Strengths Excellent power and lifting ability. Nice balance-very stable front/back; sideways on hills. The all wheel steer does not tear up the groung (or pavement) when you work, also saving tire wear. I have 600 hours on my first set of tires, with several hundred hours left on them. The pushing power is amazing when in aws mode- power is not lost trying to grind the wheels in a turn- everything is turned and pushing forward. I almost never use skid steer mode anymore(unless I am in a very tight area to turn around). The electronic controls are easy and do not fatigue the operator. I have the Gold package, with a/c, heat, power bobtach, and keyless start. All of these features are great. The keyless start allows me to lock out the machine, or to give an operator a code which will record machine problems and tell me who was operating it when a problem arose. By the way, I have had no problems other than a fitting torn off the power bobtach cylinder(by me!). The cab is pretty quiet and very roomy. I can run circles around a D-3 moving dirt. the weight and long wheelbase make it easy to cut a grade on the first pass.

Weaknesses Getting used to the AWS mode took me about 100 hours before I was "at home" with using it. Some people have trouble backing it on a trailer in AWS- just flip it into skid steer mode for that. Also when hooking up to an attachment, it takes a smooth hand in aws. Also a good time to put it into skid steer mode. At full load, you can burn 20 gals. of fuel in 8 hours- power has a price! I use the foot throttle to adjust rpms to what I need, and can get 20 hrs from a tank that way.

Overall I love it and recommend it to anyone making a living with a compact loader.

Strengths Excellent power and lifting ability. Nice balance-very stable front/back; sideways on hills. The all wheel steer does not tear up the groung (or pavement) when you work, also saving tire wear. I have 600 hours on my first set of tires, with several hundred hours left on them. The pushing power is amazing when in aws mode- power is not lost trying to grind the wheels in a turn- everything is turned and pushing forward. I almost never use skid steer mode anymore(unless I am in a very tight area to turn around). The electronic controls are easy and do not fatigue the operator. I have the Gold package, with a/c, heat, power bobtach, and keyless start. All of these features are great. The keyless start allows me to lock out the machine, or to give an operator a code which will record machine problems and tell me who was operating it when a problem arose. By the way, I have had no problems other than a fitting torn off the power bobtach cylinder(by me!). The cab is pretty quiet and very roomy. I can run circles around a D-3 moving dirt. the weight and long wheelbase make it easy to cut a grade on the first pass.

Weaknesses Getting used to the AWS mode took me about 100 hours before I was "at home" with using it. Some people have trouble backing it on a trailer in AWS- just flip it into skid steer mode for that. Also when hooking up to an attachment, it takes a smooth hand in aws. Also a good time to put it into skid steer mode. At full load, you can burn 20 gals. of fuel in 8 hours- power has a price! I use the foot throttle to adjust rpms to what I need, and can get 20 hrs from a tank that way.

Overall I love it and recommend it to anyone making a living with a compact loader.