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.
1.13 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
Most of the people who bought one did it on purpose rather than on budget, and the reason they give is emissions. Staying under the 25 hp line keeps a diesel particulate filter off the machine, and owners who chose it that way say the same thing in different words: they do not run a tractor hard for long stretches, which is exactly the duty cycle that gives a filter trouble. Several went to a dealer intending to buy a B or an LX, stood next to an L2502, and changed their minds on the spot - the loader, the cylinders and the ROPS all read as heavier in person, and the lower, wider stance is what people on hills keep coming back to.
In use it is a five-foot-implement tractor and owners are comfortable saying so. A five-foot rotary cutter in neglected pasture does not bog it, a 62-inch flail cuts saplings cleanly, and a box blade keeps a long gravel drive in shape. The loader is where it stops. Owners describe the LA526's usable capacity falling away once pallet forks hang off the front, and more than one who moves firewood says the next machine will be chosen on lift rather than horsepower. Without a counterweight a loaded bucket makes the whole tractor rock over uneven ground even on filled tires, and it will not bulldoze into a hard-packed pile the way a heavier machine does. Owners who added the backhoe are happy with it but describe it honestly: it digs around a big stump so you can cut roots and chain it out, rather than pulling the stump itself.
Prices owners report land between roughly $27,000 and $35,000 out the door once a cutter, box blade, forks and a quick hitch are on the ticket, usually at zero percent over seven years, and several say the financing is the reason they bought new. Two add-ons come up again and again as things people wish they had ordered at purchase rather than later: a third-function valve with a grapple, and a quick hitch so rear implements can be swapped without leaving the seat. One warning sign to price against: dealer quotes are not automatically Kubota's published build price, and at least one buyer walked to a Kioti over the gap.
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
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
Cheapest hydrostatic B-series Kubota sells, sitting between the BX80 range and the B2601 on 20.9 gross hp from the 61.1 cu in D1005. It shares the B2601's LA435 loader, 8.3 gpm pump and 1,411 lb hitch outright - the difference between the two is 3.4 gross horsepower.
Spec sheet & owner notes
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