Buying Advice Help me spend money on a tractor

[WinterDeere]

which would you prefer... the 2R or the 3E?

2R every day. I wouldn't even look at anything with an E at the end, for my needs. Honestly. The non-removable loader of the E's would kill any thought of ever buying a 3E, for my varied uses.

The 2R is a nice tractor, I actually like the operator station, visibility, and ergonomics of the 2R better than my 3R. If I needed something bigger than the 2R, and couldn't afford a 3R, then I would probably be shopping used tractors or other brands.

That said, we all have different needs and priorities. Check out both, get educated on the differences, and decide what works for you. With the 3E, you keep the parts availability, dealer support, everything else that comes with buying a Deere. That's worth something, especially if you like to use a dealer for maintenance or repairs.

 

[TheMan419]

2R every day. I wouldn't even look at anything with an E at the end, for my needs. Honestly. The non-removable loader of the E's would kill any thought of ever buying a 3E, for my varied uses.

The 2R is a nice tractor, I actually like the operator station, visibility, and ergonomics of the 2R better than my 3R. If I needed something bigger than the 2R, and couldn't afford a 3R, then I would probably be shopping used tractors or other brands.

That said, we all have different needs and priorities. Check out both, get educated on the differences, and decide what works for you. With the 3E, you keep the parts availability, dealer support, everything else that comes with buying a Deere. That's worth something, especially if you like to use a dealer for maintenance or repairs.

Nope. No E for me. Did not realize the bucket was non removable. If I buy a new one it will have a removable bucket. A set of forks would be so so handy.

 

[WinterDeere]

Nope. No E for me. Did not realize the bucket was non removable. If I buy a new one it will have a removable bucket. A set of forks would be so so handy.

That's fine, but just to be clear, I think you can get a JDQA bucket with the 3E. It's probably an added-cost option, I honestly don't remember anymore, but that's not what I was saying. What I was referring to there is that the entire loader assembly on the E's is not easily removed from the tractor. It comes factory or dealer-installed, old-skool bolt-on job. With the R's, you can remove the entire loader in 2-3 minutes, and re-install just as quickly. With the E's, it looks like loader removal would be a several-hours job, and would require you to add your own hydraulic quick-disconnects, etc.

I remove my loader at least a half-dozen times per year, usually for fertilizing, seeding, aerating, various lawn chores where I want to zoom around the lawn and landscape obstacles at a speed that's not comfortable to do with the loader installed. That pretty much killed the 3E for me.

 

[TheMan419]

That's fine, but just to be clear, I think you can get a JDQA bucket with the 3E. It's probably an added-cost option, I honestly don't remember anymore, but that's not what I was saying. What I was referring to there is that the entire loader assembly on the E's is not easily removed from the tractor. It comes factory or dealer-installed, old-skool bolt-on job. With the R's, you can remove the entire loader in 2-3 minutes, and re-install just as quickly. With the E's, it looks like loader removal would be a several-hours job, and would require you to add your own hydraulic quick-disconnects, etc.

I remove my loader at least a half-dozen times per year, usually for fertilizing, seeding, aerating, various lawn chores where I want to zoom around the lawn and landscape obstacles at a speed that's not comfortable to do with the loader installed. That pretty much killed the 3E for me.

Ah I get it. In the 7 or so years I have had the Boomer I have never removed the loader. It has a system where it is supposed to be a quick easy take off put back on. The bucket is pinned though.

Just found there is a dealer that sells Kioti and Mahindra not too far away. So getting quotes from him too.

 

[WinterDeere]

Ah I get it. In the 7 or so years I have had the Boomer I have never removed the loader. It has a system where it is supposed to be a quick easy take off put back on. The bucket is pinned though.

Just found there is a dealer that sells Kioti and Mahindra not too far away. So getting quotes from him too.

Oh, okay. In that case, the 3E might actually be an option for you, as that was truly one of the biggest issues with it for me.

Hopefully you have local dealers for each of these brands, who will allow you a little seat time with each. I love my 3033R, but as I think I said previously, I really liked the the 2032/38R's as well. I spend a lot of time running my tractor around the yard, picking up branches, doing small tasks, and the on/off as well as the bucket visibility of the 2R is better than the 3R. I actually liked the loader controls on the 3E, but the fixed loader frame took it off the table for me.

 

[mo1]

The "2R series", not just "2 series". The E's are just a Economy line aimed to keep Deere competitive with off-brands, and the D's are manual gear variants. The R's are vastly more capable than the E's, in every series level.

I'm also a big fan of the 2R series, in fact I hemmed and hawed for at least a week between the more ergonomic and comfortable 2R versus the heavier 3R. In the end, because lift capacity was a real issue for me, I went with the 3R. But if I had unlimited garage space, I'd probably own both, and use the 2R every chance I had. It's a great little machine.

All 2 series machines are 2R models, there are no 2Ds, 2Es, 2Ms, or any other letter. That is the same with anything 7 series and larger, there are only "R" variants.

The only "D" suffix Deere currently sold in the U.S. is the 3D, although Deere used to sell 5Ds and 6Ds here in the past. There are also a lot of other Deere tractors other than the 3D that use a gear transmission- some 3Rs and 4M/4Rs as well as all of the 5 series and larger ag tractors that don't have an IVT.

The "E" series Deere machines do have fewer frills than the M or R series in that same series. They are mostly intended to compete against the more basic machines from CNH and Kubota rather than the off-brands, according to all of the literature Deere publishes, and also the feature list and price are more consistent with those units than the off-brand Asian or ex-Soviet Bloc units. Maybe people buying compact tractors would look at both a 1023E and a 1025R or a 3E and 3R but in the ag tractor realm, that is not true. The vast majority of 5 series machines Deere sells are 5Es as most who are looking to spend much more on a utility tractor will just go buy a 6 series machine rather than a 5M or 5R. Ditto with somebody getting a >130 HP unit where the units available are the 6M and 6R, they largely get a 6M rather than a 6R as the 6Ms are less expensive.

 

[WinterDeere]

Good info, mo1. It should also be noted that in the 2-series, there are two separate frame sizes. My dealer used to call them the "little-2" and the "big-2". I haven't kept up with the latest, but when I was shopping in 2019, the 2032R amd 2038R were a completely different tractor than the smaller 2025R. Also, while there's no 2E, there is a 1E and a 3E. I don't think the OP is shopping 6-series.

 

[Williy]

I believe that Yanmar is making the 3E series tractors for JD??

willy

 

[mo1]

Good info, mo1. It should also be noted that in the 2-series, there are two separate frame sizes. My dealer used to call them the "little-2" and the "big-2". I haven't kept up with the latest, but when I was shopping in 2019, the 2032R amd 2038R were a completely different tractor than the smaller 2025R. Also, while there's no 2E, there is a 1E and a 3E. I don't think the OP is shopping 6-series.

My point was that what features are present or lacking in a D, E, M, R, etc. version of a specific series of tractor has little correlation to what the same "trim level" tractor in a different series has or lacks for features, and that in some cases people are not even comparing the different trim levels in the same series, they are comparing one trim level of one series to a different trim level in a different series. That was in reply to your original quote of "The R's are vastly more capable than the E's, in every series level." I used the ag tractors as my example because they are a good example of this and I am much more familiar with them than the compacts.

 

[WinterDeere]

I believe that Yanmar is making the 3E series tractors for JD??

willy

Interesting. I know my 855 (1986) was a Yanmar, and I think even my 750 (1978) may have been, although that’s too far back to remember now. My 3033R was built here in the USA by Deere, but still uses a Yanmar diesel engine.

Yanmar has made some great tractors over the years, and for those willing to spend the time to cross-reference, can even open a cheaper parts channel (versus Deere dealer) for maintaining your Yanmar Deere’s. But I didn’t know that relationship was still active, beyond the engines.