RECIEVED TRACTOR ON: (12/05/05)
CURRENT HOURS ON MACHINE: (32HRS)
OVERALL SATISFACTION: (VERY IMPRESSED!)

First things first. What sets this tractor apart from any other compact tractor on the market, is the cab. I truly believe not just because I now own one, but because I've used several "other" brand name factory cab tractors. My father in law has a new Kubota with a factory cab, although it is nice, I still don't think it is quite in the same league as the new John Deere Cab Tractors. I think the JD has the Kubota beat on most areas, CAB, Control Placement, Visibility,Sound Levels, and of least importance of course overall aesthetics. But that doesn't mean Kubota doesn't have a great machine also. I'm sure there are just a few areas the Kubota may be a little stronger on. But not many that I can see. (except as of right now his can take a woods backhoe and mine I guess has no backhoe option) hopefully somebody will remedy that in the future. That being said, now let me go into the details.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: First thing one notices is how stylish and well planned this tractor is from the very first glance. That is what I first noticed about it when I first saw images of this machine. Everything from the new design of the sloped engine hood, to the curverd loader arms. (I like the JD's new style better than Kubota's 90 degree angle arms, they just don't look like they are meant to fit the tractors that they are built for) While the JD Loader looks like it was planned for this tractor. Cab of couse looks well planned on this machine too, it is sleek and very modern looking with integrated work lights, and hazzard lights etc, help give it a modern but very practical look.

THE CAB: SIMPLELY AWESOME!

CAB PROS: Sleek and very modern design. First thing one notices while taking a seat in the new cab design is how great the visibility is. One can see each corner of the front bucket while on the ground, because of the full floor to header bar glass. The view to the sides and to the back are just as impressive because of the 4 post Rops design. Next you will notice how well finished the inside of the cab is. Close the doors and throttle up the engine and you will be amazed at how quiet it is inside. It is so quiet, that even at full throttle I could answer my cell phone and talk if I had to without any disturbance from the tractor engine. The engine compartment and the cab are completly isolated from each other. Actually the hissing of the hydraulics are louder than the engine noise itself, which isn't very loud either. The Air-Ride seat is another huge bonus on comfort. I really like this feature a lot. It really does give a nice squishy ride over rough terrain. You can set the air- seat at any variable height, and you can set it for any amount of desired firmness or softness. The Heat is superb, I would say even on a very cold day, it only takes about 5 to 7 minutes to get the inside of the cab nice and hot, hot enough to make you want to take your jacket off inside. I know the Air-Conditioning system works, because I've tried it, but can't honestly say it's been put to the test of any swealtering weather because it is still just the beginning of winter, but if it works equally as good as the heat does, I'm sure I'll be very happy with that too. Cab has a neat automotive style dome light that turns on and off when you open and close, but can be also turned on manually without opening the doors of course. Dashboard illumination is excellent. Dash has a nice reddish-orange glow that doesn't effect night time visibility, and doesn't have much annoying reflection to the interior glass of the cab.

CAB CONS: Could use another six to eight inches of length inside of cab for operators who are on the very tall side. I'm not tall, so it fits me perfect. But to someone who has long legs, might be desiring more room to push the seat back even further.

CONTROL PLACEMENT: EXCELLENT
All hand controls are placed up above operators seat level. 4wd lever is located on the dash next to the steering column. Most of your switches and levers are mounted on the operators right side. Range selector is located to the left of operator as before. Radio is mounted above and to the left of operator. Climate control is located above and to the right of operator. Best of all because this is a John Deere Hydro Model, the Independant Steering Brakes are located on the opposite side of the Hydro Pedals. (Kubota has them on the same side as their funky treddle pedal thing. Kubota wins the award of the dumbest ergonomical design flaw in the history of hydro tractors!! There is no answer to why they do this. Why bother building something that is virtually useless to the operator? To use the independant brakes you need to accelerate the machine, period. How come they've never fixed this issue? Sure some people say they don't use their brakes, but guess what, experienced operators do! I use them a lot, especially when scraping snow and I need to lift front wheels. So yes, this is still a huge bonus over Kubota's continuation of poorly designed independant brakes. I don't know anybody who has two feet on their left legs, do you? Come on fix this issue because you don't have a bad tractor....

FUEL FILLER CAP: GREAT NEW LOCATION!

Located on the end of the left side fender. This is a very big convenience. I really like it a lot because now I don't have to lean over dirty loader arms anymore to fill my tractor. This is great because most of the time I need to stay clean for work, because I use this to plow out my parking lot at my store. I really think all JD Compact Tractors should adopt this placement of the fuel filler cap, even for non-cab models. It is just a much better design.

HORSEPOWER: There's plenty of HP for this midsize frame. That is something that I have no complaints about at all. I haven't been able to bogg this machine down yet, and that is even while snowblowing heavy side of the road snow. HP not an issue, glad I have it.

EXTERIOR LIGHTING: Lighting is very good. I now have both front and rear work lights installed on my cab. They really do illuminate everything with in working view of the tractor. The only thing I wish for is that, I wish each set of lights had it's own designated switch vs. one knob does it all type switch. Reason for this wish is because when I have my work lights on, as of right now I can't have my flashers on at the same time. I would really like to have the option of turning on or off whatever set of lights I need or don't need. Especially because I want to plow a busy parking lot, and use my work lights, but also have my warning lights on too.

LOADER PERFORMANCE: I Really like the new style 300cx Loader a lot. I love the looks of it. I like the lift capacity and the lift height. This has much more lift height than my last tractor had. I did have to get used to my loader being slightly slower than my older JD 420/4200 setup. But I'm getting used to it. However my bucket does lift and dump at the same time. This is great for leveling loads in one fluid motion as you lift to the top of the lift cycle. I love the new style bucket level indicator too. It is another improvement over the older straight rod style. It is so easy to see the new indicator. The bend in the rod style is far superior. Really makes it a lot faster getting your bucket level for the next pass to scrape.

TRAVEL SPEEDS: I'm happy that I can now use the "C" Range and not have the tractor bog when you come to a slight hill in the road. The fastest I've been able to get my tractor up to is 18MPH, which is again quite a bit faster than 13MPH on my last tractor.

74" REAR SNOWBLOWER: I bought my tractor with the "Blizzard 74" Rear Snowblower with the optional hydraulic chute rotation. I really like having rear blowers because I have the best of both. I'm always going to need a loader, and I'm always going to need a blower. Using the blower while driving backwards is actually pretty easy if you are using a Hydro model. Because all you have to do is sit somewhat sideways in your seat, and now your left foot is right on top of your Forward and Reverse Pedals. Snowblower works great, It can shoot snow straight up into the air about 40 feet, if you leave the chute in near vertical position. It will throw it just as far away from you too if you like. Chute Rotation is quick, it takes less than 2 seconds to turn chute a full 220 degrees, turning from one side to the other. Yes it turns more than 180 degrees.

Overall, I'm very happy with the JD Cab Tractor, and I don't for a second regret purchasing it. I really think I got my money's worth with this machine. It would be hard to say anybody else so far has designed a Compact Tractor Cab as nice as this one.

Date Purchased: 12/2005
Purchased: New
Price Paid: US$37000
Pros: COMFORT: Quiet, Visibility, Heat & AC, Control Placement, LOTS OF HORSEPOWER!
Cons: Cab could use a little more length behind seat for very tall operators.
Rating: