BX, B, or L? Help please!

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I like HST's, but for backhoe work No advantage, So deal with a little shifting gears and get an L.
Power and weight rule!
Now on the tire deal I would tell him to throw in the R4's with rims and you'll keep the AG's. That will give you the option to run either!

 

[djm1204]

We call those new growth.

I have both an B and an L, both can do some serious work, and both have advantages over the other for different tasks.

So clearing 30 - 40 foot tall pines should be no problem for a L3800 or L 4600 then ? It will be able to push them over so I can drag them out of there ?

The soil is Florida sand.


Thanks in advance

Dan

 

[eddiebob]

I vote for the L3800 as well. Although mine is a HST a gear tractor would have been okay. My main object was to get more tractor than I thought I needed. Get the HP, you will be glad you did.

 

[Ezlife45]

Sand or not I doubt my 2650 will push down a 30' pine. But just the other day my MS250 cut down four trees one of which was a 6" diameter pine about 30 ft tall. Of course that is a baby Stihl...

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I use my L with a loader and push down way bigger trees!
Save's from having to dig out the stumps!

With a backhoe you can do it without a problem! Plant and push, over they go!

If your worried about the height just cut them off at about 4 to 5 foot off the ground and use the backhoe to push and pull them right out.

 

[djm1204]

Thank You !

Dan

 

[JbirdNC]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. After a test drive of both transmissions, I've decided that, while tempting, I should pass on the geared L3800. My property is tightly packed with undergrowth and pines and my tractor will be seeing ALOT of back and forth, especially loader work. While I was okay with using the geared tranny, the effort (or lack thereof) to operate the HST was just a hands down winner for me and my application.

So.... still no tractor yet. Trying to find another sweet deal, because honestly, now that I've seen the L3800 compared to a B series, I'm kinda sold on the L. I'm still considering the B2650 or 3350, but I'm really longing for an L in HST with TLB. After alot of searching, I'm beginning to realize that I may have to settle for a B, and that itself introduces the B or BX25D dilemna all over again. I don't know that I can justify spending $7k more for a TLB 2650 over a BX25D. The more I watch Wildfire's videos, the more I'm starting to think I should go back to where I started (BX). Of course, I won't be pushing any pines down with it, but I can cut 'em, drag 'em, and use the backhoe to lift and then cut them up with the saw like Wildfire does in his video. Man its alot of trees though. Doing it his way will be a longer endeavor than just pulling or pushing them out with an L. If you've seen Wildfire's video where he and Tim are cutting down pines in the backyard, I'm talking about that plus another 150 trees or so. And that's not counting all the deadfall I have laying around. I mean, I'm bringing in a dump truck to haul this stuff off. The BX won't even lift up to the dump truck will it?

 

[Eric McCarthy]

If its a dump truck of any substantial size such as a medium duty like a Ford F650 a B or BX wont have the lift height to load. A light duty truck like an F350 you may be able to load on the end with the tail gate down. You'd still be better off with an L series for loading trucks.

 

[Wildfire]

You've talked about the amount of trees you need to cut down and the amount of time it will take using a BX. Well it will take you longer with the smaller BX and every job you do with the BX will be the same way. If it's speed your looking for don't go smaller than an "L". I'm fortunate to have both but I still enjoy the BX the most. When using it I don't look at it as work. I see it as a project and each day I see the progress I've done and look back at the BX in amazement and can hardly believe that little machine did all that work.

If it's the lifting height that your worried about then you you'll need to do what we used to do when I operated heavy equipment. Take your tractor and dig up or scrape up some gravel. Take the gravel and build a ramp up to the side of the dump truck and start loading.

There were times when my Cat 992 would go in for its monthly maintaince and they'd have a Cat 988B for a spare on site. There were times 160 ton Terex would pull in and in 15 minutes I'd have the ramp done and start loading the truck. You can do it from the side or build the ramp up to the back and back load it.

There's ALWAYS a way

In this video I load the dump trailer with the BX. I could have used our Grand L but wanted to try the BX.

http://youtu.be/GItn4tIIgaM

 

[Eric McCarthy]

What was the final verdict on this?

 

[TripleR]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. After a test drive of both transmissions, I've decided that, while tempting, I should pass on the geared L3800. My property is tightly packed with undergrowth and pines and my tractor will be seeing ALOT of back and forth, especially loader work. While I was okay with using the geared tranny, the effort (or lack thereof) to operate the HST was just a hands down winner for me and my application.

So.... still no tractor yet. Trying to find another sweet deal, because honestly, now that I've seen the L3800 compared to a B series, I'm kinda sold on the L. I'm still considering the B2650 or 3350, but I'm really longing for an L in HST with TLB. After alot of searching, I'm beginning to realize that I may have to settle for a B, and that itself introduces the B or BX25D dilemna all over again. I don't know that I can justify spending $7k more for a TLB 2650 over a BX25D. The more I watch Wildfire's videos, the more I'm starting to think I should go back to where I started (BX). Of course, I won't be pushing any pines down with it, but I can cut 'em, drag 'em, and use the backhoe to lift and then cut them up with the saw like Wildfire does in his video. Man its alot of trees though. Doing it his way will be a longer endeavor than just pulling or pushing them out with an L. If you've seen Wildfire's video where he and Tim are cutting down pines in the backyard, I'm talking about that plus another 150 trees or so. And that's not counting all the deadfall I have laying around. I mean, I'm bringing in a dump truck to haul this stuff off. The BX won't even lift up to the dump truck will it?

If you're still interested, a guy on TBN has an L3800 HST with backhoe he is wanting to sell.

 

[djm1204]

May I ask - what is TBN ?

Thanks

Dan

 

[TripleR]

May I ask - what is TBN ?

Thanks

Dan

TractorByNet, another tractor site, many of us belong to and post on both. He just posted he has worked a deal with Barlow's for an L3560: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/321707-just-got-off-phone-barlows.html

 

[Volsfan]

If you are not using to mow I would get the 3800 get the tires filled.that seems like a good price. My dad has a m5140 gear and I just bought a b2650 because it will be used for a lot of mowing. A good compromise between the 2 if you could have only 1 would be the l3800. It's a good reliable no frills tractor that will get the work you need done at a good price. I really like the gears and clutch it seems more like an old school traditional way that I like. The hydro is great for mowing in tight spaces and quicker saving time. I would suggest you get a quick attach bucket and if your not mowing lawn the ags will be fine. Only seen 1 l3800 today and it was 2wd I would snatch that while you can