I bought my CK20J in September of last year. I knew of Kioti but dismissed them as too new and unproven. Boy was I wrong, I was at my cottage one weekend and we were over visiting a neighbor that lived down near where we lived and his grandson was there (he just started a small business including the Kioti line), we were talking about tractors and I mentioned I was looking and the old fella said to his grandson here's your chance to make a sales pitch. He told me what he had quoted a guy on a CK30HST with the KL130 FEL and a back blade and it was cheaper than what I was quoted for a Kubota B7610 w/FEL. Well this really caught my attention, needless to say you know why I'm writing this, because I own a Kioti. I went to his lot and tried out the CK20HST and liked it a lot (of course I didn't tell him that). I then tried a NH TC24DA at there lot. These little test drives were not enough for me though. I got a TC24, B7610 and the CK20 all delivered to my property (not all at once though) for my personal testing. The CK20 was first, I really liked everything about this little tractor except for the performance of the HST. Next was the TC24DA, it had a really powerful loader to the point it was too much for the tractor to me, also I did not like the performance of the HST on this one either. The last was the Kubota, it was by far the most powerful of the three as far as the HST drive goes. By this time I was convinced I wanted a gear version. Just out of curiousity I got him to price the CK20J with the FEL and backhoe, I was sort of shocked by how inexpensive this setup was. I waited a couple of days to let it sink in and then ordered it. I'm glad I had them all for a trial run at my property as this gave me a lot of time to really look them all over and make comparisons. I came to the conclusion that the Kioti was as well built as any of them and it was the heaviest of the bunch, as well, I wasn't looking to mow with it so the weight was not a problem, it was a help in putting the maximum power to the ground. I am to say the least very impressed with all aspects of this machine, including the loader which is very well balanced and quite powerful and the backhoe is more than what I had expected. As of this time I have 60+ hrs on the machine, the last 20 has been plowing / blowing snow and it is amazing how much I can push with this little beast without the need for tire chains. At this point I am not even going to consider them. We've had 34" of snow in the past week or so and I've only had to used the blower on the last storm as I ran out of room to push it. If you hear about people thinking these tractors are underpowered I would second guess on that thought as what power they will produce they will put to the ground or in the case of the PTO, it did not bother it a bit to run my 48" blower with the snow running over the top of the blower. I had to try it just to see if it would handle it and it did with ease. It also ran my 42" tiller no problem whatsoever. The only problem with the deal was delivery, I will chalk this up to the fact that Kioti was in the process of moving into their new facilty. Overall I bought the Kioti because it was well balanced all around, it was at least 10 -15% cheaper, it appeared from what I could tell to be very well built and finished and the fact that Kioti looked like they were here to stay by investing in their new facility giving the impression they were here to face the competition. Lets hope they can keep up the push to gain more and more market share. Thank you for letting me voice my opinions.

Steve Miller, Dutch Settlement, Nova Scotia

Date Purchased: 9/2004
Purchased: New
Price Paid: US$21500
Pros: Everything
Cons: None that I see
Rating: