BX-23 Sell or Mow!

[bandit67]

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.

The answer is yes, it can mow well and therefore gives you your excuse to keep it past its primary purchase use. These subcompacts do a surprisingly very nice job of mowing - far superior to any of the cheap lawn tractors you find at the big box stores these days.

This summer, I took a look at a neighbor's broken down riding mower, and couldn't believe what a flimsy piece of junk it was. I also towed another neighbor's broken down riding mower out of their front yard and bent its rear hitch assembly just pulling it out of the yard. You'd really miss your BX once you sold it. It would be very difficult to go back to a cheap riding mower after having something more solid like your BX.

And if you guys start getting some snow in the Northeast, you can get a lot of use out of it, including digging out the little old lady down the street gratis, and charging a bunch to the neighbors that don't want to kill themselves digging out with a shovel.

 

[LBrown59]

1*my wife has dictated I cannot drive the tractor over "her" new lawn.
2*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?
3* I guess I am wondering if it is too heavy to mow without compacting the soil.
4*I don't want it to fall in the septic tank!

!

1* That's plain silly. It hain't gonna hurt it none.
2*You don't even have to remove them. just put a MMM on it.
I mow my yard with my BX23 with the FEL and the BH installed.
The cut is excellent.
3*No It's not to heavy and it don't damage the lawn even with the Loader and Back Hoe attached. If you want to take the FEL and BH off to mow then you're more than good to go.
4*It's better/safer to mow over the Septic Tank with a push mower or string trimmer no matter what tractor you have to mow with.
Still if you want to get rid of the BX23 I'll take it off your hands for $5000.00.
How many hours are on it?

 

[LBrown59]

This spring, the lawn goes in and my wife has dictated I cannot drive the tractor over "her" new lawn.
My wife suggested a riding mower with a small trailer.
*She does not get it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...The quality will be much higher out of the BX23 than any Box Store cheapo.
So why would she want to put a machine that would be worse on the lawn than the BX23 on her new yard?
*What an understatement ! ! !

 

[LBrown59]

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.

This spring, the lawn goes in and my wife has dictated I cannot drive the tractor over "her" new lawn.
My wife suggested a riding mower with a small trailer.
*She does not get it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...The quality will be much higher out of the BX23 than any Box Store cheapo.
So why would she want to put a machine that would be worse on the lawn than the BX23 on her new yard?
*What an understatement ! ! !

 

[BlackforestBill]

Keep it! Keep it! Keep it!

Since you'll be mowing more than landscaping with it once the new lawn is in put on the mower deck, take off the BH and FEL and park them someplace nice where she wont trip over them. Out of her sight would be even better. They're still there when you need them and easy enough to put back on and take off once done. Plus the lighter look may ease the wife's concerns about "that heavy tractor on my new lawn." And get a set of turf tires if you don't already have them.

As said numerous times above the BX is a mowing machine. Either the 60" or 54" MMM will give you a great cut with less hassle than an el-cheapo rider. I mow my 5 acres with the FEL off to improve the ride over my very rough old pasture. Part of that includes the top of my septic. Never an issue.

 

[JBX]

Keep it!
That may be a no-brainer kind of question in this forum.

It may be just me, but years after I have sold a tool or piece of equipment because I "just don't need it anymore", a situation arises where that tool or equipment would have been just the ticket. The only cure is to.. get a bigger & better one.

 

[LBrown59]

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.

*Know what you mean:
Told my wife I never knew I was so popular _ Funny part is that didn't happen till after I got the BX23.
Everybody from My Wifes boss to one of my high school classmates to the Kubota dealer knows about every project I've used the BX23 on at my place.

 

[LBrown59]

Keep it! Keep it! Keep it!

Since you'll be mowing more than landscaping with it once the new lawn is in put on the mower deck, take off the BH and FEL and park them someplace nice where she wont trip over them. Out of her sight would be even better. They're still there when you need them and easy enough to put back on and take off once done. Plus the lighter look may ease the wife's concerns about "that heavy tractor on my new lawn." And get a set of turf tires if you don't already have them.

As said numerous times above the BX is a mowing machine. Either the 60" or 54" MMM will give you a great cut with less hassle than an el-cheapo rider. I mow my 5 acres with the FEL off to improve the ride over my very rough old pasture. Part of that includes the top of my septic. Never an issue.

A guy in my area drove his lawn tractor over his septic and the tank collasped from the weight of the lawn tractor.

 

[BlackforestBill]

A guy in my area drove his lawn tractor over his septic and the tank collasped from the weight of the lawn tractor.

I think I'd be looking for the guy that laid in that tank. And I wouldn't at all be happy about it.

 

[DK35vince]

I think I'd be looking for the guy that laid in that tank. And I wouldn't at all be happy about it.

So would I..
That is one poor quality tank.

 

[LBrown59]

Concrete tanks have a tendency to deteriorate and turn crumbly over time.
This is a natural process that has noting to do with quality.
Just to be on the safe side it's best not to drive over an older tank with anything.

 

[RobJ]

The answer is yes, it can mow well and therefore gives you your excuse to keep it past its primary purchase use. These subcompacts do a surprisingly very nice job of mowing - far superior to any of the cheap lawn tractors you find at the big box stores these days.

This summer, I took a look at a neighbor's broken down riding mower, and couldn't believe what a flimsy piece of junk it was. I also towed another neighbor's broken down riding mower out of their front yard and bent its rear hitch assembly just pulling it out of the yard. You'd really miss your BX once you sold it. It would be very difficult to go back to a cheap riding mower after having something more solid like your BX.

Just for sanity reasons you have to keep in prespective there are differences in the big box mowers and a BX. Mainly the price. $1000 vs $10000+. Attached is a beater $999 mower that i got from a guy down the street at the weekend place. A repair shop wanted $500 to fix it so he let it sit in the barn. I put a starter on it($120) and reassembled the varible speed pulley(no cost) and it is still running. My guess is it's about 9-10 years old now. I got it in 2002. I used it just last summer when the only grass that needed mowing was what I was watering.

Point is sometimes you get what you pay for, but with a little care you can get plenty out of a cheap mower and the cost is a lot less. And the cut? well I keep good blades on both, and in my yard they cut pretty much the same. The main difference is one is 38" and the other is 60". But I just can't toss the beater, charge the battery and it'll fire fight up.

 

[Volfandt]

Point is sometimes you get what you pay for, but with a little care you can get plenty out of a cheap mower and the cost is a lot less.

Can't disagree with that but, I too have an old L&G tractor that can finish mow if I want it too. A 1966 Wheel Horse w/a 36" deck. I've had it nearly 22 yrs and it's still running as good today as it did when I got it for around $500 back in the day.
I even refurbished the 36" deck for the "just in case" it's needed for finish mowing. And also because I like to collect OEM implements for it too as they made just about every small implement available for small L&G tractors for this model.
I say "just in case" because given my druthers, I'll use the BX23 to finish mow every time. Theres just no comparison. The BX will give a better cut, do it faster, be 100 times more comfortable and do it useing less fuel

Now don't get me wrong, that ole Wheel Horse is still one of my most favorite machines ever, and being such I still have a most needed use for it. Instead of useing it to finish mow, I've made it into a specialty mower to cut a long bank down thats to steep for any riding machine to mow and to mow around my small pond and any other tight places I encounter. I can do this because I've removed the finish mower and installed a 50" OEM sicklemower on it.
As a specialty mower it can't be beat but as a finish mower the BX23 w/it's 60" MMM, HST and power steering is THE ultimate mow'n machine

To clarify, my BX23 does alot more than just mow but mow'n is it's primary use nowadays. I wouldn't have purchased it if all it was for was to mow. I'd have gone to a ZTR.
But since I've got it and also since it's such a fine mow'n machine, I know that I'd be needing that FEL or that BH for something just as soon as I traded it
I made the mistake in my youth to trade a pickup for a musclescar without having another pickup in reserve and you guessed it. I found out that I needed a pickup for just about everything one can imagine just as soon as I was without one. I decided I wasn't going to make THAT mistake again

 

[kwolfe]

I would be sad to see it go, however I would consider selling the machine. You could buy a nice little ZTR if you were going to do the mowing. I would think that it would get frustrating seeing the FEL and BH ever time you went to mow the lawn (not to mention, they become very expensive spacer takers if the garage).

you hit the nail on the head, YOU NEED MORE LAND!