BCS and US made walkbehinds

[Mac624]

Why is the BCS so popular in the States? That is my impression by visiting this side. Is there any US brand left? I knew that there have been a lot of brands in former years. US made walkbehinds didnｴt show up in heaps here and I only have seen the gravely (have bought a few scrapped ones 3 years ago and have sold them, cause of no parts availabilty).

 

[milkman]

Mac, I'm not familiar with the Gravely tractor other than I remember seeing one used to mow the grounds at my high school back in the early '60s. From what I've read they were a tough, versatile machine and there are a lot of them still in use, and as far as I know they are the only machine that is american made that is similar to the BCS. I can't speak for others, but even if you compare the tiller alone to anything else the BCS will come out head and shoulders above the rest, I'm speaking of the 732 and up machines, I haven't used the smaller units. If you've checked out Earth Tools you can see the attachments these machines can use and on small parcels could replace the four wheel tractor.
Some of the features that I like is the fact that there is no belts, it has a differential with a selectable differential lock and has individual wheel brakes, gear drive with several forward and two reverse speeds, adjustable wheel widths, the tiller width is adjustable, and the clutch is on the handlebar like a motorcycle.

 

[js5020]

Well Mac, I'll give you my thoughts and experiences. As far as I know the only new 2 wheeled "tractors" in the states are BCS, Grillo, Goldoni (sp), oh almost forgot Gravely ( rebadged Rapid ). The Gravely is priced way out of it's market, shoot I can get a luxury John Deere or Kubota rider with a mower deck and a snowblower for the price of it, I mean 14k for just the tractor, to high a price for me. Goldoni is also priced higher than BCS or Grillo and I don't know of any dealers within 200 miles of me. Grillo is new, although pricing looks good but again not much of a support network. BCS is priced well and has a dealer network here in the states. As far as older used Gravely's, parts are not a problem here in the states as long as your dealing with the right people. So my answer to your question is BCS is the lowest price, best supported, quaility machine available in the US.

 

[farm23]

Mac, I just bought a BCS 853 after looking over the market and not finding anything that came close. The BCS is very strong and I look forward to years of trouble free service. Earth Tools were a delight to do business with and it is nice to see a dealer that uses the equipment.

After saying all that I wish there was a viable option made here in the USA but that does not seem to be in the cards. There are more small farms in Europe therefore more of a market for 2 wheel tractors than here, plus I belived the Italian govement provided seed money after WWII to help start some of the manuafacturers.

 

[Mac624]

Thanks for Your answers. If you follow my postings about 2wheelers here at this of TBN, you will see, that we use 2wheelers also. We have only german and japanese ones (Gutbrod, Agria, Iseki and Honda).

I knew about the versatility of the Gravely. Mine came with a lot of Equipment for lawn maintenance.

Yes, Grillo, Goldoni and BCS we know here too. I have seen them on Agritechnica in Hannover.

A member of a german walkbehind forum made some pics:

einachser forum :: Login

Italy has a lot of this tractors, but in general Europe has more brands and off course more needs for this kind of machinery. In village we have around 10, which are doing some work.

I wonder that all the other US brands disappeared, but otherwise, that happend here, too. Bungartz, Hansa, Schmiedag, Holder. Wellknown brands at their times. This manufacturers made heavy tractors and a lot of them are in use, 40 years after end of their production.

Holder:
einachser forum :: Login

Herberts Einachserseite is a good source, too.
Bildergallerie

I never have asked the price for a BCS, I guess they are sold by Iseki here

ISEKI Maschinen GmbH[parent]=29&cHash=bb90c2e8ff

as the never have shown up around our place.

New walkbehinds are very expensive, too. But 14.000 bucks is a lot of money!

For that price I will get something like the Agria Implement carrier:

agria.de

 

[milkman]

Thanks for the interesting links, I like to look at the pictures of the old two wheel machines that we don't get to see over here.

 

[2manyrocks]

I don't disagree with the prior posts so far as the market for new 2 wheel tractors is concerned. In the used market, one has to look hard to find any used BCS tractor around here, but will come across several gravely walk behinds, many of which will need work. The used Gravely walk behinds may be moving into the vintage collector tractor category for practical purposes in the US. (I don't mean Gravely's professional lawn mowing equipment--but those Gravely 2 wheel tractors that were made for decades.)

I have wondered if the European market is more favorable to 2 wheel tractors than in the US because of working steeper acreage or needing to be more efficient in working smaller plots of land?

The consolidation and/or disappearance of tractor manufacturers is not confined to two wheel units and is not confined to tractors. There were many different manufacturers of lawn and garden equipment that have been merged into MTD in the US for one example.

 

[Mac624]

Off course in hilly areas or steeper acreagesm they use Rapid or Aebi. But also for that purpooses the have tractors like an Aebi-Terratrac.

I donï½´t remember a 2wheeled tractor, working on farmland, infact they have done in the 50`, as a lot of equipment had been attached to them.

We do landscaping and have a vegetable garden, which hopefully will grow to earn money and lot oft the walkbehinds are in use for doing landscaping.

Professional gardeners have them, too and a lot of homeowners for gardenwork. We also do transportation, with them.

Cause it makes no sense, to take the agtractor or the van to carry equipment for the short distances to the garden or the firewoodstoring lot.

a kind of machine we have in heaps are the onepurpoose rototillers of every size.

The US side
Tiller
shows only the small one.

Germany side
SOLO - Garden Rotor Tillers

a lot of them.

Also Viking (Stihl)

VIKING

 

[js5020]

Wow I just priced out a similar size BCS and implements to replace all the Gravely stuff came out to $9500. One thing I was noticing was the implements were almost as costly as the implements for the CUT. Guess we can understand why there are few used machines available to us.

 

[Mac624]

Would be intresting to know, how many units BCS is selling in US.

Is there any other foreign brand for sale, so as Goldoni or Agria?

 

[FlaDon]

Well Mac, I'll give you my thoughts and experiences. As far as I know the only new 2 wheeled "tractors" in the states are BCS, Grillo, Goldoni (sp), oh almost forgot Gravely ( rebadged Rapid ). The Gravely is priced way out of it's market, shoot I can get a luxury John Deere or Kubota rider with a mower deck and a snowblower for the price of it, I mean 14k for just the tractor, to high a price for me. Goldoni is also priced higher than BCS or Grillo and I don't know of any dealers within 200 miles of me. Grillo is new, although pricing looks good but again not much of a support network. BCS is priced well and has a dealer network here in the states. As far as older used Gravely's, parts are not a problem here in the states as long as your dealing with the right people. So my answer to your question is BCS is the lowest price, best supported, quaility machine available in the US.

Agreed. Seems that Florida is lacking any dealers though. While states like Ohio are overrun with them. But when the BCS is put alongside even the worst of the Gravely 2-wheelers designs, the BCS still comes out a poor second to it.

 

[aesanders]

Agreed. Seems that Florida is lacking any dealers though. While states like Ohio are overrun with them. But when the BCS is put alongside even the worst of the Gravely 2-wheelers designs, the BCS still comes out a poor second to it.

I'd take the BCS over any Gravely. Gravely's are robust, but no where near as refined.

 

[bontai_Joe]

I think that part of the reason we see so few 2 wheel tractors in the US is that (sadly) we are a nation of folks that like to sit down while working. Early 4 wheel tractors didn't have a seat and required the operator to stand no a platform to drive the thing, now we have climate controlled cabs with stereo radios. The new Gravely tractors are made by Rapid in Europe, and are priced very high, I don't see large sales for them, but they will sell to a niche market that requires the high manuverability of a 2 wheel machine. Although not a true 2 wheel tractor, Troy-Bilt tillers continue to sell well because of decades of excellent marketing and they are still a quality machine, while many other companies have gotten out of even building 2 wheel tillers.

I am reminded of a time I was in a very remote part of the Philippines and asked by my new uncle-in-law what country had the hardest working people, Russia, USA, Japan or the Philippines. I answered the Philippines as I had just witnessed the construction of a new house being built there. All the materials were delivered a mile away at the end of the road and then hauled on the shoulders of the people building the house up a very narrow path, across a narrow bridge then up a mountain to the site where the house was being built completely with hand tools. I commented that Americans would have strengthened and widened the bridge and extended the road so that we could have the truck deliver the materials directly. The typical suburban American has little liesure time and wants his equipment to do a lot at the maximum convenience and be reliable. Two wheel tractors do a lot and can be had at high quality levels, but are not as convenient as a 4 wheel machine that allows the operator to sit.