MSRP, base build
The only Deere compact under 4 Family with a turbocharged, intercooled engine: 44.7 hp from 1.568 L, at the head of the 3 Series. eHydro is the sole transmission - the PowrReverser offered on the 3033R and 3039R is not on this model's order sheet.
0.86 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 most-read account of this tractor is a rollover, and it is worth reading before you take one into woods. The owner had the roll bar up and his seatbelt on, so he walked away unhurt, but the sequence is instructive: bucket raised to push over a tree, travelling downhill at an angle, and the uphill wheel rode over a groundhog mound. He came away wanting fabricated weight plates bolted to the mid-mount deck mounting points. An owner of the predecessor model makes the same point from the other direction, advising anyone on hilly ground to flip the wheels out or fit spacers, and noting plainly that a tractor can kill you. Where owners are positive is on comparison with the cheaper gear-drive 3043D: someone who has run both much prefers this one, disliking the D's loader controls being mounted on the loader frame rather than the operator station, and valuing cruise control for rotary cutting. He rates it good for implements up to about six feet.
The standout operational problem is emissions behaviour under light load. A driving range running several of these to pick balls reports parked exhaust filter cleanings at least once a day and often several times, to the point where the company's own mechanics instructed operators to run at full throttle constantly and never shut the engine off - meaning twelve hours or more at maximum revs. On the hydraulic side, one owner has had his tractor and grapple back to the dealer three times for a third-function circuit that works on collection and then stops after the machine sits or after he swaps back from the bucket, with the only recorded fix being a cleaned solenoid; he proved the grapple itself is fine by plumbing it directly into the loader lift lines. Two separate owners also report mid-mount deck trouble, one with a deck that sags down under its own weight and needs raising periodically, the other describing a deck that never fitted properly. On price, one buyer paid a little under $45,000 for a cab machine with mid mower, front blower and broom but no loader.
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
Fifty horsepower with a 12F/12R PowrReverser as standard equipment rather than an upcharge, and the 400E loader that lifts 2,396 lb at the pivot pin - nearly double what the 3 Series manages. The trade is the operator station: 4M is open-station only.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
Cheapest way into a cab-capable 4 Family machine. eHydro is standard here rather than optional, the 440R self-levelling loader replaces the 4M's 400E, and the 2.189 L Yanmar is the only naturally aspirated engine left in the 4R line.
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