TY for sharing and any further details on the A/C, touchpad/bluetooth and tractor performance would be appreciated. I’m looking at trading my JD 1025r for a new CS2530 with backhoe, belly mower, bucket, post hole digger and grapple.
Spent about 10 hours in it while it was unseasonable hot in Michigan this weekend (~85-90F). I had a lot of jumping in and out of the cab for some brush work and doing some manual labor of cutting stuff up in-between, but with the A/C at max it kept it comfortable in the cab at all times. At least at that temperature and the amount of time I had the door open the A/C wasn't getting to the point where I was turning either the blower speed or temp dial down.
When I was just toting around the driveway moving stuff around the previous week and I wasn't doing as much manual labor along with outside temps more into the 75-80F range the A/C was getting the cab cold to the point where I turned both the fan and temp dial down.
The touchscreen is certainly a neat feature, and I can see the reverse camera getting a lot of use to not snap your neck around as much. I'm not sure that I quite see the full value in it's list price I've seen around of $850. My dealer apparently ordered some early units where they got these screens for free and passed that on - I don't think I would have spent the $850 or missed it for that price. Definitely some useful things in there if you are really going to be spending a ton of time in it and have certainly loved the camera and Bluetooth features for the price of free!
I'm sensitive on hearing protection, and the cab certainly well insulates the outside noise (and dust) and is plenty quiet to listen to music with the built in speakers at a reasonable volume.
First tractor I've had in about 10 years now, but came from even older (and much larger) Deere equipment. At this point the 2 downsides I have already felt to Deere:
- Loader bucket control - I can't speak to the 1025R, but the it takes a fine control to lift/dump or lower/curl. The older Deere equipment I had were much easier to do so. It is certainly not a deal breaker and is do-able, but if one of your primary purposes of the tractor was pallet fork activity I would highly suggest/consider the MSL option.
- Part availability - when I purchased the tractor I ordered a bolt-on-cutting edge, hydraulic filter guard, bucket hook, rear work lights, and rear wiper kit.
The bolt-on-cutting edge and hydraulic filter guard were carryover parts from the CS20 series and just arrived last Friday after over 3 weeks. The rear lights actually arrived with them even though they were new for the CS30, but the rear wiper and bucket hook are still on back-order without line of sight to arrival yet.
If owning a Kioti was a part of your livelihood farming, doing construction, etc. I would worry what happens when something breaks and it takes weeks to get in. Even the most obscure parts I ever had to get for a Deere took a day or two to arrive. Luckily for me, this is a hobby tractor and if something takes a bit to arrive it will just mean a delay to a project and not missing planting or harvesting season.
That said, it's a distribution problem, not a dealer problem for me. My nearest Kioti dealer is actually closer than the nearest Deere dealer. They are also a mom and pop shop who are great to deal with especially for residential items. The Deere dealer is much larger and feels like a burden when you're coming in to look at the small residential items versus buying a new excavator or combine.
So far I am still completely satisfied and would purchase the Kioti again. For the price, you can get a CS2530 with heat/AC for less than a 1025R with a Mauser (heat-only) cab. For my purposes the Kioti wins every day.
I was doing a bunch of research online before I bought too and the info on these is certainly still limited. Give me a shout if you want a more specific picture or video of something.
your things to do list just got easier but list will get longer 
