MSRP, base build
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.
0.7 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
Owners on five to seven acres are genuinely fond of this machine - one uses his almost daily with a heavy bucket, straight blade, box blade, pallet forks and bush hog, and another on five wooded acres doing driveway grading, firewood and drainage says the only time he wanted more tractor was shifting stumps an excavator had left behind, and he managed those with some creativity. One reports 360 hours in two years without an issue. Push it towards bigger work and the advice changes fast: owners weighing it for 30 to 40 acres with 750 to 1,000 lb round bales are told it will be at its limit and pointed at a used utility tractor instead, and while it will handle light dry 4x4 or 4x5 bales, owners say the next size up is far more comfortable with anything over half a ton. One owner clearing woods and moving gravel says it holds up fine but takes much longer than a skid steer would, and suggests buying a used skid steer for the heavy establishment work and a tractor afterwards.
The sharpest practical report concerns winter. An owner in his third season plowing a parking lot, running a rear snowblower and a front pusher with liquid-filled tires, finds it struggles in deeper snow, cannot get going up a slight grade with a full pusher, and has his front wheels lifting constantly so that steering while pushing becomes almost impossible - he was looking at a front weight bracket and around 420 lb of weights to fix it, and says in hindsight he would have bought a 4-series. Price is the other running theme, and it cuts both ways. One shopper found new examples quoted north of $50,000 with cab and loader while a comparable Kubota came in far cheaper, and used ones at $24,000 to $28,000 that were seven to ten years old with 1,500 hours and rusty. Another buyer reached the opposite conclusion from the same facts: after months of watching 15-year-old Deeres sell for their original new price, he simply bought new and calls it money in the bank.
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
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.
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 3R line picks up where the discontinued 3038R left off: a turbocharged 1.6 L Yanmar, 15.3 gpm of pump flow and a 2,194 lb hitch. Pick eHydro or a 12F/12R PowrReverser gearbox, and a ComfortGard cab with air conditioning is a factory option on the eHydro build.
Spec sheet & owner notes