BX-23 Sell or Mow!

[jhb]

Well, I purchased my BX-23 for my 2/3 acre property. It was covered with rock and stone walls and had drainage issues. Well, the work is drawing to a close. This spring, the lawn goes in and my wife has dictated I cannot drive the tractor over "her" new lawn.

The BX has served me well, and I hate to sell it. So my question is, If I remove the loader and BH and put a MMM mower on it, will it give a nice finish cut, comparable to a smaller mower? I guess I am wonderng if it is too heavy to mow without compacting the soil. Plus, I don't want it to fall in the septic tank! I could mow the lawn in 20 minutes with this thing.

My wife suggested a riding mower with a small trailer. She does not get it.

Of course, from a price perspective, its an expensive mower! But hey, its *almost* paid for!

All signs point to sell, but I really like the idea of the loader and BH. Help me justify its existence! It may be a stretch, sadly. Plus, we may hire a lanscaper to mow anyway.

I need more land!

 

[KirkMcD]

It's fine for mowing. It does a great job, but do you already have the MMM? The MMM costs as much as a lawn tractor.

I always take off the loader and BH for mowing. That will add about 10-15 minutes to the total time to mow.

One more thing to take into consideration. Do you have trees to mow around? The ROPS will get in the way of low branches.

 

[DK35vince]

Plus, I don't want it to fall in the septic tank!

I drive/mow over my septic tanks with a 4000# tractor and an 800# mower with no problem.

 

[MOPAULY]

Normally I would say keep it, but at 2/3 of an acre you are just going to look silly riding around on a tractor that size. There is nothing more I despise then the urban John Deere cowboys on their 50" mowing deck tractors with a 1/2 acre of ground.

However I can say the cut is nice, but I have the 54" fine cut MMM for my BX24. Previosly I mowed .8 of an acre with my Toro 38", now I have just under 2 acres and the BX fits the bill nicely, although it was bought for it's other uses with the BH and FEL.

 

[c-and-a]

Keep it - it will last forever, good on fuel and it cuts better than any mower in my neighborhood.

As soon as you sell it, a new project will appear that a lawn tractor won't handle...

I added a bagger to my 2350 for a great cut and no cleanup...

 

[jhb]

Normally I would say keep it, but at 2/3 of an acre you are just going to look silly riding around on a tractor that size. There is nothing more I despise then the urban John Deere cowboys on their 50" mowing deck tractors with a 1/2 acre of ground.

I have to disagree, after driving the BX, I would feel like an engineer on one of those child train rides with the tiny engine, knees sticking out etc.

Maybe I'll start a side business where I can dig trenches for contractors or something.

 

[DmansPadge]

I say keep it.... even if you don't mow with it!!

 

[Volfandt]

The BX23 makes an outstanding finish mower with the FEL & BH removed. That alone lightens it up by around 1000lbs.
The good thing is that it just takes minutes to reconfigure from a finish mower back to a TLB.
You'll miss it if'n you get rid of it

 

[KeithInSpace]

The question really shouldn't be mow quality...the quality will be much higher out of the BX23 than any Craftsman. I would put the mow quality of my machine with any Scag, Z-machine, Dixie Chopper, or other professional tool any day of the week.

The part that may get you in trouble is when the sod FIRST goes down...I really tore up my nice new yard for the first few months. Once the sod rooted, things were (and still are) great. The machine is just so darn heavy. And I run turf tires.

If it were me, I'd probably think about a $400 POS used mower just to get me through that first spring and summer. After that you can give it to the kids or use it as a door-stop.

The way I look at money is this: If you bought it, use it. For you to sell it now, you'd probably LOSE as much money on the deal as it would COST to buy a nice little Cub Cadet ZTR from the Orange Store (as my daughter calls the Homey Depot). It's like selling a paid off Cadillac so you can buy a Toyota Tercel and have some pocket change left over. That's bad enough. Now put a BACKHOE AND LOADER on the Cadillac and you're REALLY losing something!!!

I guess I'm hard-pressed to think of a situation where I'm better off WITHOUT my tractor than WITH my tractor. That the wife agrees with me about a $15,000 lawn mower that she doesn't even know how to start really says something about the versatility of these machines. Figure out something for the short term. You'll regret selling your machine in the long term.

 

[KeithInSpace]

Normally I would say keep it, but at 2/3 of an acre you are just going to look silly riding around on a tractor that size.

Mr. Mo Pauly, you need to check out Mr. Goneandbrokeit in the "upgrading bx 23 to b3030" string in the Kubota Buying topic...he's running a B2630 on 0.16 acres.

I'll bet he has plenty of friends in the spring and fall!

 

[dcbx1]

keep it , keep it, keep it..... I mow with an 1850 , 54mmm and it does a truly awesome job...

 

[MOPAULY]

Mr. Mo Pauly, you need to check out Mr. Goneandbrokeit in the "upgrading bx 23 to b3030" string in the Kubota Buying topic...he's running a B2630 on 0.16 acres.

I'll bet he has plenty of friends in the spring and fall!

Sorry, just my opinion, living in suburbia I've seen so many large tractors on small properties and I gotta tell ya it looks funny. I feel the BX24 is over sized for my property, but with the amount of landscaping we need to re create it seemed worth it in the long run.

 

[Scrounger]

If you have snow its worth while to keep it. I mow an acre or so at home and five at my gun club from time to time and the BX is killer. I'm still doing landscaping but the winter snow work is also a bit plus.

I also like the tractor envy from the neighbors. I'm still introduced at neighborhood party as the Kubota guy.

 

[goneandbrokeit]

Sorry, just my opinion, living in suburbia I've seen so many large tractors on small properties and I gotta tell ya it looks funny.

Perhaps it looks funny because it is fun. In any case this thread is about mowing which is not what I am using the B2630 for.
The reason I have 24 acres in the mountains is because there are too many opinions in suburbia that worry about how other people look.
If you can afford to keep the BX23 and get the MMM, keep it. It will mow fine, and don't worry about how funny you look.

 

[Westro]

Keep it. I mow my grandfather's 1 acre which is all hill. LOVE my BX on those hills. You can't beat mowing with a 4x4 and the weight of a BX over a 'lawn tractor'. And it is a lot safer (if you have hills).

I did move from the ag tires to turf tires for my BX1500 as most of the time it is used for mowing.

 

[RobJ]

Normally I would say keep it, but at 2/3 of an acre you are just going to look silly riding around on a tractor that size. There is nothing more I despise then the urban John Deere cowboys on their 50" mowing deck tractors with a 1/2 acre of ground.

I knew this would round up a few comments. There might be 1 or 2 folks here that are over-tractored. You could say I'm one of them but I also BH ATV trails, pull a disk, run a spreader, cultivate, and a few other things(all without a FEL I might add). But my tractor does live in the country, heck I'm ashamed to say that in the summer if the grass hasn't grown much I'd pull out the 8yo beater riding mower instead of taking the time to put on the FM for a 15-20 minute mow. I need to get my head examined.

But isn't a BX a slightly overgrown "lawn tractor" or "riding mower" anyway. That's what the M guys say. Heck at 6'2" my legs would probably stick out.

 

[MOPAULY]

The reason I have 24 acres in the mountains is because there are too many opinions in suburbia that worry about how other people look.

I don't really care how other people look...on your property you should be able to do what you want as long as you stay within the law. I think people with 18 and 20hp lawn tractors that live in developments with 1/4 of an acre to mow need their head examined, that's all. These people also tend to be the ones that drive $70k vehicles while living in a condo or townhome.....I just don't understand I guess.

 

[goneandbrokeit]

I don't really care how other people look...on your property you should be able to do what you want as long as you stay within the law. I think people with 18 and 20hp lawn tractors that live in developments with 1/4 of an acre to mow need their head examined, that's all. These people also tend to be the ones that drive $70k vehicles while living in a condo or townhome.....I just don't understand I guess.

I see you point of view and it is certainly valid. There are certainly a lot people making purchases of all kinds that are overkill, especially when analyzed on a pure cost benefit basis.
However I believe it is human nature to dream of better, bigger, faster. Imagine a world with out hot rods, restored tractors, or shoe collections for that matter. Perhaps a more sensible and efficient world, but boring. Some times people do things just because they can and that is the only explanation.
By the way the 1/4 acre my B2630 cleared last weekend will be maintained by a 1976 Wheel Horse, all original except for new spindles and the epoxy blocking the hole in the carb.

 

[jhb]

Well, people have there reasons. In my case, I did not buy the tractor for my sliver of land to mow. I put the tractor to good use. I only posted the question as to wether it can mow well to give me an excuse to keep it past its primary purchase use. This thing is way to expensive to buy as a mower, on that I agree with you, MOPAULY.

 

[LBrown59]

Well, I purchased my BX-23 for my 2/3 acre property. It was covered with rock and stone walls and had drainage issues. Well, the work is drawing to a close. This spring, the lawn goes in and my wife has dictated I cannot drive the tractor over "her" new lawn.

The BX has served me well, and I hate to sell it. So my question is, If I remove the loader and BH and put a MMM mower on it, will it give a nice finish cut, comparable to a smaller mower? I guess I am wonderng if it is too heavy to mow without compacting the soil. Plus, I don't want it to fall in the septic tank! I could mow the lawn in 20 minutes with this thing.

My wife suggested a riding mower with a small trailer. She does not get it.

Of course, from a price perspective, its an expensive mower! But hey, its *almost* paid for!

All signs point to sell, but I really like the idea of the loader and BH. Help me justify its existence! It may be a stretch, sadly. Plus, we may hire a lanscaper to mow anyway.

I need more land!

I've got a better idea: Just give it to me.