A 1,969 lb loader hung on a 24-horsepower compact is the headline here, and nothing Deere or Kubota sells at this output comes close to it. The $20,712 figure is for the hydrostatic CK2620H; the manual version saves about a thousand.
0.98 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 everyone who ends up on a CK2620 arrived from a Kubota quote. Owners describe walking into a dealership for an L2501, L2502 or LX2620, measuring it against what they actually need to pick up — 800 to 1,200 lb oak logs, a grapple, a rock bucket — and finding the Kubota loader short of the number. One shopper put the Kioti's usable lift at about 1,800 lb against an L2502's 1,144 and said the lift capacity alone would have decided it. What they do not agree on is the price gap: one buyer found an LX2620SU and an L2501 quoted within $1,000 of the CK2620, while another walked out of a Kubota dealer marking up 10% over its own build price and bought the Kioti for $10,000 less. The gap is a dealer fact, not a brand fact.
In use the recurring word is workhorse, with caveats. Owners at 160 to 180 hours describe it as trouble-free while running bush hogs, backhoes and box blades, and it swings a 5-foot or 60-inch rotary cutter in three-foot grass in mid range without bogging. Two separate owners had a hydraulic leak at the rear remotes within days of delivery, both fixed at home under warranty. The range lever is stiff enough getting from neutral into gear that owners have a shared workaround — bump the forward or reverse pedal slightly and it drops in. Open-station machines are loud; one owner cannot hold a conversation with his wife while working and is shopping for a muffler.
The less obvious thing about this tractor is that its 24.5 hp rating is deliberate. Owners describe a larger engine held down to stay under the emissions threshold, which is precisely why they bought it — the machine they wanted was the one that arrives without diesel exhaust fluid and a particulate filter to manage. (Owners also swap notes on uncapping the injection pump for more power, which belongs to an earlier, mechanically injected generation; Kioti fits a common-rail engine here.) It suits someone on five to fifteen acres who wants compact-frame lift without DEF or a particulate filter, and who accepts the standing caution owners repeat to each other: it is a small tractor, it does small-tractor things well, and it does big-tractor things slowly. One owner on flat ground says he would buy 60 hp next time, mostly because every good used implement he finds is too big for it.
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
Kioti
Kioti's 40-tier answer to its own CK2620: the same 24.5 hp and 1,647 cc engine, about $900 more, and a place in the newer trim ladder that runs to a cab. Gear at $20,569, three-range hydrostatic at $21,569, cab at $33,369.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kioti
The 20-tier CK at 34.9 hp, and the cheapest way into Kioti's 1,826 cc common-rail engine. Its KL4030C loader lifts 1,969 lb at the pin - more than the pricier 40-tier CK3540 - which is the argument for buying the older tier. Gear $24,265, hydrostatic $25,171, cab $36,937.
Spec sheet & owner notesKioti
Kioti's 40-tier sits above the CK3520 on price and below it on loader capacity: a 3H-TH4A intercooled engine, 0.1 hp more, 1,657 lb at the loader pin against the 3520's 1,969, and 11.3 gpm against 11.7. Gear $24,769, hydrostatic $25,769, cab $37,469.
Spec sheet & owner notes