Gear-drive value model of the B01 range and the cheapest tractor Kubota builds on a full B-series frame. A 9F/3R gear box replaces the hydrostatic, the engine grows to 68.5 cu in, and the price lands about $3,600 under the less powerful B2301HSD beside it.
1.26 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 B2401 is bought by people who want a gear box on purpose, and the ones who have it defend the choice: an owner who uses his loader constantly says a manual transmission has caused him no trouble and that the extra power reaching the ground is a real benefit behind a box blade. The counter-argument from other owners is equally plain - heavy loader work is where a hydrostatic earns its money, since every direction change here goes through the clutch. What both sides agree on is ballast. Owners lead with it: fill the tires first, and one who has added roughly three hundred pounds of cast weight per wheel on top of rim guard describes the machine as a hot rod that needs the weight to stay planted.
Beyond that it behaves like the rest of the B range. Owners clear wooded acreage with it, dig with a BH70 backhoe, and one with a rear blade for balance lifts a 4x5 round bale out of a trailer, slowly. Its two specific quirks are worth knowing. Ground clearance is around twelve inches, which with R4 tires means it cannot drive through the two-foot drifts a rear-pointing blower will happily eat - so a front-mounted blower is the wrong choice in deep snow. And the clutch housing drain plug, listed in the manual as an as-needed item, fouls the loader frame about three-eighths of an inch out, on a diagram drawn for a tractor without a loader fitted.
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
Kubota
Deliberately rated at 24.8 hp to sit under the 25 hp emissions line, so it carries no DPF and never stops to regenerate. Kubota replaced it with the L2502 and no longer lists or prices it; the no-DPF trick is the reason used ones still move.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kubota
Built as the answer to Deere's 2025R: mid-PTO for a belly mower, a full-size operator station and far more loader than a B-series, for a few thousand more. The LX2620 replaced it and Kubota no longer publishes a price for it.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kubota
Replaces the L2501 at the bottom of Kubota's Standard L range, now rated 23.3 gross hp where the older machine was rated 24.8. Same cast frame, all-metal hood and Kubota-built LA526 loader; the 8F/8R synchronised shuttle is the base build and a three-range HST is the alternative.
Spec sheet & owner notes