John Deere 2025R Vs. Ventrac 4500 - Side by Side Tractor Comparison

I'm Aaron Graber from ventrac and in this video we're gonna give you guys an exclusive look behind the scenes at a comparison between our 4500 and a compact tractor. It's a common question that we get relating to how our tractor stands up against subcompact and compact tractors and we actually already have a video that tackles this. The key here though is that this video is aimed directly at our dealer sales personnel as a training tool so it's a little bit different in its approach. It'll actually be a really good example of what to expect out of a ventrac tractor versus other normal tractors. With all that said we hope you enjoy this comparison and if there are any other questions that we didn't answer be sure to let us know in the comments and we'll get back to you. In this demonstration we're going to compare a ventrac 4500Y of a typical subcompact tractor. Specifically in this video we use a John Deere 2025R. One of the key drivers for the production of this video is the feedback that we get from people who've never seen a ventrac before . Fairly often those people say it's more like a garden tractor in that it is a compact tractor. We will say that just looking at these two tractors side-by-side it's understandable that somebody could say the subcompact looks like a more substantial machine. Also if you compare the dimensional specs you might say that's true but the reality is these are both very heavy-duty machines built for doing work. As you know the most important part of a successful sales process is being able to properly educate the customer by purchasing the correct machine. The customer will be happy with their experience and will use you as an expert in the future. Instead of running these two machines side-by-side and comparing results in a specific application we'll go over some of the specific engineering differences between these two machines and explain why those might be advantageous for a certain type of customer. Obviously since this video is produced by us here at ventrac we'll talk a lot about the ventrac and some of the advantages of the specific design of this machine. But we'll give credit to the compact tractor when it's due. For this comparison we chose the John Deere subcompact because it's a brand that is typically regarded as a leader in the industry and also it's a brand that most customers are familiar with and they find desirable. It's a good benchmark to talk about some of the differences of a ventrac compared to a subcompact platform. Most of this information will apply directly to any other brand. We also know here at ventrac that it's our responsibility to give you guys the best information possible and to help train you so that you understand this tractor and how it compares to normal tractors. This will really help you be the salesperson that your customers need you to be. One of the first things people consider in a compact tractor is the engine. We picked these two models specifically because they're very close to a direct comparison on the engine the John Deere has a 23 point 9 horsepower Yanmar diesel. And the ventrac 4500Y has a 25 horsepower Kubota diesel. One thing that many customers appreciate is that on the ventrac we only use metal structural pieces and panels. So the hood is all metal. On this John Deere the hood is composite as well as some of the side panels but that's not always the case for all subcompact tractors. Another important spec to get out of the way before we get started with measurements is the ground speed. Both of these tractors have a high end low range. The John Deere will do 5.6 miles per hour in low range and 12.3 miles per hour in high range. The ventrac is 5 and 10 miles per hour respectively. Now we're going to take some basic measurements of each of these tractors to give you an understanding of what their physical footprint is like. First, we'll measure the length of both of these tractors from the front of the hitch arms to the rear most part of the tractor. On the ventrac we're at about 81 inches. Since the ventrac has the mower deck out front we're going to do a total length measurement including the mower deck so that you can make a direct comparison to the John Deere with an underbelly mower. Including the mower deck the ventrac comes in around 136 inches. On the John Deere we'll go from the front bumper back to the rear wheels and we end up with a measurement of almost 95 inches. We'll talk about this more later but for this measurement we're not including a three-point hitch because the three-point hitch is not standard on a ventrac. That's an optional accessory. Now we'll measure the width of both of these tractors. On the John Deere we'll go from outside tire to outside tire and we're at 48 inches. The ventrac also measures in at 48 inches now we're going to measure from the ground to the top of the ROPS with the ROPS up because this is an important measurement for people who might be pulling this tractor into a garage Bay or working underneath tree limbs or anything where there might be obstruction above them. On the ventrac from the ground to the top of the ROPS is approximately 68 inches. On the John Deere if we take that same measurement we end up with approximately 91 inches. That measurement leads us to our next talking point we're going to measure a couple other height differences between these two tractors. The footwell on the John Deere if measured from the ground comes in at 23 inches and there's also a tread plate to walk on to get up there that comes in at 15 inches. So to climb on this tractor you actually have to step up to that height and then climb on. We'll take the same measurement on the ventrac and see where that footwell is. So here from the ground to the footwell we have 11 inches. That's a much shorter measurement and what that means is it's an advantage for anybody who might be a little bit older or concerned about mobility getting on and off the tractor. Another uncommon measurement that you probably won't find on a spec list is the height of a seat from the ground on the ventrac. We're at 32 inches on the John Deere . If we measure from the ground we're at 43 inches obviously sitting up high can be an advantage for visibility of the surrounding areas the drawback to that is that it's not as preferable as sitting lower to the ground for stability and for performance the advantage of the seat height on the ventrac being lower is that it gives the total operator and machine a lower center of gravity which improves the performance and the stability also since the tractor itself of the ventrac is much lower and since we run the attachments out front the visibility of the attachment doing the work is better in most cases those measurements lead us to our first summary of major difference between these two tractors if your customer prioritizes working on slopes or in rough terrain the ventrac is usually a better option if the customer only wants to do loader work the subcompact tractor might make more sense for them the John Deere weighs 16 hundred and sixty pounds you might think the ventrac weighs a lot less but it actually weighs sixteen hundred and fifty-five that weight is the tractor only not including the loader or mower deck so there's only a five pound difference despite the visual differences also since this ventrac doesn't have a three-point hitch if you added that as an option it would weigh seventeen hundred and fifty pounds and be heavier than the John Deere on all ventrac 4500 models the fuel tank is located just to the left of the operator the fuel capacity of a 4500 is six gallons on the John Deere the fuel tank is also located to the left of the operator right here and their fuel capacity is 6.1 gallons both of these tractors have an efficient diesel engine so fuel consumption and capacity is basically a wash the most important and key difference of this operator station is how you control the machine forward and reverse on the John Deere once you're in gear you use this pedal to drive forward and then you switch to this pedal to drive and reverse on the ventrac this is what we call our SD la lever it stands for speed direction lift and auxilary this lever is really the control center for the entire tractor during operation you drive the tractor forward and reverse by moving this levered forward and back you can lift the attachment by moving this lever to the left and lower it moving it to the right placing it all the way over and float let's the attachment float on the ground the rear lever controls an auxilary hydraulic function those lines are located right here and they attach to whatever attachment you're using when you move this lever to the left it would angle to the left to the right would angle it right we also have the ability to add multi functions to these levers and more hydraulics in this area so we can run attachments with several hydraulic circuits we do also have an available foot pedal control that ties into the S DLA and can control the tractors forward and reverse movements that foot pedal mounts in this location and it's a rocker style foot pedal so you push forward to go forward and back to go back what we've found personally and through all of our customer feedback is that 99% of the time it makes more sense to use your hand to control the machine it's more intuitive your reaction times are quicker it's more comfortable and it's faster also being able to control the movements of the attachment with the same hand and lever that you're controlling the forward progress of the machine makes for efficient operation now we're going to move to probably the biggest functional difference between these two tractors the frame and how they steer as you know the John Deere or any subcompact tractor has a rigid frame it steers only the front wheels there's a steering cylinder located on the left side that when you turn the wheel moves the front wheels left and right just like it would in a car this is a very standard way of doing it and it works but it has some drawbacks the one area where this is nice is for using the loader by having a rigid frame the machine is more stable when you have a lot of weight lifted well above the machine the ventrac has what we call a flex frame which means that it's a center articulated frame and it also oscillates the steering cylinder is located right here and it actually allows the frame to move in the center like this and the frame also twists like this if you see here and here you'll see where the front and back half of the frame are bolted together and that is the center articulation point so none of the wheels on the ventrac actually turn they always stay straight forward the frame itself bends in the middle since the frame articulates at the center the wheels follow the same path so even though you're always an all wheel drive you don't tear up the turf underneath you when you make a complete turn also since the frame oscillates it allows one corner of the tractor to raise off the ground while the other three corners maintain constant contact this is an advantage because very few times will you ever be operating a tractor on a perfectly flat surface so when one corner of the tractor dips or raises relative to the other corners with a ventrac you maintain consistent traction and control with a straight frame you'll actually lift wheels off the ground and you'll lose control potentially senator articulation also makes this tractor much more maneuverable than a similarly sized tractor the turning radius of this ventrac is 39 inches while the John Deere 2025 is 92 inches the one disadvantage of the oscillating frame is that it's not as optimal for loader work our loader is rated for 500 pounds of lift capacity while this John Deere loader is rated for 754 pounds the benefits of the articulating and oscillating frame cannot be overstated their drastic the only thing that will admit is that a straight frame is better as a loader when you get a lot of weight high above the machine it's more stable since this frame on the ventrac oscillates in that same situation you have to be more careful so that the load doesn't control the machine the next major difference to talk about between these two machines is the attachments on the John Deere most of these tractors sold are going to include the loader you can see there's a quick attach on the loader arms here where you can run a bucket you could run a number of various attachments on the loader itself you can also run attachments off the front of the machine using the mid mount PTO to power them those attachments would be something like a broom the finished mower decks for these tractors are going to be located underneath the machine you could also buy a finish mower for the rear three-point from a third party but most people will opt for the drive over Quick Connect designs lastly on the John Deere you can always attach something to the rear three-point and power it with the rear PTO this is one of the advantages of compact tractors they're very versatile there are more tool carriers than anything they're designed as machines that you can hang a lot of different attachments off of and be pretty productive with if we contrast that with the ventrac the main focus here is that we're going to run most of our attachments in front of the machine we do have a rear three-point system available and it's a category one just like on this 2025 are the difference is we don't have a rear PTO so you can only run standard attachments that are not powered all of our front mounted attachments will have these similar hitch arms where you'll pull the machine in and then you'll latch the hooks on the tractor around the attachment once you do that all that you need to do on powered attachments is connect the belt-driven pto here and then close the lever if the attachment has hydraulic lines you hook up the lines here and you're ready to start working no tools are ever required and it's a simple process that's not back-breaking in any way the entire process of hooking up any ventrac front mounted attachment will take under a minute and if you're a seasoned operator it can take even less than half a minute most compact tractor manufacturers will also have available their own finished decks that mount underneath the machine for John Deere they have a technology they call auto connect where you drive over the mower deck and everything underneath that's required to connect it does it by itself if you can imagine this mower deck is not on the tractor what you want to do is set this dial to the position to connect then you would just drive over this mower deck and everything underneath would latch itself then you could lift the mower deck up with the PTO controls and you would set each one of these corner caster wheels on both sides to the desired height setting then you can use this dial to set your cut height and you're ready to go getting out of this deck is simply reversing the process for the John Deere specifically with this feature this can usually be done in only a few minutes we get a lot of comments on the ventrac finished mower decks because of their industrial design and the quality of cut they offer while this John Deere deck is stamped and welded the ventrac deck is a fully welded design we're back to the ventrac side again to talk specifically about the advantage of this mower deck being out front first of all during operation it allows you to get underneath low-hanging tree limbs or any other obstructions also the quality of cut is improved because the mower deck hits the grass before the machine drives over it like on a subcompact another major advantage of this mower deck is that since it's out front we have the ability to flip the deck up all of our decks flip up manually at least and some of our mower decks all of the finished decks included had the optional hydraulic flip up kit where you can flip the mower deck to a near 90 degrees using just the auxilary SDL a lever to reach blades for maintenance or the underside of the deck for clean-out we're not bashful about saying that a ventrac is a better mowing machine in every conceivable way than a subcompact tractor because every one of our mower decks is out front of the Machine and purpose-built for the specific task at hand we also have a contour mower where reel mower available for golf course or high end property maintenance applications those are things that no one would ever even consider for a subcompact and push this tractor into different markets as well continuing on talking about the attachments of these two tractors let's focus on the loaders so with the John Deere the machine was obviously designed around the loader it integrates well with the tractor itself and you have the loader controls built into the operator station the ventrac does have a loader available but it's a little bit different in a few key ways the loader controls are on the left side of the operator because they're actually self-contained in the loader we use our loader as a separate attachment and we don't keep it on the machine nor do we keep any of the components to mount it on the machine full-time this loader specifically as well as the loader on other subcompact brands are usually designed to remove from the machine very quickly so there's no advantage from the ventrac they're either in use the load around the John Deere will work more efficiently and work slightly harder than the ventrac dedicated loader we also have just this bucket attachment we call it the power bucket we use this in place of the loader in a lot of applications this is a key talking point for the ventrac because most people understand how useful this simple bucket is this goes on the front of the tractor just like any of our other attachments and operates only at ground level what we've found and what our customers have found is that about 90 percent of the time the work that they're doing moving loose material can be done with a power bucket and you don't need a loader a loader is really only necessary when you're lifting stuff into the back of a pickup bed or a dump trailer or lifting behind bushes or something there's a persistent theory in this market by customers that they need to be able to lift material high but what a lot of them find if they're honest with themselves and if they try pieces of equipment like this is that they don't really need that option very often most of the time they can get by using the power bucket it's also important to say if you can use the power bucket and you don't need to lift high it's actually better than a loader because it's faster and more maneuverable many of our customers have found on simple jobs moving mulch or loose gravel that using the power bucket actually sped up their overall time to do the job than if they would have had to use a loader on a compact tractor the last point to mention regarding loaders is that if any of that work is done in a season where the ground might be softer a power bucket or a loader on a ventrac is really the only way to go the impact the ventrac has on the ground is so low compared to standard subcompact tractors it'll protect the turf in the surrounding areas to close out our summary of attachments we'll talk about three points on a ventrac we sell our tractor as a standard tractor without a three-point but it is an available option it's a category one just like the deer 2025 but we don't have a rear PTO we don't want to have powered attachments behind the machine because that goes against what the ventrac was designed for we build all of our own attachments for ventrac tractors and we build them specifically to be run in front of the machine there's obvious advantages of that but what that yields is kind of a lack of necessity to have that powered PTO in the back of the machine so while you can get a three point for the rear of the ventrac just remember you can only use it for non powered attachments at the back of the John Deere you have a standard three-point hitch that everybody's familiar with and a 540 PTO this is an advantage for a customer that might interested in purchasing third-party attachments from other manufacturers oftentimes these can be great budget items if they're an attachment that somebody doesn't want to use a lot but they do want to have available the primary takeaway for attachments is that sub compact tractors prioritize the loader and then they fit other attachments on the machine where they can with the ventrac we're fully committed to the concept of having the attachments in front of the machine and the operator in almost all cases we also focus on designing and building all of our own attachments so that they work together with the ventrac system as well as possible this allows us to have total control of the quality and the design so that we know exactly what our customers are getting it's not uncommon to hear somebody who is hesitant on working with a manufacturer that supplies all of their attachments and requires that they use them since our front hitch is not a standard category hitch they can't go use third party attachments that make some people nervous because they feel like they're gonna get locked in and they can't go buy cheap stuff at the end of the day if the customer is ultimately concerned with buying cheap stuff for attachments the subcompact is probably the better bet for them by now you're probably starting to understand that there's major differences between these two concepts and machines what that leads us to is a brief discussion on what these machines are not designed for for the ventrac specifically this tractor is not really designed to be optimally used with a box blade a post hole digger a backhoe or any cultivation tools so we don't supply things like that there are however other attachments that the ventrac does have available that aren't suited well for the compact tractor those would be things like the contour and reel mower the trencher the air evader the edger our blowers or a lot of other specialty powered attachments another obvious visual difference between these two machines that customers notice and they like to consider are tire sizes and types on the compact tractor it's pretty normal to find are for industrial tires for normal use these are also available with turf tires or bar tires just not that many people use them you'll also see the massive size difference rear to front and between the compact tractor and the ventrac having tires like the r4 on the compact tractor are important for traction when you're doing loader work but you do notice these deep sharp lugs on the side and when you go to turn and you move the front wheels as hard to the left or right as possible those can dig into the ground and tear the turf up on the ventrac we go with the tire that's somewhere in the middle of all of the options this is technically called a field tracks tire which is an all-terrain tire and it's not quite as aggressive as an r4 it's also a little more aggressive than a pure turf tire again going back to the fact of this machine is Center articulated these tires follow the same wheel path which means there's no tearing motion on the ground as you're turning this allows us to get away with a much more aggressive tire than something like a zero turn or a garden tractor but we also don't have to have that really aggressive r4 or bar type tread pattern on a compact tractor because since the frame oscillates we keep consistent traction on the ground as well even professional users like golf courses have found that these all-terrain tires on the ventrac are suitable for their needs there's also a notable difference between these two machines and their final drivetrain with this tractor and most subcompact tractors there'll be a selectable four-wheel drive with a differential lock with a straight frame tractor that only turns the front wheels you don't always want four-wheel drive engaged you can be working on a hard surface where the tires will chatter if you try to turn too tight or you can be working on a delicate surface where you don't want to tear the ground up it is nice if you do get stuck that you can lock the differential on this machine so that if you have a tire lifted off the ground you can get out of it easier with the ventrac we don't rely on the operator to select four-wheel drive this machine is full-time all-wheel drive with open differentials this means that the operator always has all four corners of the tractor driving forward or reverse to help with traction and stability because it articulates in the center and you don't have to worry about your four-wheel drive tearing up the surface here on or the wheels chattering you can just use the tractor whether you're on a hill whether you're mowing the yard whether you're using a bucket or other attachments it doesn't matter you don't make any changes to the drivetrain you just drive the tractor and it always works the same another option that customers might be interested in on either one of these tractors is a cab obviously we don't have them installed on either one of these today but it's important to know you can get a cab on either one of these tractors those cabs will both offer some of the same amenities including heat since these tractors are low horsepower and they don't have the extra capacity neither of those cabs will have air conditioning another thing that the ventrac is widely known for is operation on slopes for this segment we're gonna completely end the comparison there because there is none to this John Deere or any other subcompact tractor compact tractor manufacturers do not recommend these types of machines for use on slopes the ventrac 4500 as it's pictured in this video with single wheels is rated for operation on 20 degree hills in any direction you can also add wheel extensions to bump that up to 25 degrees or another set of wheels so that you have a dual wield setup then you can do 30 degrees in any direction many of the topics that we've already talked about play into the slope capabilities of the ventrac the most notable ones are the Flex frame the dual wheels the full-time all-wheel drive the stance of the tractor and low center of gravity we also have a unique system on this tractor that we call weight transfer it's a mechanical spring that pulls some of the ground force from the attachment when you engage it back to the front axle of the tractor to increase traction even more it gives the operator control so that they can decide how much traction they want in a specific situation if you have any steep areas on your property that can cause trouble for normal machines a ventrac just might be the right solution for you slope capability of the ventrac is something that is absolutely imperative for people to understand we've heard cow with stories of customers buying tractors and then taking them back to the dealer and trading them in on a ventrac or asking about ventrac because the tractor couldn't hold a hill in fact this specific 2025 R has 15 hours of use on it and it came back to one of our dealers from a customer who said I like the tractor but it can't hold the hill in front of my house as a salesperson talking to a potential buyer of a compact tractor one of the first questions you should ask is about the terrain they're operating on since you now have the ventrac in your arsenal you can use it as a tool to reach customers that have trouble with steep hills there are a lot of people out there getting by with equipment that's not optimal for use on hillsides and a lot of times it's not safe either those customers might even have places on their property that they avoid altogether and they might like to take care of those areas if they had equipment that was capable this is where we would encourage you to visit that customer site and demo event racks so that they can see with their own two eyes how effective it is in these conditions usually if you have somebody who wants to operate on Hills and they're interested in a compact tractor of some variety if they demo event rack they're sold almost immediately obviously just like everything else before you let the customer operate the tractor especially on a hillside make sure they're properly trained and their Ops is up seat belt is on and weight transfers in the highest setting the last point of comparison that will tackle between these two machines is the obvious one the price difference yes the ventrac is more expensive there are certain types of customers that might be perfectly suited with a compact tractor and if that's the case obviously the price dictates that's what they should go with but if the customer has any of the concerns that are addressed by the ventrac safety on slopes comfort ease of use out front attachments or anything else that we've talked about today the price can be worked around pricing becomes almost a non-factor when you switch over to municipal public or golf course customers because they have very different needs and they're going to be using much more expensive attachments and probably buying bigger packages to begin with thank you for watching this comparison video between the ventrac and the subcompact tractor we hope that it helps you to talk to customers about the difference between these two machines and the advantages that one or the other offer at this point it should be obvious that these machines are vastly different and probably more different than you or any of your customers have considered yet it's these differences that need to be understood and taught to the customer so that they can make the best buying decision for them in all of our marketing material we encourage customers to reach out to our dealers and request demos because we know that this leads to higher success rates and more sales thank you for watching this comparison video we hope you found it useful in learning about the ventrac 4500 one of the key aspects we left out of the video was price because this video is a little bit old and because we don't want it to be outdated we're gonna give a range of prices for these units for the ventrac it's gonna cost between twenty and twenty four thousand dollars depending on the power unit that you get and for the dr2 series it's going to be somewhere between 17 and 25 thousand dollars if you have any other questions or if there's something we missed be sure to leave those in the comments below and we'll respond to you as soon as possible also make sure you check out the other videos we have on YouTube we'll have links somewhere on this end screen

Channel: Ventrac

Views: 107,667

Rating: 4.8092713 out of 5

Keywords: ventrac 4500, john deere 2025r, deere 2025r vs ventrac 4500, side by side tractor comparison, flexframe, ventrac horsepower, ventrac vs john deere, all metal tractor, which tractor to buy, easiest tractor to operate, out front attachments, high quality tractor, all terrain tractor tire, full time all wheel drive tractor, 30 degree slope mower, no turf damage, ventrac vs normal tractor, center articulating tractor, oscillating tractor, rigid frame tractor

Id: 4-TlW995kpU

Length: 29min 57sec (1797 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020