MSRP for 2WD open station; Deere lists MFWD separately at $7,103
A genuine farm tractor rather than an oversized compact, running Deere's own 2.9L three-cylinder through a 12F/12R PowrReverser to 3,192 lb at the hitch. The 3-cylinder 5E needs no DPF, no DEF and no regen, which is a maintenance argument by itself.
1.53 PTO hp per $1,000 of list price
As published by the maker
On the price: This figure is the maker's published price for 2WD open station; Deere lists MFWD separately at $7,103. It is a real published number but not a like-for-like one, so nothing on this site ranks it against the bare-tractor prices — not the per-dollar picks, not the matchup pairings.
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
This is the machine people buy when a compact has stopped being enough, and the owners describing that jump are the most useful voices in the file: a 14-acre owner who sold the sub-compact he inherited with the property because it was too slow to be efficient, a long-time 4052R owner trading up specifically so he can run a 10-foot bush hog, and an owner who ran a 15-foot brush hog behind his for five years and four hundred hours. Owners consistently report it feeling like more tractor than the badge suggests. The other draw is that the three-cylinder 5E engines carry no particulate filter and no regens — several owners say so and a certified Deere technician confirms the distinction against the 5075M, which does have one.
Two things about it genuinely divide owners. The first is the loader hydraulics. More than one owner reports being unable to curl the bucket while raising or lowering the boom — one function at a time — and describes the loader as slow and weak against a skid steer or a larger competitor. An owner with a mass-excavation background borrowed a near-new one, got frustrated cleaning up an oak, and concluded the hydraulics are intentionally limited. The counter-argument is specific and worth hearing: another owner points out that the recommended operating band starts around 1,500 rpm against roughly 2,100 at the top, that working a loader at 1,400 rpm is lugging the engine and starving the pump, and that at proper revs he has no trouble driving and curling at once, nor any trouble reaching the rated lift with the factory bucket.
The second is the PowrReverser. An experienced rancher taking delivery of a new Premium Cab found reverse about half a mile per hour to a mile per hour faster than forward and abrupt enough to throw him in the seat, with the back end breaking loose while mucking stalls; an owner of a machine at 1,830 hours with the same transmission reports the same behaviour; and a third describes heavy bucking easing off the clutch in the B ranges. Owners who have the fully mechanical version, or who have borrowed a power-shuttle 5065E, are still emphatic that a shuttle is transformative with a loader — so the complaint is about this implementation, not the concept. Electrical faults are the other recurring theme: repeated fault codes on low-hour machines, a hitch that locked up at six hours and again later, a transmission output shaft speed sensor causing bog-and-shutdown, and one land-management operator who says Deere is handling a known ECU problem as a quiet find-it-fix-it rather than a recall after his machine died mid-job.
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
Where Deere's compacts stop pretending to be lawn equipment: 42.5 hp, a 3,770 lb frame and 15.4 GPM of hydraulics. M trim drops the R's cab, premium electronics and suspension seat, which is most of the several-thousand-dollar gap.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
The 5E most often bought for baling: 49 PTO hp out of the 2.9 L PowerTech, a Category 2 hitch and 6,029 lb of machine in 4WD trim, with a cab, PowrReverser or eHydro all available. It sits about $2,600 under a 5075E for 8.6 fewer horsepower.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
Where the 5E line starts offering choices: a cab, a 12F/12R PowrReverser and even an eHydro are all on the 5060E order sheet, none of which the 5050E below it can have. Same 2.9 L PowerTech, same DPF-free aftertreatment, ten more horsepower.
Spec sheet & owner notes