I don't have a JBJR, but I do have a Ventrac 3000. With a slip scoop, its similar in nature.

You will find the bucket to be of much use. I use mine several times a week, yesterday to carry seaweed to the compost pile, next week I'll need to move about 7 yards of pea gravel. In fact, I almost never bother pulling my trailer around anymore or even lug the wheelbarrow around my hills. The bucket is more convenient.

I'd suggest that you use weights of some sort. With a full load in the bucket going down a hill, my tractor handles better with rear weights. Weighted wheels/wheel weights would also be acceptable. Otherwise, with a few hundred pounds in the bucket, your rear wheels will lose traction. This is especially bad on a rear wheel drive tractor.

John

I have the Johnny Jr, and love it. I think someone here once said it's the older man's wheelbarrow...you just don't have to push it. As with the rest of us, you'll probably find all kinds of new chores and things for it to do. Don't think you'll be disappointed.

I'm not familiar with your tractor, but I'd check to see if that LX lawn tractor is suitable for the mounting and added weight.

We (wife and I) have a Johnny Jr and love it. We have literally moved tons of stuff. Building a house will do that. Mostly gravel and pit run material. Also a lot of dirt, some snow, neighbors mulch. etc. Also hauling tools, landscaping blocks, etc. So much in fact that I have wore out three switches and the lift linear actuator is only lifting about 3/4 of what it use to be able to lift. Even the guy that we hire to move a bunch of stuff with his JBC Robot was impressed with it. It is extremely well constructed. With all the stuff we have done to it there are no dents. Paint has wore out in a couple of spots. Easy to remove the Bucket which we do when mowing (5 minutes tops, more like 3 minutes). We can use the bucket to lift up the front wheels which makes it easier to remove the deck on the mower and put it back on. Make sure to get the power dump. It has paid for itself several times over. The down side. It can stress your tractor so your tractor better have a strong frame and a strong engine / transmission. You may have to add rear weights. We did and it helped a lot. We also added tractor tires instead of the stock turf tires. Ebay is great for getting an extra set of rims and tires.. My wife and I have been using it on our Poulan Pro (yep.. the one with the bad #1 cylinder head posted elsewhere) for a couple of years now. Got the cylinder head replaced and running great again hauling more stuff around. The failure of the B&S engine I am convinced was a design defect not from use of Johnny Bucket. There are a couple of pictures on the Johnny Bucket site. For the money it has been well worth it. We should have actually gotten a compact tractor for all the stuff we have done but the Johnny Bucket Jr has done a super job. If you get one add the Bucket top extension. It helps keep mulch off the front of the engine and allows you to load it up. This sure beats a wheelbarrow which was what we were using before. Holds more and easier to meter/spread out. Using the bucket you can spread things like gravel or mulch flat. Gets into small spaces as well. You can even use the bucket to move / remove snow but Johnny products has a blade attachment for that purpose that attaches to the Bucket frame. I am adding that to my wish list. I really can not come up with any really bad points except for the switches wearing out and the lift actuator getting weak. Those are not Johnny products fault but if you order one you may want to throw in a extra switch as they are a special switch which can be replaced by a normal 2P2T switch with a wiring harness but it is not a clean looking.

Later,
Tom :)

Hey Tom,
where did you get those rear weights? I've got a Craftsman GT5000 and been looking for something to hold it down in the back. I'm still riding turf tires for now, but I think a little weight in the rear would help even with those tires. NOt doing to much in the way of hauling...just moving stuff back and forth once in a while. Right now moving composting materials it's real handy. Also picking up limbs and branches that fall down from storms won't break you back this way either.

Hi jimtnc,
We first started with this rear attachment that Sears sold in the store that attached to the rear of the Garden tractor and was a flip down tray. It was about 2 foot deep and 3 foot wide. It held about 300 lbs. At least my wife and I could stand on it without it breaking.. I just went to Sears on-line to find it to provide you a link but I just can not seem to locate it. Not sure what it is called. Anyway.. we strapped some cement blocks to it and it worked really well as a counter weight. When we did not need the weight we just removed the blocks and flipped up the tray. The weight really did help with just the turf tires and the tray was not too expensive at the time. If I recall it was around $ 50.00 on sale. It was much more useful than just a counterweight.
Last year my work got a new fancy welder so I decided to learn welding and build my own. The neighbor was throwing out a set of lift weights so I custom built a box that attached to the rear of the garden tractor and held the weights. I still need to do a few things to the box like add a hitch hookup and a trailer ball hookup. In fact I do miss the tray so much that I think I will figure out how to weld a bracket to the box to attach the tray.

I do see that Sears has a weight attachment for the rear
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_07124415000P?vName=Lawn%20&%20Garden&cName=TractorAttachments&sName=Tire%20Chains&psid=19201774&sid=IPx20070925x00002b

I still can not find that read platform attachment. Might be that they do not make or sell it anymore.

Later,
Tom :)

I have the JB jr on my JD X500 and the lift actuator is really weak after one summers use. Thinking about going to stronger lift actuator. Anyone have any ideas