Talk me in/out of a 3038E

[DKCDKC]

I've had a 3038e for about four years now. Primary tasks are maintenance of a mile-long gravel driveway and bush hogging the property - forest borders, small fields, roadside brush and saplings around a 120 acre place. The JD has worked perfectly with a 5-ft box blade, a 7 ft rear blade and a 5 ft rotary cutter. I did three hours of rough "among the big trees" cutting this morning. I have a ratchet rake on the bucket and can tear into brush, multi-flora and green trash like nobody's business. I have about 500 hours on the tractor now with no maintenance issues - other than smashing the rear lights several times in the forest. Not a good placement. My only complaint is that the tractor is too narrow and I can't run across slopes as steep as I'd like. My previous tractor was a bigger 65 hp 2 wd JD utility that went anywhere but had many thousands of hours and I didn't want to handle the growing maintenance. Also I wanted a smaller unit to get into tight places, and because my wife wanted to use it too. The 3038e was perfect and I would buy one again. I have used Kubota and others over time - and tested them since - and had problems with driver comfort and a few other things.

But buying a tractor is a very individual thing. There are a lot of tractors with a lot more features than the E JD... But I don't use most of those and see little point in sacrificing some things for others I don't use. But all of that is a very individual thing - influenced heavily by what dealers you have nearby. Although I have had no call to use my dealer in the past 4 years, it's nice to know a really good JD dealers is just 20 minutes away. Also have a Kubota dealer but just found the similarly priced units at the time were not as comfortable or easy to operate. Of course things may be different now. There are new models coming out all the time. I don't know what my next tractor will be, but I will enjoy making that choice.

 

[nikdfish]

Our 3038e is eight years old now (going on 9), bought to help recover & maintain an inherited acreage (20 acres of mixed woods & fields). It is a good size for mowing/working in the partially wooded areas between the trees. It almost never is used outside of Lo range unless for transport. No complaints about how it has held up so far. I did add a toggle switch under the seat that allows running the chipper without putting a bag of chains on the seat (but the real reason for adding it was the winter the seat foam froze solid & kept the presence switch from working when I needed to plow some snow). It fit our budget at the time of purchase and came with the FEL, a rotary cutter, a box blade & R4's with the rear tires loaded. It was almost the exact same price for that bundle as we paid three years later for a 1025R FILB for use at the house site.

 

[billymagg]

I've had a 3038e for about four years now. Primary tasks are maintenance of a mile-long gravel driveway and bush hogging the property - forest borders, small fields, roadside brush and saplings around a 120 acre place. The JD has worked perfectly with a 5-ft box blade, a 7 ft rear blade and a 5 ft rotary cutter. I did three hours of rough "among the big trees" cutting this morning. I have a ratchet rake on the bucket and can tear into brush, multi-flora and green trash like nobody's business. I have about 500 hours on the tractor now with no maintenance issues - other than smashing the rear lights several times in the forest. Not a good placement. My only complaint is that the tractor is too narrow and I can't run across slopes as steep as I'd like. My previous tractor was a bigger 65 hp 2 wd JD utility that went anywhere but had many thousands of hours and I didn't want to handle the growing maintenance. Also I wanted a smaller unit to get into tight places, and because my wife wanted to use it too. The 3038e was perfect and I would buy one again. I have used Kubota and others over time - and tested them since - and had problems with driver comfort and a few other things.

But buying a tractor is a very individual thing. There are a lot of tractors with a lot more features than the E JD... But I don't use most of those and see little point in sacrificing some things for others I don't use. But all of that is a very individual thing - influenced heavily by what dealers you have nearby. Although I have had no call to use my dealer in the past 4 years, it's nice to know a really good JD dealers is just 20 minutes away. Also have a Kubota dealer but just found the similarly priced units at the time were not as comfortable or easy to operate. Of course things may be different now. There are new models coming out all the time. I don't know what my next tractor will be, but I will enjoy making that choice.

I'm going to agree here, I recently purchased a 3032e, it works perfectly in and around the couple of timber patches, hauling gravel to maintain a roadway. It's particularly handy in the timber, light and the 4 wheel drive works well and steers nicely.

It handles a Bush Hog finish mower very nicely, with John Deere's 0% for 84 months, you can buy a lot of tractor for a small down payment.

I like the looks of the John Deere, its well balanced and comfortable to operate for hours on end, and sips fuel, I'm happy.....

 

[RonSwanson]

Thank you guys for those detailed posts. Very helpful.

 

[TractorNH]

Thank you guys for those detailed posts. Very helpful.

You said you had a Mahindra dealer nearby too. You'd be a fool to not shop every brand near you and the ones a reasonable distance away. When I did my shopping my top two pics were Mahindra because of the no DPF, capacities, and weight followed by Kioti which had the next best capacities. I would have been happy with a Kubota if that was the only option but they couldn't come close in price on a comparable tractor.

 

[mcfarmall]

My FIL has a 2011 model year 3038e. Loader is not removeable from the tractor quickly or easily. Die cast aluminum rear axle housing. Weak loader... struggles to pick up a full bucket of soil. Front axle seals went out at around 400 hours, No SSQA on the loader...Deere proprietary system instead.

Bare bones tractor but awesome green color.

 

[Zyvek]

I set out to by a 3038e, then after comparing the L3901 I decided to go the Kubota route. A few days before I pulled the trigger, on a whim I compared the Mahindra to both and ended up with a 2638HST . Less money, more capacity, longer warranty won out for me. My dealer is only 12 miles from home so that was also a factor. FWIW

 

[RonSwanson]

My Mahindra dealer is literally next door to the Deere dealer. I plan on looking at the 1600 series.

 

[metalbender]

Check the post about comparing warranties. Noteably, external oil seals. Mahindra wasn't in the picture when I purchased a new 42 hp tractor. Dealer wasn't around long anyway.