We’re on vacation this week so haven’t seen the L in a few days but we’re on a second close to home trip with our new camper to fine tune a few procedures and processes. Close enough to home it was practical to visit a nearby Kubota dealer and make a purchase, so that’s what we spent much of the day doing.
We were looking for a lawn mower but something better quality than the various color MTD’s at the big box stores. We have a 15 year old Cub zero turn which looks like crap and has about 1000 hours on it, but runs fine. Wife drives it but HATES zero turns so she’s wanted another mid mount mower on a conventional tractor for a few years. Our adult son and his girlfriend recently moved to one of the other houses on the property and he loves the Cub zero turn so we gave that to them.
Test drove a BX1880, GR2120, and a T2290. Neither of us had ever driven any of those models. Had months of discussion with the wife about what she really wanted and what uses she had for it where a small machine would fit better than the L4701. At the end of all that, what she really, really wanted was a nice lawn tractor type lawn mower.
The GR was the only one I didn’t much care for. The only ones the dealer had were diesels so they were nice and expensive. Only a couple grand less than the BX (without loader). I didn’t like treadle layout or responsiveness. A bit jerky compared to my L. Wife couldn’t quite figure out a comfortable way to use it with her relatively small foot.
The BX felt like driving a tractor. A very small tractor, but a tractor. The treadle is different than the GR and different than our L but it was quite intuitive and silky smooth. Very nice machine.
The T came across as designed similar to lower cost machines, all belt drive, no PTO, no 4WD, Kawasaki gas engine… but done right with the quality I expect in a Kubota product.
One thing we like about both the GR and T was the reverse cut out override has to be pushed once per session to allow mowing in reverse (not every time you back up). That’s important on our property.
The BX is a sweet little machine but too much for what we need to compliment the L we already have. The GR just isn’t it for us. So this is being delivered Thursday when we get back home. Will post a photo or two when it shows up.
Only problem spending so much time at the dealership with the wife. Now, she wants one of these and I’m having a hard time figuring out why not other than she already has a two seater Mule.