John Deere 320 P-Tier

Entry into Deere's current skid steer range starts here, and the honest framing is that this is a controls-and-cab upgrade rather than a more capable machine. Power, rated capacity and operating weight all carry over unchanged from the 320G — 69 gross horsepower, 2,190 lb and 7,150 lb respectively — so what you are actually buying is standard electrohydraulic joysticks with storable operator profiles, a sealed and pressurised cab, and access to a modern option list. For a lot of buyers that is the right trade, but it should be a conscious one.

Where it earns its keep is on firm ground doing light-to-medium work: property maintenance, light landscaping, farm chores, snow, material handling around a yard. Vertical lift to 122 inches is genuinely useful at this size and will load a tandem truck, and standard two-speed travel around 11 mph keeps a larger site from wasting an operator's day. The running costs are the lowest in the batch because there is no undercarriage — oil-bathed drive chains and a set of tires replace tracks, rollers, idlers and sprockets, and that gap is thousands of dollars per cycle. The limits are equally clear: the smallest tipping load in the range at 4,380 lb, modest standard hydraulic flow, and self-levelling still sitting on the options list where rivals include it.

Genuinely light work is the precondition: you are on firm ground, and you value modern controls and a comfortable cab over lifting more. If you regularly approach its limits, the 324 P-Tier gives you 500 lb more capacity and more reach for a modest step up in price, and that is usually the better-value machine. Before signing, price self-levelling and the turbo option into the comparison, because a well-optioned 320 closes on a base 324 quickly. On any used example, run both joysticks through full travel and drive it under load in both directions, since control-electronics faults rather than mechanical failures are what this family's owners have reported.