Buying several Kubota tractors, building a Camp, and maintaining 69 acres of recreational/hunting property.

JRHill · Apr 13, 2025

Enjoyed reading the story and the pictures. It brought back a memory of our current (and final) place. When I moved to the PNW from the Midwest I brought the B7100 and all the attachments. The 'ol machine ran great but I couldn't find the backhoe. At 25 years old I had given up finding one. Around 2009 we had purchased forest land and had picked out the site for the house. I needed a backhoe. There was a medium sized Kubota dealership outside of a town in the area and I bit the bullet and stopped. The machine may have been a BX25 and he was going to give me a trade-in price on the B7100/loader when I brought it in for an inspection. But he gave me a ballpark figure.

As I was gritting my teeth he asked again which model I was trading and I told him. He said "Comon out back" and I followed him. There sitting on an oversized pallet was a B670 backhoe with the brackets, bolts, complete. But not the rotating seat. He had just got it on consignment from a long time customer who was downsizing. My jaw was dragging and leaving a trail of drool. I bought in on the spot. His next words were the most classic line I had ever heard from a sales guy/business owner: "So I supposed I just screwed myself out of selling you a new tractor, huh?" Duh, I think the price was $650.

It was in pretty good shape but was definitely undersized for the project at hand. The JD 410j solved that problem. It can brake up a root ball and push over a 24" Doug Fir in 20 minutes. The "Toy Tractor" and "Big Bertha" make a good team. But I have to be really careful with Bertha as she's so top and back heavy.

BX25D Rookie · Apr 16, 2025

I did get the replacement mower deck safety stickers installed the other day when it was warm.
I degreased the newly painted surfaces with brake cleaner before installing them.

The OEM Kubota mower deck Model number / Serial number sticker is an entirely different matter.
I was successful removing that sticker prior to repainting the mower deck.
It was that one time a "rust bubble" was a good thing, it had started "lifting" one corner of the sticker.
It is perhaps at 90% condition compared to a brand new Model number / Serial number sticker.

I mixed up some two part epoxy and smeared some around on the sticker adhesive side.
It isn't nearly as neat / clean / firmly attached as a brand new sticker.
Those factory Mn / Sn stickers just aren't made to be removed and then reattached.

I live in a rural county. There isn't a large selection of available choices for auto body parts stuff.
I started at the north end of town, and heading south, stopped at every business that does auto body work, parts stores, and auto detailing. The last stop, they actually knew what I was talking about.

I decided after receiving a suggestion here from Forum Member @biketopia, that a small square of 3M Pro Paint Protection Film applied on top of the Model number / Serial number sticker will do the job.
This 3M product is commonly called "Stone Guard" in the auto body industry, but that isn't really technically accurate, as 3M sells a stone floor protection product called Stone Guard.

I did investigate aftermarket one-off replacement reproduction stickers, but they are big money.
Simply due to expensive machine setup time expenses, and a production run of one.
I got a quote for a reproduction sticker, and it was $288 plus shipping.

The last place I stopped and looked for the 3M Pro Paint Protection Film had some.
I could have bought a large roll online, and big enough to cover the side of a tractor trailer.
But what am I going to do with the remaining quantity leftover?
I needed a "square" 4"x 4" maximum and anything extra remaining would just be wasted.

So here is a "shout out" to Oxford Motors in Oxford, New York.
They donated a small square of the 3M Pro Paint Protection Film, and when/if it ever warms up again,
I will stick a square of that product over the top of that pesky Model number / Serial number sticker.

IMG_20250414_142357599_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20250414_142334985_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

BX25D Rookie · Apr 23, 2025

It was 70+ and sunny today. I cleaned/polished one of my motorcycles earlier in the day.
I thought about taking that bike out for a 2/3 of a day ride, but I resisted the temptation.
I cleaned/polished my other motorcycle yesterday, and took my first bike ride for 2025, about 45 minutes.
We've had out of town company for just over a week, and riding the bike for the day would have been rude.

Out of town company is being dropped off at their departure airport tomorrow.

I compromised, and spent several hours on the BX 2370 that I've been restoring/repairing for the last month and a half. It was anticlimactic. No leaks, no noises, no vibrations.
Mower deck adjustment was perfect! It mows lawn very nicely.
The operator sits a bit higher in the seat compared to the JD X720, the decks were/are both 60", and the Kubota BX has the folding ROPS, the JD didn't have any ROPS at all.

The BX 2370 is just enough bigger than the JD X720 that you really need to be paying attention driving it around trees, bushes/shrubs, and power line pole guy wires. It's a ~ one acre lot at the house.

At the recreational property it's approaching two acres of mowing and considerably more open.
I was surprised what you could actually get underneath with the ROPS folded down.
I figured I would be trimming/removing lower limbs on a bunch of trees, and that didn't happen. (yet)

The grass could have waited another week before it "really" needed to be mowed, however the
80 to 100 hours I've spent restoring/repairing the BX 2370 machine, it was simply "play" time today.
I'm exceedingly pleased with the Kubota BX 2370 project results!

IMG_20250404_150246271_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

JRHill · Apr 23, 2025

BX25D Rookie said:
It was 70+ and sunny today. I cleaned/polished one of my motorcycles earlier in the day.
I thought about taking that bike out for a 2/3 of a day ride, but I resisted the temptation.
I cleaned/polished my other motorcycle yesterday, and took my first bike ride for 2025, about 45 minutes.
We've had out of town company for just over a week, and riding the bike for the day would have been rude.

Out of town company is being dropped off at their departure airport tomorrow.

I compromised, and spent several hours on the BX 2370 that I've been restoring/repairing for the last month and a half. It was anticlimactic. No leaks, no noises, no vibrations.
Mower deck adjustment was perfect! It mows lawn very nicely.
The operator sits a bit higher in the seat compared to the JD X720, the decks were/are both 60", and the Kubota BX has the folding ROPS, the JD didn't have any ROPS at all.

The BX 2370 is just enough bigger than the JD X720 that you really need to be paying attention driving it around trees, bushes/shrubs, and power line pole guy wires. It's a ~ one acre lot at the house.

At the recreational property it's approaching two acres of mowing and considerably more open.
I was surprised what you could actually get underneath with the ROPS folded down.
I figured I would be trimming/removing lower limbs on a bunch of trees, and that didn't happen. (yet)

The grass could have waited another week before it "really" needed to be mowed, however the
80 to 100 hours I've spent restoring/repairing the BX 2370 machine, it was simply "play" time today.
I'm exceedingly pleased with the Kubota BX 2370 project results!

IMG_20250404_150246271_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

You are doing something right. We bought recreational property many years ago and built a house for a place to retire. We are still trying to find out what's recreational about it?!?

BX25D Rookie · Tuesday at 10:40 AM

I've used the Kubota BX 2370 several times for mowing at the house now, but it just isn't a workout for the machine with less than one acre.

Yesterday, I caught a warm sunny day after a week + of monsoon rains and trailered the BX 2370 up to the recreational property. I filled the tractor with diesel fuel on my way up, and again on my home.

Several observations:

With the ambient temperature yesterday near 80 Fahrenheit, I actually got the temperature gauge up to three bars for the first time. (50% of the way to the hot zone)

Fuel economy, it appears the BX uses about half of what the gasoline powered JD X720 used.
Here at my location, diesel fuel is about seventy cents per gallon higher than unleaded regular gasoline.
Also, yesterday really isn't a fair comparison for fuel economy due to having to re-mow windrows of grass clippings for dispersal. But still, a nice decrease in the semi-weekly expenses of recreational property maintenance. I mow at the recreational property/cabin about every 10 to 14 days depending on the season, grass growth rate, rainfall, and actually having a dry day.

The Kubota BX is just enough bigger compared to the JD X720, and perhaps also the design,
it did not accumulate grass clippings/dandelion fluff on the screen below the steering wheel.
The JD X720 required the operator to constantly keep the screen cleared off.
Both machines use reverse direction airflow for radiator cooling.

I do have a side hill that I mow, the JD X720 almost never needed the differential lock engaged.
I did have to put the BX into four wheel drive on several occasions. The extra weight?

The BX 2370 did the ~ two acres of mowing with very high grass height without complaining,
and with zero mechanical/operational issues. I'm calling it a "keeper" and it appears it will do exactly what I needed.

I brought my new cell phone with me as I had just called the fiber optic internet provider and had the internet turned on for the season and needed to ensure the wired/Wi-Fi internet was up and running, along with the cell signal from the network extender that we generate from inside the cabin.

The recently acquired Google Pixel 9 Pro XL cell phone has an amazing camera with settings in the "Professional" camera mode with ultra high definition photos. Pro mode also allows photos in the RAW format additionally.
50 MP, 20 MB file size, and 8160 x 6144 pixels, jpeg format for the tractor "glamor" shot.

These are reduced size for internet posting.
It doesn't look bad for an old bumpy/lumpy farm pasture!

PXL_20250512_222827861 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20250512_222630506 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20250512_222634747 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20250512_222638912 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20250512_222642753 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20250512_222651297 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr