MSRP, base build
Same 1,007 cc engine and same 21 hp as the CS2210, but the SL2420 loader lifts 1,062 lb at the pin instead of 675 and the pump goes to 7.0 gpm. That makes it the cheapest CS with a front end worth putting real dirt in.
1.02 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 CS2220 is the sub-compact people buy when the loader number matters more than the badge, and owners back that up with real loads: roughly 800 lb plus the bucket lifted to full height off a flatbed, 4-foot round bales moved with a tiller hung on the back, a crated 500 lb box blade that it did not blink at. The price gap can be dramatic — a Canadian buyer priced one with loader and mid-mount mower $11,000 below a comparably equipped BX2380, and a US buyer paid just over $14,000 cash in late 2022 with loader, third function, mirrors and ballasted tires. Resale has also gone better than the brand's reputation predicts: two owners who moved up to a CX2510 cab report losing only a few hundred dollars on the trade, one taking $13,500 back on a machine he bought for $14,015.
The other half of the picture is a cluster of hydraulic and starting complaints serious enough that owners argue about whether they got lemons. One owner's machine had the pump, priority valve and control valve replaced two or three times each and sat at the dealer for six months before anyone suspected a machining difference in the oil reservoir — and the loaner CS2220 he was given began showing the same symptoms. Another had the hydrostat fail around 50 hours. Hard starting shows up repeatedly and in several shapes: a solenoid that clicks without cranking once the machine is warm, multiple glow-plug cycles needed before it will turn over, one machine that needed a jump when cold. The HST cooling fan slung underneath is a separate known weak spot, found with its bolts backed out on one tractor and sheared clean off on another while its owner cut a trail.
What makes it work anyway is its size. Owners who considered a CK and chose this instead did so because the CS stays off lawns where a compact tears up whatever it drives on, and because it fits places a bigger machine will not. It is a legitimate one-machine answer for an acre to three acres of mixed chores, and with the backhoe it does real digging — one owner trenched in two hours what had taken him three days with a shovel, and dug a 12x12x4 pond over two weekends, though he had to reposition the tractor every four feet because you cannot drive and dig at once. Owners are split on whether that backhoe is worth its $8,300 price against renting, and are unanimous that if you are choosing between this and the cheaper CS2210, you buy this one.
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
A 1,233 cc three-cylinder in the small CS body, still rated 21 hp but pulling 16.7 at the PTO from 250 lb more tractor. The SL2530 loader lifts 871 lb at the pin, less than the cheaper CS2220, so this one is bought for the engine and the ballast rather than the front end.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kioti
Undercuts a Deere 1025R and a Kubota BX2380 on price while out-lifting both at the loader - 1,062 lb at the pin from 24.5 hp of Daedong diesel. Six years of powertrain cover is the other lever Kioti pulls; thinner dealer coverage is what it costs.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kioti
Kioti's biggest sub-compact frame, and the real jump in seriousness above the CS line: 1,647 cc, 11.3 gpm of pump and a 1,203 lb hitch against the CS's 700. Sold as gear at $17,827, hydrostatic at $19,524, or with a cab for $30,084.
Spec sheet & owner notes