Buying Advice Your Advice & Inspiration, Does 12K for BX1850 get it done?

[MessickFarmEqu]

1*Local dealer is running a special on the BX1850 $6925. Great price.

Wow. Its amazing how when your involved things are always sold well below dealer cost. Are you some kind of super celebrity that people give you products so you are seen them with. Is LBrown59 really Brad Pitt!!! No, with your sense of humor you must be Jerry Seinfeld.

 

[KeithInSpace]

...sense of humor...

Huh?

What's funny about it, Neil, is that off the top of my head I can tell you more about Mr. Brown's tractors, his deals, and his prices on implements than I can tell you ABOUT MY OWN TRACTOR. I honestly have no idea what I paid for each of the parts without looking at the itemized receipt.

May be because in 2 years of ownership, I've made over half my money BACK in what I would have paid contractors to do the work I've performed. Put another way, I've done projects in a few HOURS that would have taken me a few DAYS without my tractor.

My epiphany for the day: I find that I don't recall how much I paid for the things that are most useful to me because their value far outweighs their cost.

That is how I feel about belaboring cost of tractors/implements beyond "is it a good deal". But at this point, it is all about entertainment value.

To the original question in the thread: You can do better than $12K, but a price below $10K is a gift. Think a solid $12K (probably pushing $13K) if you add a MMM and swap the front blade for a FEL. That is probably what I would do.

 

[easygo]

Shrekbelly,
I was looking to get a B-7510 with a front blade and the 60" MMM and posted my ideas here on TBN. The members very kindly talked me out of the blade and said to get the FEL instead. It cost more for sure, but after seven months I can say: They are RIGHT!!! Get the loader and you can always buy a rear blade to plow snow and it will have a few other uses as well. As for the ballast box. Save your money!!! I made one myself for $20 after reading posts here. You can do it very cheap and it is simple.

 

[shrekbelly]

guys,
thanks for your replies. i will now, on thursday or friday get quotes on the BX1850 and BX2350.
1. i need, not to EXCEED the 12k budget number.
2. i thought moving/angle blading snow was about weight and traction
NOT horsepower.
3. 250 ft driveway (flat) and 300 feet of road leading to my driveway (it
is a strong incline . . . plow downward in 4wd, reverse and hit again
4. in south east pa, we don't get voluminous snow, (no need for loader)- am not well versed in fel, but i also have an 8 hp honda track
snowthrower that is not happy about newly arriving family member.
5. would use a carryall more frequently than a fel, maybe a 3ph market
farm dumping platform bed.
6. turfs or ags. am thinking turfs with rubber chains(if i need them) or
ags and the switch over to turfs for the grass.
7. my heart of (uninformed) heart tells me to go with the BX1850


























7. thanks a million, will offer a picture up at delivery. shrekbelly

 

[KeithInSpace]

Not to belabor the point, Mr. Shrekbelly, but the FEL has a groteque number of uses. You mentioned about redoing your grass...I just got done doing that this fall. I moved 60 CY of dirt VERY easily and graded my clay mudhole to 1 acre of manicured lawn in a matter of a couple of days' work. The grass today actually looks a lot nicer than what is pictured...it has matured greatly in the past month.

Put another way, if you own a shovel and a wheelbarrow, get the FEL. I still need the shovel every once in a while (to put things into my FEL), but I own 2 acres of property that I tinker with nearly every weekend (manicuring, filling, digging, creating, removing, replacing, weeding, mowing, mulching, etc.) and I DO NOT OWN A WHEELBARROW. My wife has a gardening wagon, but last time she was potting/gardening, she had me pull the tractor out and give her a "potting bench" in the flat of the FEL...no kidding...worked great!

Regarding turfs vs. ags, that is an ongoing discussion that may have no end, but I plow all my neighbors driveways (some with slope, but none particularly steep) and they add up to probably 3,000 linear feet. I can clear a 6" snow from everyone's drives in about 2 hours. I have turfs, no chains. I run my FEL, wheel weights, and a box blade for ballast. I have never been stuck or even threatened of getting stuck. I can say that the ability of lifting all that snow into a pile is indispensible. I WOULD like to add some type of easily removable angled pusher to my FEL bucket, but haven't gotten around to it. After having done this 8 times since I bought my tractor, I could not imagine doing it with only a blade.

I am only offering this from my experience. If you get the blade, I am 100% certain you will love it. I know I would like one, but for me the FEL is a must-have. That said, the 1850 rocks, as does the 2350. I am sure you can get an 1850 properly configured within your budget and that it will give you many, many years of heavy use. If I washed mine, I could pass it off as new.

Lastly, I had never once handled the joystick to a FEL before I bought my tractor. Within 10 hours, I was pretty darn good with it. Now I have 170 hours on the tractor. My wife actually commented to me not a month ago that she was "amazed with how I can handle the tractor...that it seems like an extension of my arms and she is very happy that I was able to buy it". Very high praise, in my estimation.

Very sorry for the long/frequent posts. In case you couldn't tell, I like to contribute a little too much sometimes. Just like to help. Or try to help. Or act like I'm helping.

Very sincerely,

Keith

 

[LBrown59]

Wow. Its amazing how when your involved things are always sold well below dealer cost. Are you some kind of super celebrity that people give you products so you are seen them with. Is LBrown59 really Brad Pitt!!! No, with your sense of humor you must be Jerry Seinfeld.

Please tell me how it would benefit me to buy a BX1850 from you for more than the $6925 i can get it for here at my local dealer?
Would you like me to send you the dealers ad so that you can see that I'm not B S or would you rather not see it and have to eat your words?

 

[LBrown59]

Huh?
2*May be because in 2 years of ownership, I've made over half my money BACK in what I would have paid contractors to do the work I've performed. Put another way, I've done projects in a few HOURS that would have taken me a few DAYS without my tractor.

1*My epiphany for the day: I find that I don't recall how much I paid for the things that are most useful to me because their value far outweighs their cost.

2*True. but the less ya pay the quicker the pay back.
1*Agreed except why pay more than you have to?

 

[KeithInSpace]

...eat your words?

I think Neil's point was that you have one heck of a nice dealer to seemingly agree to sell you equipment at, or very, very near, or slightly under, his cost. It is very exciting to all of us that you have this type of relationship, but the only benefit the rest of us can reap is hearing you constantly brag about it, hijacking threads about it, and making us all feel like morons for paying a penny more than you do at this amazingly wonderful dealer.

He must gouge everyone else to make up for not making a penny off of you...which is why I don't mind paying a GOOD price rather than one person to get a GREAT price and the rest of us make up for that...

Mr. Shrekbelly asked if $12K was a good price and inquired about configuration. $12K is a little high for what he wants and we've provided constructive input based on experience. I think we've gotten him some good stuff.

To all: I am very sorry for continuing to engage this issue. I enjoy seeing what "new and interesting" response can possibly be posed to this seemingly basic principal: If you don't have anything [helpful] to say, don't say anything at all.

 

[LBrown59]

guys,
1. i need, not to EXCEED the 12k budget number.
4. in south east pa, we don't get voluminous snow, (no need for loader)- am not well versed in fel,
6. turfs or ags. am thinking turfs with rubber chains(if i need them) or
ags and the switch over to turfs for the grass.
7. my heart of (uninformed) heart tells me to go with the BX1850

1*I showed you several prices on different tractors and set ups that were well under $12000?

4*A loader and a FEL are the same implement.
FEL = Front End Loader.
Snow removal is probably less than 1 percent of what a FEL is useful for.
I would get the FEl over a front blade because you can do some of the Blade work with it but you cant do Fel work with a blade.
A front blade is $1400 for a 54'' one or $1900 for a 60'' one compared to a FEL for 2000 to 2300 dollars.
Here are the revised figures for a BX1800 with a FEL instead of a front blade.
$6925 BX1850
$2300 FEL
$1650 54'' Mower
--------------------
Total $10875 way below your $12000 ceiling.
You could add a front blade and probably still be under or around the 12000.
6*On such a small tractor as the BX1850 I would not consider anything but AG tires.
The ag tires on my bigger heaver BX23 do not tear up the yard even with the BH and FEL on it.
The last thing I'd do is blow extra money on 2 sets of tires and rims and go through the hassle of always switching wheels back and forth all for nothing in the end.
7*The 1850 is a good call but then so is the BX2350 or BX24.

 

[easygo]

Shrekbelly,
Things that I have done with the loader just in the past 7 months:
fixed the drainage problem in my driveway, fixed the worst spots in my woods roads, increased my compost pile from 2 cubic yard to about 8 cy, transport wood pellets about 400 lbs at a time to the garage, unloaded a clawfoot tub and pellet stove from trailer, moved large wooden frames I built to lift my boat off the trailer, leveled ground under my garage for firewood storage area,
These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Keep in mind that I thought I would not have much use for the FEL. As LBrown said the price isn't all that different. People here are not trying to talk you up like a salesman. They are trying to save you the: I wish I had done that!!! - experience. Either way you will have fun with the tractor that is pretty much guaranteed.
Good luck
Easygo
I almost forgot! I also used the loader (and my rear blade) to move the 16 inches of snow that fell here since Monday.