hundred feet of reditching existing and digging new open drains

No backhoe, either.

4. Annual bushhogging of ~750' road consisting of mostly <1" hardwoods, however id also like to break trail and this would mean mowing over larger material ~2- 2.5", some in "clusters" of 5-10 alders of varying sizes sharing a common root.

The dealer said the Bx couldnt handle over 1-1.5". Is this correct? How has the BX handled "larger" materials in real world situations? Especially "clusters"?

Our BX and LandPride 48" rotary cutter has no problems with this. I have reclaimed several acres of overgrown bottom land with clusters of 1.5 - 2.5 inch poplar and pine tress, as well as blackberry shrubs twice the height of the tractor's seat. Now, the rotary cutter is not rated to cut >2 inches, but it does it. It will bog down slightly in the thickest stuff. But now that it has been cleared, it will never be let to grow to such an extent. I would not plan on doing that much punishment year after year. Also, expect to have some punji sticks left over after the cutting.