BX25D. Mod #1 and continued.

[RaydaKub]

I think most will find the next mod interesting. As far as I know it's never been done before so stay tuned
I figure a little more than a week to complete this little beast then I'm retiring from modding tractors. It's time to move on to other interests.

No, no, no!!! I can bring you my tractor; it needs lots of mods. I'm sure a lot of other guys here would do the same!
Seriously, your creativity and skills are just amazing.

 

[4shorts]

No, no, no!!! I can bring you my tractor; it needs lots of mods. I'm sure a lot of other guys here would do the same!
Seriously, your creativity and skills are just amazing.

Thanks buddy. The truth is most enjoy seeing this stuff but in my town its not very marketable. Tractors are not a common part of the scenery although everyone really enjoys looking at ours. Most of my shop time is just fabrication of other types of machinery such as ship parts, automotive ...... It's mostly replicate an old existing part or rebuild and although it pays well its boring
When I look at anything I always seem to see the things that were left out and wonder what it would be like with those things added.
When this BX25 is completed there's no new plans for other equipment so the posting of mods will stop although there's a new Stihl coming in. I never modded a chainsaw before

 

[3v0]

It is nice to hear that you have enough work to keep you busy. My wife is an artists and she has much the same complaint. One has to make what sells.

 

[radioman]

Acutally -- dont under estimate the power of internet selling. I betcha if you made a couple extras parts for your TBN'rs to add your modded pieces to ours... it might grow to a point you need to hire someone to copy your design.

 

[kiotiken]

Acutally -- dont under estimate the power of internet selling. I betcha if you made a couple extras parts for your TBN'rs to add your modded pieces to ours... it might grow to a point you need to hire someone to copy your design.

Yup, I'd love to add some of the features you did on your L5740, but the reality is, I don't have the time or skill. The skill is easy to overcome, you just need more time! I'd happily buy a kit or two to get me started. I'd doubt you get rich doing it, but there might be a market that would make it worthwhile. It might also be a giant headache! Come on over the next time you're up visiting your son, I'll set you up with accommodations and give you the royal tour of the nations capital. You can take all the measurements you need to get your Kioti line of accessories started!

 

[DEK]

I would think most manufacturers have a division within their company called research and development (R&D). It is probably geared more to mechanical than cosmetic, but somewhere within Kubota corporation there are people working on aesthetics. You are probably already familiar with that aspect of corporate structure. Your talents go beyond the creativity because you have the fabrication skills as well. There is a tremendous market for accessories for tractors. I think Kubota would be remiss to not have someone with your creativity on their staff. You could continue to work at home and submit your
ideas and innovations to Kubota. I think you had a great idea about Kubota delivering equipment and allowing you to customize and improve its features. I suppose you could make and sell your mods to other tractor owners, but I think you would be bored with that and your creativity skills might be hampered because so much time would be consumed with production. Great artists create masterpieces and prints are sold later. The artist is left to create more and not tied down with reproduction.

Anyhow, I, like others, hope you continue to find and develop other mods for your tractors. We really look forward to hearing about them and especially like seeing the great photos. Hopefully you can find a niche that'll allow you to continue your creativity, especially with Kubota tractors and equipment.

 

[3v0]

I think Kubota would be remiss to not have someone with your creativity on their staff. You could continue to work at home and submit your
ideas and innovations to Kubota. I think you had a great idea about Kubota delivering equipment and allowing you to customize and improve its features.

At the corporate level things get complicated. Every product is a compromise and may good ideas never make it to market for many reasons including cost. Every part that leaves the factory has a huge overhead to support every aspect of the corporation. I expect Kubota has talented people on staff.

These very nice and well executed mods are in general a better fit for the after market.

But as you suggested there maybe a market for brand new mod'ed/tweaked tractors much like Carol Shelby did with the early mustangs. New tractors for people with deep pockets.

 

[mjncad]

You are a tease. :hissyfit:

Just be glad Paul doesn't do a strip-tease on TBN! :laughing:

Most of my shop time is just fabrication of other types of machinery such as ship parts, automotive ...... It's mostly replicate an old existing part or rebuild and although it pays well its boring

When I look at anything I always seem to see the things that were left out and wonder what it would be like with those things added.

Yep, boring generally pays the bills while interesting doesn't. Life isn't fair.

As I like to say from my time in the engineering racket, "No design is ever complete" and "All design is a compromise."

At the corporate level things get complicated. Every product is a compromise and may good ideas never make it to market for many reasons including cost. Every part that leaves the factory has a huge overhead to support every aspect of the corporation. I expect Kubota has talented people on staff.

These very nice and well executed mods are in general a better fit for the after market.

But as you suggested there maybe a market for brand new mod'ed/tweaked tractors much like Carol Shelby did with the early mustangs. New tractors for people with deep pockets.

Oh yeah, there is huge overhead for any part, product, or accessory. Besides the part, there is the design and engineering time, support staff (e.g. bean counters, lawyers, marketing, etc), tooling that has to be designed and engineered, part and tooling cataloging, packaging that has to be designed, instructions to be written up, printing, warehousing, production scheduling, shipping, dealer bureaucracy, etc.

I agree that Paul's mods would be great after market products; but I still think the market would be a limited. I think most tractor owners that don't belong to a tractor forum just work their rigs, and put them away. For some of us, modifying a tractor is probably the closest thing to being a gear-head building a hot-rod as we'll ever get; I know that's how it is for me. For the rest of us who belong to tractor forums; we take a keen interest in the machinery and its use.

New Holland did a retro Boomer to be reminiscent of a Ford 8N; but I have no idea if they still make it, and how many are actually being used versus sitting in collectors barns.

 

[4shorts]

Hey guys I'm only quitting the mods because I'm running out of tractor to mod :laughing: nothing more, nothing less. I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses. Very interesting and very logical. I going to ponder a few of the points you've made and I thank you for your thoughts. :thumbsup:

Well I finally got some time this afternoon to start the next mod. I told my wife that if she books in anymore shop work I'm going to quit and she'll have to do it all herself. Boy did that ever work out :laughing:

The latest mod might be posted this evening. It's a little different but that's ok too. If they were all the same then it would get really boring really fast. It won't be for everyone's taste but I don't think its been done before so stay tuned

 

[J F]

You are a tease. :hissyfit:

The latest mod might be posted this evening. It's a little different but that's ok too. If they were all the same then it would get really boring really fast. It won't be for everyone's taste but I don't think its been done before so stay tuned

Like I said. :laughing:

 

[cschulz]

As you can tell Paul we all very much like the work you do and improvements that you make. All I can say is thanks for posting your ideas and letting us follow along. Keep up the good work and thank you again.

Chris

 

[4shorts]

As you can tell Paul we all very much like the work you do and improvements that you make. All I can say is thanks for posting your ideas and letting us follow along. Keep up the good work and thank you again.

Chris

Well thank you Chris. I really appreciate that and I'm truly glad your enjoying the stuff I'm posting. Thanks for commenting.You made my day :thumbsup:


Well I tried to get this other mod done last evening but about two hours from its completion I decided to add to it and went home at 11pm. Went back out to the shop at 8am and started in again. All the fabrication is completed and I'm just waiting for the paint to dry.
This one took a little thinking and tinkering to make it work. The tolerances on these BX's are tight and there's not a lot of wiggle room to do some custom things BUT I did it and will post the new mod in a couple of hours :thumbsup:

 

[radioman]

teaser !:laughing:

 

[4shorts]

OK. After 16 hours I got this mod completed. Well almost. The only thing to do is run the harness but I'm going to do the wiring when everything is installed.

I'm calling this mod Ditch Lights

Now this is not going to be everyone's taste and I understand that but I wanted to do something a little different with the BX yet not to different than the Grand L. The guys that know me on here know I got a thing for LED lighting. Hey some guys like guns, women,fast cars.... my thing is LED lights

I started out with some 5 X 1/8th flat bar and went from there. All I knew is I wanted to use that empty space just by the front wheels. I got a set of Rigid flush mounts that burn 5 amps for two lights which isn't to bad at all. The quality of Rigid is fantastic. It came with it's own switch, harness and stainless hardware. Well the BX is a toughie to adapt things to the front wheel area. The wheels turn sharp and I had to take into consideration the front wheel pivot and the amount of travel it has. then I had to get the angles right to shine towards the front yet off to the side and although I got it right it didn't leave me with much extra space in the light housing but an 8th is as good as a mile in this case. I also built in access to the lights by putting a removable bottom in the housing which was great for installing it all.
After the housings were done I found some left over 1X2 channel so I decided to use that as a bumper. I think the rest of the photo's will tell the story. I did fire up the lights in the shop and man their crazy bright. Way ahead of what's on the machine. They shine to each corner of the bucket and off to the sides and that's just the way I wanted them.

Here's more photo's. Sorry there are so many but we all like looking at photo's. Hope you enjoy seeing them. Now on to the next mod.

This is the material I started out with.

This is the area I'm working in.

 

[4shorts]

More photo's

Time to make some kind of bumper out of some left over channel.

 

[4shorts]

After paint and installation this is what I have.

I started out with this!

I ended with this!

 

[aczlan]

Amazing work as usual.

Aaron Z

 

[J F]

You're just not right, Paul. :laughing: That looks freakin' fantastic! :thumbsup:

 

[radioman]

very nice ..... you always seem to think out of the box .. I can see myself making something like that or buy one lol. That is a nice mod to have more and better lighting.

 

[3v0]

Need to get a larger drool bucket!