LS MT125 vs BX23S

[BulldogsPlanes]

MT125 vs BX23S
I am in the market for a subcompact that will be the best for the money.

After a lot of research I narrowed it down to two contenders the LS MT125 $15,900 vs kubota BX23S $17,900 in Atlanta GA.
Both have front loaders and backhoes. No other attachments

MT125 pro's
More lift, hydraulics, HP, price

BX23S pro's
Easy disconnects, resale value, dealership, quick detached bucket

I'm interested in all your opinions and guidance. I'm new to the forum and to tractors.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Are you buying it with plans to sell it after your target projects are finished? If so, the Kubota resell should be considered heavily.

If your buying it to keep, I sure would be hard pressed to buy the Kubota over the LS that out performs the Kubota and does it at a lower cost.

My researching SCUT units tells me that the LS and Massey Ferguson GC17XX are the most popular "non big three" units out there, but then New Holland is considered one of the big three in the SCUT/CUT category... and LS is the New Holland, New Holland Boomers and such are re-branded LS units.

My opinion, if it's a keeper.... save $2000 and buy the LS that will perform better than the Kubota. If it's not a keeper, you need to weigh that out and do what you think makes sense.

 

[lpigott]

BX hands down. My 2000 model BX 2200 has been through **** and back and done amazing things over and over. It has mowed around 2000 acres of grass and besides basic and minimal maintenance it is still in perfect mechanical shape and I have no plans to replace it. If I did have plans to replace it, it would be with another BX. I am not stuck on brands but I would not even look at the others in this case.

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

Are you buying it with plans to sell it after your target projects are finished? If so, the Kubota resell should be considered heavily.

If your buying it to keep, I sure would be hard pressed to buy the Kubota over the LS that out performs the Kubota and does it at a lower cost.

My researching SCUT units tells me that the LS and Massey Ferguson GC17XX are the most popular "non big three" units out there, but then New Holland is considered one of the big three in the SCUT/CUT category... and LS is the New Holland, New Holland Boomers and such are re-branded LS units.

My opinion, if it's a keeper.... save $2000 and buy the LS that will perform better than the Kubota. If it's not a keeper, you need to weigh that out and do what you think makes sense.

Great research.

I am on the fence about either situations. I want to say keep but what if I want to upgrade in 8years from know what would the LS resale look like.

I know the 8year old bx23 Kubota are around 10k. That's 8k in depreciation. How about the LS 8 years from now?

 

[Grandad4]

Get some seat time on both units. What may look "superior" on paper (as published by some marketing department), may or may not be such when actually working in the real world. Form your own seat-of-the-pants opinion about how each unit actually works also.

 

[check]

Get some seat time on both units. What may look "superior" on paper (as published by some marketing department), may or may not be such when actually working in the real world. Form your own seat-of-the-pants opinion about how each unit actually works also.

Also, check out the features. That new 20 3S has some really cool features, whereby, for example, you can detach the whole FEL without even getting off the tractor. And the backhoe has a new quick attach feature as well.

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

I have tried both the LS is very refined, smooth and capable.

The LS is a bx2370 body with a1025r eng,trans and a New.H. front loader "I believe"

The bx23s has a lot of friendly updated features

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

The bx23s has what I think the best in the market friendly and easy disconnect features far superior to the LS. I just don't know if this is more important than power capabilities compared to the LS.

 

[Rock Crawler]

The bx23s has what I think the best in the market friendly and easy disconnect features far superior to the LS. I just don't know if this is more important than power capabilities compared to the LS.

:laughing:
.....and down the rabbit hole he goes......

Tell Alice we all say hello!

 

[antlers125]

The only 2 deciding factors in my purchase adventure were #1- PRICE. #2- LIFT CAPABILTIES. LS won both (by a considerable margin.) Considering all of these tractors are so close in all other features nothing else didn't really matter. I have owned it going on 4 years & absolutely LOVE IT!

 

[Grandad4]

Since this is in the Kubota Buying forum, a Kubota owner like myself would say his BX purchase in 2005 was money well-spent. With 1,000+ hours since then and no repairs or downtime, the little thing has done everything asked of it, every time. If I were in the market for another tractor, I'd likely start with orange based on that track record, but it's good to see there are other quality products available - competition is a good thing.

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

How about dealer maintenance support and parts availability. On that LS tractor

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

Thank you GRANDAD4 that is something really good to know

 

[beckmurph]

:laughing:
.....and down the rabbit hole he goes......

Tell Alice we all say hello!

That right there is funny.

 

[Texas Fella]

A couple of things.
1. The "Big 3" for the subcompact market in the US are Kubota, JD, and Mahindra. In that order.
2. The Kubota is the #1 selling sub-compact tractor in the US and has been for over 12 years.
3. Kubota sell more backhoes (technically TLB's since they do not sell the backhoe desperately) than anyone else in the sub-compact market (both volume and % or volume).

I know these things because I work at a Kubota Dealer (wanted to get that out there before any ask "how do you know?"). I would go with Kubota "hands down" but then again, I am totally biased.

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

All opinions are welcome. I will make a decision by end of this month. All based on good research, advice and all you guys experience. Thank you all

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

I wanted to share todays experience

I had the best customer service from Kubota followed by this.

Today I spoke with the LS salesman and the LS N.C. assembly plant customer service, both in separate conversations told me that if I mount a different FL bucket it voids the warranty.

This all came about since I noticed the LS 2025 has a same size bucket with skid steer quick disconnect.
It's an option that I want, to be able to swap to a grapple and other attachments.

This sounded crazy to me.

I'm starting to lean towards Kubota since it's a standard option

 

[Tractor Dell]

Seriously? Putting on a grapple would void the warranty? I have a grapple on my BX23S and I am finding it the most useful thing while clearing my woods from brush, trees, stumps and rocks... if you can't use one, I would say you are probably limiting yourself in the long run. With the SSQA, it only takes about a minute to drop the bucket and put on the grapple, and vice versa. Just my :twocents:

 

[BulldogsPlanes]

I agree.
How big diameter log have you picked up with your grapple. Where did you buy it from?

 

[Grandad4]

Not the most diplomatic customer interaction re. the SSQA on that other tractor, but somewhat understandable in one respect: These are LITTLE tractors and you can get some honkin' big SSQA attachments that are hopelessly beyond what the tractors can handle, even if you could get them mounted. If some genius actually did that, I'd understand a manufacturer not wanting to be on the hook for any resulting damage.