A friend’s lightly-used BX2350 was in the way in my shop so I backed it out this morning, wiggled the bucket, and looked for something for it to do while it worked the grease into the sticky forward/reverse foot pedal. I’d found the fitting under the floorboards after a look at the manual.
Before long the bucket found itself digging into a small topsoil pile, just to see how it carried stuff around. It filled nicely. I particularly liked the way I could see what I was doing throughout the process, even to the point of tipping the loaded bucket back enough I could peek inside. For someone who grew up on blind loader operation, this was a real treat.
Let’s see: where can I put a bucket full of choice topsoil? The BX took itself out the driveway in the general direction of two flower beds 500 feet away. With the speed this thing moves, is there any need for a dump trailer?
How about if I cover those rocks on the raised embankment so that I can climb up there with the mower? The BX moved in neatly, carefully avoiding the loose-stone flower bed enclosure and an irrigation tap peeking up through the sod. I dumped a useful amount of topsoil exactly where I’d planned, then zipped back up the lane for another, and another. Then I smoothed the black fill over the stones, leaving lumps. What if I took that stone out? It’s pretty big. Worth a try. The little 48″ bucket scratched away at the stone for a while, and then rolled it over. The boulder was too big for me to lift, but I could roll it easily into the bucket. The BX was game, picking it up without hesitation, so I hauled it 600′ to my stone dump and took another bucket of topsoil back to the site.
The topsoil worked into place well, using the bucket as a trowel. Then it came time to pack the surface on the steep slope. Up we went. When a front wheel came off the ground, the differential lock kept things moving, under control.
The BX stalled a couple of times when descending the steep slope. There seems to be a safety interlock which shuts things down temporarily if the tractor tips too far. I soon learned how to approach the slope so as not to disturb the interlock.
All too soon the little job was done and the topsoil pile showed signs of imminent depletion. The mid mount mower had been a passenger throughout this project, and interfered only when I tried to find a way between another stone wall and a dogwood bush. It was too wide to let me in. The high, flat elevation of the mower in travel mode is a considerable improvement over my B7510, which seems to want to drag its front casters around, no matter how I adjust it.
Wherever this remarkable little tractor goes, there’ll be dump trucks full of fill and topsoil not far behind. The BX2350 and its loader are a highly addictive combination.
UPDATE:
Rereading this account I realized that I hadn’t explained about the seat interlock problem my friend’s wife had when she tried to use the tractor. If I recall correctly, it would let her go ahead, but would die out if she tried to back up. Whatever the problem was, the machine wouldn’t work for her. A bit of research revealed that the seat interlock has two settings, one for body weights north of 150 pounds, and a lighter version for smaller-framed drivers.
A 12mm stud under the seat holds a set of two pressed metal parts. To fix the problem, remove that stud with a strong, well-fitting wrench and take off one of the two springlike spacers. Retighten the stud. That was all it took.
the Walnut Diary 