Luxury Tractors: Build the Ultimate Utility Tractor for Both Comfort and Work

Compact tractors and other working machines are not generally evaluated in terms of their luxuriousness, yet there is an upper end to everything including tractors. The market is growing for tractors under 50-PTO hp with features that coddle the operator without compromising productivity.

“If an operator is putting 50 hours a year on a tractor, he might decide a standard seat is good enough,” says Scott Schadler, utility tractors product marketing manager for John Deere. “But if the buyer is in the professional landscape segment of the market and is going to be on the tractor six to eight hours a day, the air-ride seat might be beneficial.”

Schadler doesn’t refer to upper-end units as “luxury” tractors. He prefers the term “premium,” as opposed to mid- or high-spec tractors with fewer optional features and lesser capacity. The market for the premium units is “fairly large,” he says.

“With the economy as it has been, many operators have gravitated to a mid-spec type of tractor,” says Schadler. “But in the last 18 to 24 months, we have seen an uptick in sales of the premium models. Disposable income is coming back, and people are spending money on a tractor they will keep for 7 to 10 years.”

Other manufacturer reps concur that the high-end tractor market is growing. “Surprisingly, the Kioti NX6010 is an extremely popular tractor,” says Bill Klein, Kioti’s eastern region sales manager, about the company’s premium compact model. “We kind of thought it might be a niche market for us, but it has become a very popular unit.”

Buyers of these tractors are what Klein calls “weekend warriors who don’t want to feel when they get off their tractors like they feel after work during the week. They think about their comfort.” Premium model buyers typically are owner-operators, he says, with the tractors generally being bought for personal use. “If a crew is going to be operating the unit, a buyer goes for functionality. If the owner is going to operate it, he will step up the features a little more.”

The tractors in this market segment are four-wheel-drive machines with optional features that enhance both comfort and productivity. The Kioti NX6010, for example, has a Tier 4 diesel engine with true electronic cruise control that maintains optimum engine torque, adjusting it for speed and ground conditions. A turn-assist control automatically reduces engine rpm at the end of a pass through a field when the steering wheel is cranked sharply, thus reducing damage to sod in the turn areas. Klein says another feature “will not allow the engine to stall” under load, which surely appeals to novice operators.

At Yanmar, the top-of-the-line compact tractor is the LX4900. It offers what the company calls unparalleled operator comfort, with ergonomically correct and optimally situated controls. Climbing on and off the machine is enhanced by especially wide openings on each side and logically placed grab handles.

At a time when buyers increasingly are opting for an enclosed operating area, the 4900 Series does not offer a factory cab, but Yanmar is filling that void: This fall the manufacturer is introducing its YT Series of tractors that will offer luxury cabs with the usual air quality controls and plush seats. Industrial designer Ken Okuyama, who also designs Ferrari cars, drew up the YT-3. “It is a very premium tractor,” says John Gierszewski, agricultural product manager for Yanmar.

Top-end Yanmar tractors have hydrostatic transmissions with an optional Synchro Throttle “so you can drive it more like a car,” says Gierszewski. Such familiar operating features can be important, he says, because “a majority of the customers are first-time buyers.”

With the arrival of the YT-3, all of Yanmar’s tractors will have Tier 4 engines. Powertrains in Yanmar tractors are a recognized company strength: The engines are designed and manufactured in-house and have found their way into other makes, including John Deere.

Deere’s 4044R (with a Yanmar engine) offers two transmission types — a 12/12 PowrReverser unit that allows clutchless shuttle shifting between forward and reverse, and a Sauer Danfoss e-Hydro that incorporates among other features a LoadMatch function that automatically regulates speed and torque. The model also has Hitch Assist, which Schadler says is particularly helpful to compact tractor operators.

“When customers are using these sizes of tractor,” he says, “they are performing many kinds of tasks throughout a day — using a blade, loader, tiller. They have to disconnect multiple times during the day and Hitch Assist allows them to stand behind the tractors and control things. It turns it into a one-person job.”

Top-of-the-line features in the various manufacturers’ premium tractors often are offered as a package. However, customization is possible. For example, Kleine says a buyer can get a manual transmission in a Kioti NX6010. “There are some old school people out there.”

Cabs offered across the industry compete for comfort. They typically offer varying degrees of sound insulation, radio-cassette-CD players with stereo speakers, rear wipers and extra lighting. With each new model introduction, the perks seem to be enhanced.

For example, the cab on the Kubota Grand L5460 offers 20 percent more room than previous models, according to Robert Cockroft, the company’s product manager B, BX and L tractors. The operator cab offers drivers the full range of comforts — an air-ride seat that swivels and adjusts for operator weight, a tilt steering wheel, an AC-heater unit with internal-external air circulation options, rear window defogger and, of course, a cup holder.

The top-of-the-line 5460 moves via a hydrostatic transmission linked to a four-cylinder diesel engine with staged fuel injection. An operator can employ an on-the-fly, high-low transmission mode for seamless transitions when conditions change. Monitoring engine performance is made easier with the tractor’s IntelliPanel, a grouping of analog and digital gauges and readouts.

A fifth of Kubota’s compact tractor sales are deluxe models, Cockroft says. It is a stable market segment for the manufacturer dominated by buyers purchasing the machines to maintain their own properties. “These customers are looking for an easy-to-use, comfortable tractor that helps make chores feel less like work and more like fun.”

The price tag for compact tractors that make work feel like fun ranges from $35,000 to $45,000, depending on which optional features are added to standard ones. Without attachments and implements, the tractors lack utility, of course, and the most common attachment reported by manufacturers is the front-end loader. Ninety to 95 percent of luxury tractor purchasers get a loader — a quick-attach and self-leveling one when available. But there are many more options: John Deere alone offers some 400 Deere and Frontier attachments including augers, mowers, snow blowers, tillers, scrapers and trenchers.

In essence, a “luxury” compact tractor — whether dubbed “premium,” “deluxe” or “top of the line” — is as much about operational efficiency as opulence. After all, comfort and ease of operation contribute to productivity by complementing horsepower and hydraulic capacities. Sleek designer hoods, ergonomic cabs and paint that doesn’t fade are more than cosmetic add-ons. They make climbing on the tractor and going to work a wholly satisfying experience, year after year.
“We design the tractor to do all that,” says Kioti’s Klein. “The features are built in not just for comfort but for efficiency. We try to hit all those plates.”

Giles Lambertson is a freelance writer for Compact Equipment.