Buying Advice Kubota L3200 vs NH Workmaster 35 vs JD 3032E

[dedadana]

I'm new to all this, buying my first tractor and am trying to decide on which of these three machines to purchase for a 40 acre mini-farm. Brush-hogging / mowing / bucket use, etc. I think I need help!! They look the same to me but JD is lower in price than the other two.... I see more negatives on the JD though with front seals, etc., etc. a problem.

 

[Roadbuilder6]

To be honest too many people get wrapped around the idea of buying a brand new tractor. All of those are economy tractors. And all of them are a good tractors. But what I did is went on craigslist and found used tractor with low hours for a really good price. The best thing would be to look at a nicer used tractor.

 

[TSO]

I'm new to all this, buying my first tractor and am trying to decide on which of these three machines to purchase for a 40 acre mini-farm. Brush-hogging / mowing / bucket use, etc. I think I need help!! They look the same to me but JD is lower in price than the other two.... I see more negatives on the JD though with front seals, etc., etc. a problem.

FYI ... the NH WorkMaster 35 is made by LS, and is a rebadged version of the LS G3038. You can buy this from an LS dealer for about 25% less than the NH dealer.

But that said ... go get seat time on each of the machines and see which one feels best to you. Don't listen to the propaganda from any of the dealers because it's most likely incorrect or exaggerated. All those machines well be close enough that you can let personal preference decide.

Good luck!

 

[GManBart]

The big negative (to me) for the Deere is the 2-range transmission. Two-range trannies should be restricted to garden tractors.

 

[crazyal]

Do you have any areas where it could be a tight fit, say around trees or close to a house? If not I think I would look for something with a little more HP. For loader work HST is great. It's often hard to see in the future what you may want to do but with 40 acres to play with you could find lots of tasks that only more HP will cut down the time needed. If you are going to finance then the used market may be out as financing a used tractor could prove not to be cost effective due to interest rates (you'll have to figure that one out). Otherwise I would check around, assuming you haven't already, to see what's available around you. One of the biggest mistakes, and usually costly, is buying an undersized tractor and then selling it to upgrade.

 

[dedadana]

I agree with the used vs. new thing and I wish there were some available on craigs list within a reasonable distance.... been looking for quite some time. So I reverted to the new scene by necessity. So what the heck is an LS tractor. It looks like they are made in Korea.... are they any good? Oh wow... how little I know about this stuff... Nearest dealer is 2 hours away so it needs to be good if I consider that one.

 

[GManBart]

I agree with the used vs. new thing and I wish there were some available on craigs list within a reasonable distance.... been looking for quite some time. So I reverted to the new scene by necessity. So what the heck is an LS tractor. It looks like they are made in Korea.... are they any good? Oh wow... how little I know about this stuff... Nearest dealer is 2 hours away so it needs to be good if I consider that one.

Long story short (sort of), LS is a spinoff of LG (the big electronics company), and is owned by the same family in Korea. In total revenue they were about $200M short of John Deere's annual revenue last year, and twice what Kubota reported...a pretty huge company. They started out making tractors in partnership with Mitsubishi, and eventually grew into their own line. Right now, they're supplying tractors to New Holland, and Case/IH.

If you check out the LS section here I think you'll find that there are very few problems reported, and they ones that are tend to be fairly minor. I've put 205 hours on my R4047, and it's been absolutely flawless.

It looks like there's a dealer about 45mi east of Kansas City, but the good thing is that you can normally buy parts for an LS at any Case, or NH dealer...you just have to use the NH or Case model name. The one exception is FEL parts because LS uses their own loader, and NH/Case use their own, somewhat weaker loader. LS management has also said that you could have one of their tractors fixed under warranty by a NH/Case dealer as long as it was approved in advance. There are also reliable sources of parts from dealers with good online stores that have parts manuals posted, etc, and you can usually get parts in a few days.