# Kubota BX Series - 3pt Hitch Stabilizers - Anybody Interested in a better built set vs the weak horrible OEM design?



## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

To all the Kubota BX folks, its no secret that the OEM BX series 3pt hitch stabilizers are a horrible design. I`ve shopped around, found a couple places that make them, but nobody wants to wait around for somebody to build them. The one set i looked at, didnt impress me, they looked like crap. So, i`m looking into building some, and wondering if anyone would be interested in a set for their own BX series tractors. If there is enough intrest, i`ll run a few off. 

The local Kubota guys here took the last few that i built after they saw mine on my own BX tractor. Anyway, i`m just trying to figure out if its worth doing more of them, or not. I built a few for the local JD guys here too. I might look into more of those, too, for other sub-compact tractors. I`m bored, and i`m just looking for something to do with my time. Of course these will be brand and model specific for sub-compact model tractors.

If these stabilizers show enough intrest, i`ll look into posting them in the classified section of the forum, if legally i can do so.

Attention Forum Mods: If this is inappropriate for me to post, or it is in the wrong place, contact me and move or remove if deemed necessary - Thanks Fella`s!


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

You'll have to show us how you get on. What are you going to use for material?


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

pogobill said:


> You'll have to show us how you get on. What are you going to use for material?


For sure Bill. I`d like to do a professional video of installing them. I just need to find somebody that can do that for me locally. I`m not good with messing with cameras and video stuff.

I may build a couple sets and then post some pictures of them so that people can see them in here, if thats ok with you folks. I`m just using a standard (Lowes/Home Depot) metal, for now. I`ve got a couple friends that are very hard on equipment, and the ones i built for them, they are holding up very well. I`m shopping around for better (bulk) steel prices right now, so, IF, people show enough intrest in the stabilizers, i`ll start making a bunch of them. But i have to get a better deal on the steel to make it worth it. The metal you find at lowes or home depot are way to expensive. I found a couple different places to buy it from in bulk but the shipping is crazy expensive. There again, if enough people want them, and i can buy the steel cheaper, i`ll do it. I`ve been running mine for quite awhile now, no signs of wear, cracks, or fatigue in them anywhere. They are painted, so as the paint wears off over time, that will up to the owner to repaint them when necessary. 

Also, with my 3pt stabilizer's, the outer sleeve is open so that water can not ever get trapped inside and begin to rust faster internally. All the others i`ve seen out there are welded shut on the outer sleeve end. We all know that alot of tractors sit outside in the rain, the 3pt arms always drop down, then the stabilizer CAN fill up with water. Mine wont do that. Water will drain right out.

A newly designed one i`m working on right now corrects the geometry with the Kubota BX`s. With mine, there is ZERO bind happening. They stay at the same tension whether the hitch is up, or down. I`ll be testing this newly designed one this coming summer. I built a couple sets of those for a couple people to test on their BX this coming spring. It`ll be interesting in what they report back to me about it with the geometry corrected.

Right now, i`m just a one man operation. I`ve spoke to a few dealers already, and they are v-e-r-y interested. I just want to get some out here locally where i live and get some good feedback before i take on a dealership role with making them. If these dealers take them, i might have to hire an extra hand or two just to keep up. My wife will take care of the handling and shipping, so we`re all set there. We have a UPS shipper just up the road from us. I`m sure we can set it up for them to just pick everything up right here from our shop.

Anyway, thanks for reaching out Bill. Anything you can suggest is always appreciated, i might be old, but i can still learn from listening to others! Thanks much!


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## DIYOrangeDave (Jan 5, 2019)

Do you have any pictures?

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

You should look at making a top link to match.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

Every mediocre-sized city should have a least one metals supplier. Even a local fab shop should have a decent inventory


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

DIYOrangeDave said:


> Do you have any pictures?
> 
> Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk


I wont post any until i make sure these stabilizers have been thoroughly tested. I`ve changed the design twice, only to make them better. So i dont want to rush in to posting a bunch of pictures and then have people jumping all over me because some pictures WILL change as i go further into the development. I only started this thread to see if there were enough people interested in buying them. I`ve built a few for local guys. This is all just in the development & testing stages right now. I`m just one man, with a small shop, and not alot of money just to throw around. As we get into springtime, i`ll be able to spend more time in the shop. It costs me a fortune to heat my shop, so i`m trying to save money by waiting until warmer weather to ramp things up again.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> You should look at making a top link to match.


Whats your idea of that(?) Aren`t there tons of top links out there in the market already? I`m not sure what you or i could do different with a top link that hasn`t already been done. But i`m surely open to your ideas on it.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> Every mediocre-sized city should have a least one metals supplier. Even a local fab shop should have a decent inventory


Yes, you`re right, and alot of the fab shops over charge too. I dont like paying the "middle man".
I`ve found it is far cheaper to buy right from a steel company. I located 2 companies close buy that can supply me. Unbelievably much cheaper!

But as i said earlier, i dont want to spend a ton of money into this project if there are not enough people interested in buying the stabilizers.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

Ben DoinIt said:


> Yes, you`re right, and alot of the fab shops over charge too. I dont like paying the "middle man".
> I`ve found it is far cheaper to buy right from a steel company. I located 2 companies close buy that can supply me. Unbelievably much cheaper!
> 
> But as i said earlier, i dont want to spend a ton of money into this project if there are not enough people interested in buying the stabilizers.


Do the local suppliers have minimum order size?

If you have a price and some pics, I’d consider a set for my Kioti.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> Do the local suppliers have minimum order size?
> 
> If you have a price and some pics, I’d consider a set for my Kioti.


Both places said no minimum orders for me. I`m sure they have a minimum, but not in my case due to what and how much i`m buying from them each time. The metal i`m buying are in 8ft lengths. All i have to do is call them in the morning and i can go over with my truck and trailer, they`ll load it all right on my trailer for me. Stabilizers aren`t the only thing that i build. I build a ton of other metal made projects during the summer. I am a (retired) machinist by trade. Finding these 2 suppliers is a god send for me. I can save money by removing the "middle man" now. 

I only decided to look into the stabilizers because its hard to find anyone that makes them correctly, and with quality & craftsmanship. And then there are those that do make them, that you have a hard time getting them from them because its not their main job. I would like to turn this into a much bigger business, if the intrest and market allow it. The i`ll put that effort into it and build enough to have on hand to sell the day you call. They would get shipped out the next business day. I dont want to become that part time guy that you have to wait for. If the buyer`s are there, it`ll happen. If not, it wont. We`ll see.

Price & pics will come later when i get back to work in the shop. I dont work during cold weather. Heating my shop costs me way to much, and i`m retired AND old. 
As for the Kioti brand, i`d have to look into that, i`m not sure if they have the same set-up and dimensions as the Kubota BX stabilizers. Whats the year & model of yours Marc (?)

As i keep saying, if there is enough intrest out there, i`ll pursue this stabilizer project further. I`ve been wanting to expand, so this is why i`m researching it and asking questions.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

I used to be a toolmaker in a past life. I was actually humming and hawing about setting up a machine shop in my garage for hobby stuff. I have all my hand tools still, but no machines except for a drill press and an Atlas lathe.

My stabilizers are a standard shackle and turnbuckle style. It a 2008 DS4110.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> I used to be a toolmaker in a past life. I was actually humming and hawing about setting up a machine shop in my garage for hobby stuff. I have all my hand tools still, but no machines except for a drill press and an Atlas lathe.
> 
> My stabilizers are a standard shackle and turnbuckle style. It a 2008 DS4110.


Marc, i`m set up pretty decent for a home machine shop. Its probably above what most home shops would normally be by quite a stretch. I`ve been a machinist & tool maker all my life. Bought ALOT of things over the years that allow me to build most anything i want/need. Now retired from the crazy employment side of things, now i just focus on building more of what i want/like to do instead of doing it for other companies. 

Thanks for your tractor info Marc. Let me see what i can come up with. Hang in there while i do some research.


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## Clifford B. (Nov 20, 2019)

I too am a retired job shop machinist and have a nicely equipped hobby shop of my own.
Hope this pans out fer ya !!


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

Clifford B. said:


> I too am a retired job shop machinist and have a nicely equipped hobby shop of my own.
> Hope this pans out fer ya !!


Thanks Cliff, i hope it does too. I love building things, especially if it helps others. Just puts another smile on my face. 
I know its a ways to go yet, so i`m just looking to see if its worth my time, or not. If it dosent work out, i`ve got other projects to keep me plenty busy this summer in the shop.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

Well, if you can find a couple forum members that are interested, you can make a couple and recoup your cost, then we spread the word and before you know it, we have a new vendor on the forum


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> My stabilizers are a standard shackle and turnbuckle style. It a 2008 DS4110.


Marc, i`m not finding anything for a 2008 DS4110, you sure on the year of it? From what i`m finding, they didnt start making these tractors until 2009 (???)


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> Well, if you can find a couple forum members that are interested, you can make a couple and recoup your cost, then we spread the word and before you know it, we have a new vendor on the forum


I think i`ll just build a couple this spring and post the pictures and info on them, then lets see what happens. People either bite, or they dont.
One set will be for the Kubota BX80 series, the other set will be for the JohnDeere 1025R series tractors.


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## Clifford B. (Nov 20, 2019)

Ben DoinIt said:


> Thanks Cliff, i hope it does too. I love building things, especially if it helps others. Just puts another smile on my face.
> I know its a ways to go yet, so i`m just looking to see if its worth my time, or not. If it dosent work out, i`ve got other projects to keep me plenty busy this summer in the shop.


That is the fact !!.......................


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

Clifford B. said:


> That is the fact !!.......................


Yes sir, it sure is


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

Ben DoinIt said:


> Marc, i`m not finding anything for a 2008 DS4110, you sure on the year of it? From what i`m finding, they didnt start making these tractors until 2009 (???)


That’s possible.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

Guess i would be wasting my time building any of these. Glad to hear someone else got the job building them. They look like garbage to me.
The welds look like crap. Geometry dosent appear to be corrected on theirs. Paint job looks like a rattle can job. But, more power to them.


*MUST HAVE KUBOTA BX ACCESSORY (Messick's Three Point Stabilizers)*


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

They definitely look like an improvement over the originals, particularly for ease of use, but I agree, those welds don’t look great. I think if you gave it a good whack those welds would fail. I couldn’t see if they a bead on the inside of the U, which would be the weak point.

Back to me previous post, my Kioti is a 2009. My stabilizers are on the outside of the lift arms, so they’re always in a tension scenario, not a compression scenario. Mine are chains with turnbuckle.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> They definitely look like an improvement over the originals, particularly for ease of use, but I agree, those welds don’t look great. I think if you gave it a good whack those welds would fail. I couldn’t see if they a bead on the inside of the U, which would be the weak point.
> 
> Back to me previous post, my Kioti is a 2009. My stabilizers are on the outside of the lift arms, so they’re always in a tension scenario, not a compression scenario. Mine are chains with turnbuckle.


I bet you`re right Marc. I bet they didnt weld inside the U channel ears, which IS a weak spot for sure, so you`re right on that too. Unless they used a stick welder, and i highly doubt they did. I dont see where you`d be able to get inside of a 1/2 inch channel with a big MIG tip welder nozzle otherwise. Even a TIG would be tough to get in there. And who ever welded those, sure dont know how to weld. Looks like what i call, a bird sh!t welding job, to me. Globbed on, and looks like no penetration in the weld. I dont see these holding up very well for very long. But, who am i to say, they may be just fine, but i still have doubts. I might just buy a set just to look them over for quality. I`m betting they used low quality dirty metals too. And i bet you`ll see these pop up all over ebay now. Other countries in the world are really good at ripping us all off.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

I say you buy a set and put them to the test! Make a video review.


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## Ben DoinIt (Dec 15, 2020)

marc_hanna said:


> I say you buy a set and put them to the test! Make a video review.


I might just do that Marc


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

They are very similar to the ones I have on my Case DX45.


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