Review By : SI2305 on 5/7/2009
Price Paid : $13,600.00
Years of Use : 3+ Years
Implements : LX4, ROPS light kit, 5-ft grader blade
Purchased From :
Strengths As every one has stated, this unit has power to spare. Part of this is the nature of sub compacts that combine garden tractor sized machines with genuine diesel engines. Still, I live on a 9 acre property with about 5 acres in tall pasture grass that I mow once or twice per year with my LX4. the JD2305 has NO problem whatsoever handleing the tallest grass my land can through at it. I sometimes mow 7'tall dense grass and the tractor moves through it like a knife through warm butter. When I am not mowing the field, I use the LX4 to trim some of the scrubby/woody growth near my property lines that encroaches on the wwalking trails I have in my field. The LX4 can chop just about any woody material to shreads with ease. One of the real advantages of the unit is that I can put the tractor in low gear, drop the throttle back to just over idle and gently back into and under larger trees to clear out the underbrush that chokes them out and encroaches on my walking path that marks the perimiter of my property. The 2305 is very maneuverably and I can clear vast amounts of underbrush that I otherwise would clear with a heavy duty brushcutter/weedeater or more than likely, just leave alone. Backing into and under these areas is a breeze.
My other rear attachment is a 5' grader blade. The blade itself is an off-brand that is nothing special, but it will easily spread, level and otherwise distribute gravel to keep the driveway in passable shape. One technique I discovered was that in order to easily and uniformly spread the gravel, I turn the blade all the ways around to the rear so that the cutting edge faces opposite the direction of travel. I then lower and angle the blade. The result is that the gravel is spread almost the way butter gets spread on bread by a knife. It is smooth, even and does not tend to bounce, skip or dig.
I winter, I reverse the blade to its normal position, angleto teh side and easily charge over the snow and let the blade curl the snow off to the side with ease. One interesting facts about this is since the tractor goes first and the blade is the final part of the machine to come into contact with teh snow. teh result is that the cleared path is COMPLETELY smooth and clear--no tire tracks! After a couple of passes up and down the driveway, the path is perfectly clear. This last winter, I cleared a good portion of my subdivision's road all the way to teh county road as the snow plow took over a day to get to us. I also plowed out our neighbor who has a 1000' driveway with a steep portion. If you clear snow this way, one advantage is that you still have teh loader move piles of snow out of teh way or just move show whereever you need it to be piled.
The loader is a must-have for this tractor. It is a true work horse. I have loaded dirt, heavy, wet clay, crushed gravel, lime dust, finished rock, and just recently, a 20'long, 2.5' diameter red oak trunk that had recetnly fallen during hurricain Ike. I was initially concerned that the log would just be too ungainly to maneuver, but the 2305 moved it with grace and ease over slopping terrain. That log now serves a retaining wall for a raised strawberry bed along with several others just like it. In fact, I am not certain what the limits are of the loader as I have easily and dramatically surpassed the stated limits in teh JD literature.
In case you can not tell, I absolutely love theis tractor and while some think they might be better off with a larger tractor, I only entertain these thoughts when I am not actualy using the tractor. When I am using it, I am in tractor heaven.
This tractor will NOT let me down and performs as if it is trying to be a much larger piece of equipment than it actually is. On top of this, the fuel consumption is lower than my garden tractor. JD2305=2/3 ga/hr. My JD120 riding mower=1ga/hr and not even 1/10 the functionality of the 2305.
The tractor is both powerful but also maneuverable, responsive and intuitive. The twin-touch pedals beats the toe-and-heal controls of other manufacturers. Though it is a sub compact, it sits like a larger tractor. I stand over 6 feet and some subcompacts (and even larger CUT's) leave me feeling high-in-the-saddle that seems precarious, even dangerous. I love the joystick style of the loader control being a built-in component of the tractor itself as opposed to an add-on product that sticks out too far into the seating position. The ergonomics are great.
Weaknesses The front lights, like all subcompacts are useless with a loader. I do wish that JD and others would place lighting on the ROPS.
The oil filter and especially teh hydro cooling fan are too low. My first day of serious bushhogging I got a stick that stuck traight up into the cooling fan and dinged each of the fan blades. The damage was trivial and I now use the loader to push down and guard against other possible intrusions, but I wish JD would offer a shield for this. It would be simple as one evvectively does have this shield if one has a belly mower installed. a simple piece of sheet metal attached to the belly moer attachment point would do the trick.
The hydrolics are strong but a bit slow.
the clearance is mediocre, but this is true withe all subcompacts.
the alternator is anemic and it would be nice to have a power outlet. A 40 watt alternator would be a big imporvement over the 25 watt one offered. I already have ideas for more gadjets, but they need a power source.
finally, instead of a coolant temperature warning light popping on, it would be nice to moitor the heat rise and take action before the engine is overheating.
Overall Great tractor, maneuverable. My wife loves the fact that we can use the loader to move so many large heavy loads so easily. We can bush hog tall grass and small trees alike. The hydro pedal is very intuitive. The yellow seat stays cool on hot days (black seats can get VERY hot. If this is your first foray into diesel tractors, I think you will be pleased
Parts : 9 Performance : 10
Ease of Use : 10 Financing : 9
Reliability : 10 Overall : 10