Wow, old man winter whooped us here in the northest The BX23s is an animal!

[BX23S-1]

Talk about crazy weather;it has gone from -27F to +33F in one day!Suppose to go to +40F and rain.

Oh no doubt!!! Its been crazy lately!!!

 

[BX23S-1]

Papow-- A couple of quick comments. 1) At 6 degrees you will need anti-gel of some kind. The additive might work, certainly will help some. If that kind of cold is persistent or gets even colder I strongly recommend mixing your fuel up to 50/50 kerosene (which is #1 fuel as opposed to normal #2.) That is what ALL heavy equip operators in the northern tier do. Dozer operators in northern VT, etc. That will guarantee you have no gel issues. And it will not hurt anything whatsoever. 2) The block heaters or better yet in-line radiator hose heaters do a great job of getting the engine warm and easy starting. However that does NOTHING for the gel issue once you are out working it.

3) Then about the engine indicated temp issue: I have contended for a long time that the small 3cyl Kubotas have too small a water pump for best cooling system operation. In hot summer weather MANY of us have had them run right on the edge of the red zone just mowing grass. These are NOT due to restrictions in the radiator air flow, dirt in anything, plugged coolant paths, etc. Unless you have a thermostat stuck open, I would ignore the fact that the coolant is running much colder than you are used to. No reason to block the radiator air flow as the thermostat will take care of that and radiator air flow will not matter while the thermostat is closed. I do not know exactly where the sensor is located in the coolant flow path. Unless it is in the engine, the sensor will run very cold indications while the thermostat is closed and not letting hot water out into the radiator. I personally would ignore all that unless you see other problems.

Hello JWR...
It was -6 and i had no gel issues whatsoever. I have a heated garage, so that helps. And i do run full strength power service winter additive in it too... i actually add more than the directions say to add.
Last year i didnt put enough PS in and the fuel was gelled in the large aux filter i installed. It didnt gel up completely last year, but it was enough that it could have been a problem had i not seen it.
I dont follow their recommended dosage`s anymore, i always add quite a bit extra since that happened. Like i said earlier, absolutely no gelling since, after adding the extra PS!
I would think at below zero temps like this past weekend, it might have been a problem, had i not added extra PS to the fuel.

Mowing in the summer, it never gets hot. The temp gauge stays right at the same spot all summer long. But it did alarm me this winter when the needle barley moved off the lowest cold mark.
Thats why i kinda was looking for thoughts and opinions on it i guess. The tractor ran like a champ the whole time i was plowing... so maybe it`ll be ok. We`ll see during the next cold snap what it does.

 

[Mowbizz]

Yeah, and the ground is an ice skating ring in my neck of the woods...

No wonder people are catching the colds and flus...

Dont know about cold and flu but it sure is an ice rink here in central NH this morning!

 

[Mowbizz]

Hey Mowbizz, do you have tire change on that BX? I have a B2650 with rear blower and wasn稚 sure if it would push 2 feet of wet snow.

I think you meant tire chains and yes I have chains on the rear and they have made the difference in whether or not I ride down my hill or SLIDE down! Superb traction and I may add front chains next year as the little BX struggles to maintain a straight push of the heavy snow down my 500 foot driveway in places.
Those front tires are turned all the way right in 4WD and just spin like the dickens.

 

[BX23S-1]

I think you meant tire chains and yes I have chains on the rear and they have made the difference in whether or not I ride down my hill or SLIDE down! Superb traction and I may add front chains next year as the little BX struggles to maintain a straight push of the heavy snow down my 500 foot driveway in places.
Those front tires are turned all the way right in 4WD and just spin like the dickens.

Wow, 500ft driveway... i`ve got about 300ft and thats a pain, i cant imagine 500ft, especially if you`ve got steep hills within it. Luckily mines flat. Yeah i think i would put chains on all 4 corners, too.

 

[Mowbizz]

Wow, 500ft driveway... i`ve got about 300ft and thats a pain, i cant imagine 500ft, especially if you`ve got steep hills within it. Luckily mines flat. Yeah i think i would put chains on all 4 corners, too.

I’ll be 70 this year and the maintenance between 5 acres of lawn and 500 ft of mostly dirt driveway are getting old (like me). I am starting to dream of rolling out of bed and clearing a nice short paved driveway in about 15 minutes. The ice and snow seem worse every winter...my wife still works part time so I need to make sure she can get down our steep hill at any time...so far so good but what happens in years to come?
Time will tell!

 

[jbrumberg]

A lot of us are in your situation or close. Time will tell for all of us. I hope "so far good" lasts for a long time. Good luck Mowbizz.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Hey Mowbizz, do you have tire change on that BX? I have a B2650 with rear blower and wasn稚 sure if it would push 2 feet of wet snow.

I have a B2650 with a 72" rear blade and R4 fluid filled tires, I can push a pretty massive amount of snow with no chains, but I do have to counter steer a bit as the blade is angled pretty sharp to roll the snow to one side. My driveway is 300 feet long and 85 feet wide of asphalt, so it is pretty smooth surfaced. My father in law has an old set of big chains that he says that I can have. I keep thinking that I should go get them just to make is better/safer on the sloped area going down to my lower driveway and garages. They are just old school chains, not the fancy ones you see today with V bars welded in or with the circle designs in the center of the tread, these are just the straight across chains.

If I got 20" the other day, it would be tough... I start at the high side of the driveway and angle the plow and keep building it higher and thicker as I keep working across the 85' width, even 2" of snow builds up to a massive depth of snow that I start to turn sideways and flip the blade facing backwards and I'll use revers and start putting "relief cuts" in to help me.

I'm excited to get my new Kawasaki Mule Pro Yanmar Diesel in a couple weeks with a full cab, heater and 72" Warn Provantage plow. That should be tons faster and much warmer than my open station tractor!

 

[jbrumberg]

RC- Good luck with the new tractor.

 

[Mowbizz]

A lot of us are in your situation or close. Time will tell for all of us. I hope "so far good" lasts for a long time. Good luck Mowbizz.

Thank you! Good luck to all tractor geezers out there!