MSRP, base build
Thirty-seven horsepower while keeping the AutoConnect mower deck on the options list, which nothing else this size manages. Sitting between the 2025R and the 3-Series, its premium platform - eHydro, cruise, full dash - is what the money buys.
0.96 PTO hp per $1,000 of list price
As published by the maker
On the price: The maker's own published starting figure for the base build. A dealer adds a loader, a deck and freight on top.
Lift figures are the maker's and are quoted at whichever point the maker chose; the about page explains why two loaders with the same number do not lift the same pallet.
Comes with
From owner discussion and long-term write-ups
Gathered from owner reports
The 2038R gets recommended by owners as the machine that is big enough to finish the job and still small enough to get into the woods. Owners describe it doing real work on properties from four acres up to sixty: one on 22 acres calls it exactly the right size for a mower, a snowblower and a stump grinder while still fitting the tight spots in his timber; another on 40 acres mows twelve, maintains ten acres of woods and clears a quarter-mile gravel drive plus half a mile of county road the county never gets to. Snow is where owners are most emphatic — a 60-inch front blower moving 24 inches of heavy wet snow comes up, along with a strong preference for turf radials, which several owners rate the best snow tire even though they give up mud traction.
The most useful thing in the file is not about the tractor at all, it is about buying one. Owners report dealers in one-dealer territories holding firm at list — one neighbour was quoted $40,000 locally and bought the same machine in Nebraska for $32,000 including a front remote, with $1,200 of shipping on top. Another found one online $6,000 under his local dealer and talked the local dealer into matching it plus delivery plus $500, specifically so warranty work would stay nearby. A third bought a 150-hour used machine with a truckload of implements for the price of a base new unit. And 0% financing repeatedly decides the brand: one owner found Kubota about a thousand dollars cheaper and nearly nine thousand more in interest.
Loader capacity is where owners argue, and the argument is really about measurement. Figures ranging from 800 pounds to over 2,200 all appear from owners of the same tractor, and the explanation that settles it comes from an owner spelling out the three ways capacity is quoted: breakout force, full height at the pivot pin, and full height at the bucket about 500mm forward — the last being roughly 70% of the pin figure and the only one that reflects what you can actually pick up. Owners also warn that pallet forks feel tippy on soft, uneven ground even with loaded tires. On the backhoe, two owners who have logged real hours with the 270B say the same thing in different words: it beats a shovel and it saved them buying a second machine, but the limited reach and depth means constant repositioning, and both keep thinking about a mini excavator.
Summarised from public owner discussion, not from testing. Nothing here was measured by this site, and a report that recurs is not the same as a defect rate.
Cross-shopped against
Same brand or same size, nearest in price
John Deere
The cheapest 3R chassis, and the money goes into hydraulics and hitch rather than horsepower: 15.3 gpm against the 3E line's 9.3, a 2,194 lb hitch, the larger 320R loader and a ComfortGard cab on the option sheet. The only 3R without a turbo.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
The only turbocharged gear-drive D, and the biggest: a 1.57 L Yanmar 3TNV86CT making 41.6 hp, 36.3 of it at the PTO. It runs the same hitch, hydraulics and 2,840 lb chassis as the 3035D, so the whole price step buys engine.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
Deere's premium small compact, sharing the 3032E's 1.642 L Yanmar and hydraulics but wrapping them in a heavier chassis with a step-through platform, tilt wheel and standard cruise control. It costs more than the 3032E and lifts less.
Spec sheet & owner notes