MSRP, base build
Biggest compact John Deere builds, and the only one that arrives with a cab as standard rather than an option. A charge-air-cooled 2.091 L Yanmar makes 74.3 hp, a heavy-duty front axle is base equipment, and eHydro is the only transmission offered.
0.87 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
Almost every discussion of this model turns into an argument for buying something else, and the reasoning is consistent enough to be useful. The cleanest version comes from someone who advises anyone looking at this to ask why they are not considering the 5075E instead, pointing out that with a loader the 5-series machine can come out a few thousand dollars cheaper, particularly now a premium cab can be had on it. The genuine reason to stay here is the transmission: a buyer weighing the two sets out the real trade-off, which is that the 5-series has no exhaust additive system or regeneration but cannot be had with a hydrostatic drive, while this one gives you the hydrostatic and the emissions hardware together. An owner who runs both a 4-series and a larger utility tractor offers the most practical decision rule anyone gives: if you have 30 acres of woods and trails, take this, because the smaller frame is far more manoeuvrable and much easier when working a grapple among limbs; if you have 30 acres of open pasture or hay to cut, take the 5075E, because a bigger machine is far better at heavy loader work, wide rotary cutting and disking.
The one detailed owner account here is a bad one, and instructive for how he responded to it. His machine was enough of a lemon that Deere repurchased it after two months of attempted repairs, and he notes its front lift was less than a smaller 3-series machine managed. He then took an unusually rigorous approach to replacing it, visiting every dealer and asking each to perform a load test - lifting 2,000 lb to 56 inches using his own heavy pallet forks - and reports that very few machines passed, with only Kioti and Yanmar managing it among those he tried. He ended up with a Yanmar, runs close to 1,800 lb of rear ballast on top of filled tires, and passes on a useful trick: for getting logs higher in a stack, pallet forks on a light frame will out-lift a grapple, because the grapple's own weight eats into what you have.
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
Largest of the open-station 4M machines: a charge-air-cooled 4TNV86CHT pulling 65 hp from the same 2.091 L block the 4052M uses, and 54.2 hp at the PTO. Hitch, hydraulics and loader are unchanged from the 4052M, so the step buys engine and 228 lb of chassis.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
Same turbocharged 2.091 L Yanmar as the 4052M, moved into the 4R chassis: eHydro standard, the self-levelling 440R loader, and a premium ComfortGard cab on the order sheet. About $5,600 buys the cab option and the better loader, not more engine.
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