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.
1.19 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 CK3520 is where Kioti's value argument gets loudest, and where the street price stops resembling the sticker. Owners report numbers all over the map for the same machine: one paid $23,000 out the door with a loader, another was quoted $21,990 with a free loader at 2.99% for 60 months, a third paid $165 more than Kioti's own online build figure and got Rim Guard ballast, a rotary cutter and a box blade thrown in. At the other end, an SE HST cab was quoted at $36,000 plus $4,425 for the loader. The lesson owners draw is to get several quotes, because a 7.5% price rise on new stock was enough for one dealer's leftover CK4020 to come out at the same money as a newly priced CK3520 — which is how several buyers end up with more horsepower than they went in for.
What owners actually say about running one is consistent and unglamorous. The weight is the point: a 15-acre owner says the mass is what makes it useful for moving fertilizer and trees, while admitting he still finds jobs it is not strong enough for. A four-year owner who pounds the loader moving trees reports his is still reasonably straight, which he offers as reassurance to a 60-hour owner who found his bucket about an inch out of square after stripping six inches of sod — the shared diagnosis being that pushing hard and on an angle is what bends them. Teething problems in the file are small and hydraulic: an oil leak at the cam speed sensor fixed under warranty, a third-function valve that stuttered a grapple closed at 20 hours and then stopped working, a hydraulic top link that shudders extending under load but not retracting. The other recurring theme is the people who bought it: cross-shoppers who wanted a compact rather than a sub-compact, a 6-foot-5 owner who found Kubota's steering wheel too close and disliked its rocker pedal, and several who simply could not make a sub-compact's weight and PTO do what they needed.
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 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
Kioti
39.6 hp and 33.3 at the PTO take the CK 20-tier as far as it goes, on the same 2,734 lb frame as the 34.9 hp CK3520 with the same 1,969 lb loader and 11.7 gpm pump. Sold gear at $26,681, three-range hydrostatic at $27,571, or as the SEH cab at $39,826.
Spec sheet & owner notesKioti
The 40-tier version of Kioti's 39.5 hp compact, with the intercooled 3H-TH4A engine and the cab trim the 20-tier does not get as cleanly. It pays for that with a smaller 1,657 lb loader and 11.3 gpm where the CK4020 has 1,969 lb and 11.7.
Spec sheet & owner notes