Where the LX range stops being a big sub-compact and starts being a small compact: the turbocharged V1505 replaces the LX2620's naturally aspirated D1305, PTO output jumps from 19.4 to 28.7 hp, and the bigger LA545 loader comes with it. ROPS, value-spec SU and factory cab builds are all offered.
0.96 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
There is a single sentence that several LX3520 owners write in almost identical words: they run out of loader capacity and weight long before they run out of horsepower. One with a 72-inch finish mower, a flail, a six-foot box grader and a front snowblower says he has never run out of power and regularly runs out of lift. Another says he runs out of weight before power. A third calls the machine almost certainly too small for heavy loader work while still being perfectly capable of blowing snow and cutting brush. Taken together that is the clearest buying signal in the evidence: this is a mowing, snow and light-dirt machine, and if the job list is mostly loader work the same owners point you at an L or heavier.
The cab is why most of them bought this model rather than something cheaper. Owners describe doing snow removal in shorts, working rain or shine, and simply being willing to spend five or six hours on the machine instead of four. It costs around ten thousand dollars over the open-station build, it stands about seven foot two, which caught out one owner who had to widen his garage door to eight feet, and it is the wrong choice around trees, where branches hit the cab and mirrors. Winter is also where the front-mounted snowblower question lives. Owners run the LX2963 or LX2980 on a subframe, which means the loader comes off for the season; those who have done it say the swap takes under half an hour once practised, but several admit they miss the bucket and forks all winter and keep a box blade on the three point for ballast and back-dragging.
Two things are worth knowing before ordering. First, supply has been unreliable - buyers report long waits and a dealer-reported nationwide shortage, and at least two cancelled orders and bought something else, one of them a used Deere that was more tractor for less money. Second, the regeneration cycle is poorly explained to new owners: one says the machine has two kinds of regeneration and it is not clear what it wants from you when the lights come on, and another had a confusing double-signal event at 30 hours that ended with the tractor shutting off and refusing to restart. Neither is a reason to avoid the model, but both are worth asking the dealer to walk through at handover.
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
Entry to the Grand L70 generation that replaced the Grand L60 in 2025, and one of only two in the range built to Deluxe rather than Premium trim. The naturally aspirated D1803-CR-E5 keeps it simple where the four models above it are turbocharged.
Spec sheet & owner notesKubota
The most powerful machine Kubota builds on the LX chassis: 39.8 gross hp from the same turbo V1505 the LX3520 uses, 32.6 hp at the PTO, and 433 lb more tractor under it. Hydrostatic only, ROPS or factory cab.
Spec sheet & owner notes
Kubota
Direct replacement for the L3901 and the middle of the Standard L02 range: 37.5 gross hp from the 111.4 cu in three-cylinder, the same LA526 loader and BH77 backhoe as the L2502 below it, and a 1,998 lb hitch. Gear-drive 8F/8R is the base build, three-range HST the alternative.
Spec sheet & owner notes