What's up everyone? Welcome back to The Durbin Compound! Great to see your smiling faces back on the channel!
My name is Devin Durbin, if you haven't met me already. So today we're going to go over
5 things I hate about the John Deere 1025R. So this tractor is a loaned unit from a buddy of mine
who bought it. He got pretty much every attachment that you can get. He had the rototiller, front end loader,
belly mower, and I think he has a bunch of other stuff that he got with this unit. I think the
sale price is right around $17,000. So, if you're looking at a subcompact tractor, this is considered
a subcompact, less than 25 horsepower, and you get what you pay for, for the most part.
So, I seem to have a lot higher expectations of things. I want things to basically outdo what I want out of them.
So, I want them...I never want to, you know, put these things to the limit every single time I use it.
And that's the first thing that I hate about this tractor is that, literally everything
I have borrowed it for, I have put it to its limit. So, and what I mean by that is, it has a 60 inch bucket on it,
which is a nice-sized bucket for a small tractor like this. But it cannot pick up a full loaded bucket,
whether it was gravel--crushed stuff or washed stone, or if it was even fill dirt.
It fails to pick up the bucket with a full load in it. If you're going to put a 60 inch bucket on a tractor,
you better have the hydros and everything worked out, in order to pick up what, you know, what
is full in the bucket. I used it to move a lot of stone around, some big flagstone as well.
And it left a lot to be desired there. John Deere even sells a fork kit for it, so you can do pallet forks.
Those are pretty much junk. If you want to get...the pallet forks are nice, but you can't lift
anything up with this. So, I even tried putting one piece of flagstone on the forks. It failed to even curl it.
So, the curl feature being the most, you know, the highest-rated thing on this tractor, based
on the design and how the hydros are set up, the curl is the most impressive feature. I think it's
just over a thousand pounds curl. And it doesn't even hold it. So that's the second thing about the
tractor is, it will not hold the curl, and it will not hold the lift. So even if I were to
start it up and shut it off, even with an empty bucket, it falls about a 1/2" every 30 seconds.
So now I'll roll in a clip of me outside. What I'm doing here is, I am starting the tractor up.
I've got the throttle run all the way up, and I've got the bucket in full curl.
So the bucket's full curl with a load of dirt and I started the timer when I got the curl absolutely
to the highest point. I waited thirty seconds. In that thirty seconds, the bucket fell one inch.
So, if you can see in the video, there's even some dirt on the driveway still. And that
is actually from me going inside and getting the memory card for the camera, and coming back out and
the bucket had fallen all the way to the ground, and then some dirt had fallen off. So that's the
second thing I hate about this tractor. Not only can you not load the bucket all the way full with dirt,
it will not hold it. So, you know, I barely had...that was basically loose fill dirt that was in there.
It was some topsoil. So it's very fluffy and loose. And I guaranteed it did not...that full bucket that
you saw, was not what could be in there. Definitely I could stuff it full and keep, you know, ramming it
against the pile. And I could pack it full and it wouldn't lift up that full bucket. So, there's a lot
to be desired there in the hydraulics. Now is that something that, you know, could be an issue
from day one? I don't know. I would like to think that if you're going to sell me a $17,000
subcompact tractor, that all the kinks better be worked out 100%. And my buddy noted that one as well.
So that would be the second thing that I hate about this tractor. The third thing I hate about it is,
although it's a subcompact, and it's very small, and that's why you kind of get one of these tractors,
so it's small, the wheelbase is not wide enough to be safe. And what I mean by this is,
if I load up this bucket, which is sold with this tractor, it's a 60-inch bucket, sold with the tractor
and it's unsafe when you load it up and get it above, basically, just above knee high, is where
it becomes unsafe. The tractor will start to pivot over if weight is transferred. It basically
will fall over on you, if you're not careful with it. So, if you're going to put a bucket wide enough,
a 60-inch bucket on it, it better have the hydros to run it. It better hold the hydros when I'm out working,
or I need to sit, or I need to put it in a position, and for it to hold there. And then it
needs to be safe when I'm doing that load as well. So, I know that a 60-inch bucket on this tractor
may be asking a little bit too much, but why is it an option then? So, that's a kind of...
that's definitely the third thing that I hate about this tractor. I think that those are
the only three things I could find wrong with it. I know that I said five, but I really do like this unit,
other than, you know, the front-end loader. The front-end loader makes it...you're trying to
put a front-end loader on a subcompact. And like I said before, if you did...you put $17,000
into a tractor, the first load that I ever picked up with this tractor, I couldn't pick it up.
And that was just regular...pretty sure I was just moving topsoil at the time. I had borrowed it
to move some topsoil and it wouldn't pick it up. So, a lot to be desired in that department. Yeah, are we
asking too much out of it? Probably, but if you're going to sell this configuration, it better be top-notch.
If I put 17 grand into it, it better be above reproach. And I'd better be doing
everything I want with it. So, those are the only three bad things I have to say about it.
It's a great running tractor. This Yanmar 3 cylinder diesel is a great machine, or an engine, for that matter.
It comes in right under 24 horsepower. I don't know if I said that already. I put the first,
you know, 46 hours on this machine I think. I think right now we're at 90.2 hours on this.
So, fairly new unit. I know my buddy loves the drive over mower deck. He's got a 60 inch mower deck for it.
The drive over is very nice. I've seen him hook it up in 15, 20 seconds. It's crazy.
So it definitely has some awesome features. I would definitely not go with this unit, even though
I'm a homeowner and I don't do a lot of big stuff with it. I absolutely hate that I'll take this out
and find its limit on just a couple things that I'm doing around the house, even loading it with
firewood or something like that. So, I would go up to probably a 4 series tractor, so I get
into the 40 horse range. And I'd go with the 72 inch bucket, but that's me. Now that will make it
less desirable for getting in tight spaces. I'll roll in a couple clips here. When I was doing
the retaining wall last year, this tractor was very nimble and I could get in between, basically, where
the foundation of the house was and the pillar on the deck. So, there was only like a six or seven foot
space in there, so the tractor got right in there and did everything I needed it to. I was able
to pull out some stuff. Another feature that I do love on this tractor is the low gear.
Some HSTs, or hydrostatic transmissions, don't have low gear. They just have one gear. I love that you can
put this bad boy in low. This thing will get down and it is a pushing machine in low. I never have
a forward or backward problem with it in low. The four-wheel drive is awesome. Sometimes...actually
every time I've borrowed this tractor, I've used the four-wheel drive constantly. I just keep it locked
in four-wheel drive because I'm usually pushing or moving something and the four-wheel drive is necessary.
You get a bucket full of dirt, you go to back out of the pile, and then your back tires spin.
And that's just because so much weight is taken off of the back tires when you load this thing down.
Is it a design flaw? Yeah, I mean you can only do so much with a tractor-mounted loader.
I totally get it. Even with the rototiller on here, which by the way, the rototiller is awesome.
The rototiller is a beast and absolutely just chews through anything. It adds a little bit more weight,
so you can carry a little bit more in the bed, or in the bucket. So, it's definitely a good unit.
I would improve some things about it. I would want a bigger unit. But for a compact tractor, or a mower,
for that matter, this is a pretty good unit. I would probably not go out and buy one.
That's just my honest opinion from borrowing it, putting that many hours on it. It does not work for me.
So, especially not for farm use or anything of that matter. I know my buddy really likes it,
but I think he likes the price point of it. I would definitely pay more money to go up in size and
in horsepower because I don't want to go outside and start working on something and then figure out
that my tractor doesn't have...is not up to snuff. So, that's my opinion on it. Those are three things
I hate about the tractor, a couple things that I do love about the tractor. I'm sure in
future videos we might do some testing. We might do some curl stuff. See how much it actually does curl.
Maybe hang some weights off the bucket and show you exactly where the fail point is.
Try to get it as close as we possibly can, to see if John Deere's fudging their numbers because it sure
as heck seems like they are. And I'm not biased to this machine. I was looking into Kubota.
John Deere's a decent manufacturer. They do good stuff, but I think that this definitely leaves a lot
left on the table. So, I hope you like my little down and dirty, three things that I hate
about the John Deere. I'm still going to name it "5 Things," but that's to get some attention,
right? Some clickbait. So I hope you liked the video. If you've got any comments, please put them below.
If you've got some future video ideas to do with this tractor, we're all for it.
We're all about testing out some stuff. So, let's figure out what you guys want to see. If you want to see this
tractor make another entrance in the video, then by all means, comment below. I hope to
see you guys subscribe. I hope to see you around the channel and always, we'll see you next video.