The John Deere 335 P-Tier: Deere's Highest-Horsepower Compact Track Loader, Explained

We've already covered where the 333 P-Tier stands against the field — it's shown up in comparisons against Kubota, Bobcat, and New Holland's large-frame track loaders. What hasn't gotten its own dedicated look is the machine sitting right above it in Deere's own lineup: the 335 P-Tier, currently the highest-horsepower compact track loader Deere builds. If you've outgrown a 333 and rental houses keep quoting you a 333-class machine when what you actually need is more, the 335 is the answer.

The Numbers

The 335 P-Tier is rated at 118 hp, with a 12,300 lb operating weight and a rated operating capacity of 4,025 lb. That ROC figure is the number that actually matters day to day — it's the safe working lift capacity Deere certifies for the machine, and at just over two tons it puts the 335 solidly in the heavy-lift end of the compact track loader class, ahead of where the 333 P-Tier sits and well clear of mid-frame machines built primarily for general-purpose loader work.

Being honest about lineage: Deere doesn't publish a clean one-to-one predecessor for the 335 designation the way it does for some other P-Tier updates. The closest comparable machine in the prior generation is the 333G, which we've already covered head-to-head against Kubota's SVL110-3 on this site. Rather than force a predecessor claim Deere itself doesn't make, the honest framing is that the 335 P-Tier represents the top of Deere's current CTL horsepower range, carrying forward the cab, control, and hydraulic architecture improvements that came with the broader P-Tier generational shift across the whole compact track loader family.

Why the Extra Horsepower and Lift Capacity Matter

A compact track loader's real ceiling isn't its top speed or its bucket size — it's how much weight it can safely lift and carry without tipping or losing hydraulic authority, and how much flow it can push to a demanding attachment. At 118 hp and a 4,025 lb ROC, the 335 P-Tier is built for exactly the applications where a lighter CTL runs out of capability: high-flow attachments like cold planers, mulching heads, and stump grinders that need serious hydraulic power to perform, pallet-fork material handling at real capacity on a commercial job site, and heavy grading work where the machine needs to push against resistance without losing traction or stalling.

Land Clearing and Mulching: Where This Machine Really Shines

Forestry and land-clearing contractors running mulching heads are a natural fit for the 335 P-Tier specifically because mulcher attachments are hydraulically hungry — they need sustained high flow and horsepower to keep a mulching rotor spinning at full speed through brush and small timber without bogging down. A mid-frame CTL running a mulching head can find itself underpowered for anything beyond light brush, while the 335's higher-output hydraulics and horsepower keep the rotor loaded properly even in denser vegetation. The same logic applies to cold planers and other high-demand attachments: matching the carrier's hydraulic output to the attachment's actual requirement is what determines whether that attachment performs at its rated capacity or disappoints.

Track Durability Under Heavy Loads

Running a machine at or near its rated lift capacity and hydraulic output regularly puts real stress on undercarriage components — the tracks, rollers, and drive motors are working harder than they would on a lightly loaded machine. That's a reason to size the carrier correctly rather than undersizing it: a mid-frame CTL pushed past its comfortable operating range to keep up with a demanding attachment will wear its undercarriage faster than a properly sized 335 P-Tier doing the identical job within its rated capacity. Undercarriage replacement on a compact track loader is one of the larger recurring maintenance costs an owner faces, and buying the right frame size the first time is a direct way to protect against accelerated wear.

Florida land-clearing and forestry-mulching contractors in particular deal with dense palmetto, Brazilian pepper, and melaleuca removal work across South Florida's ongoing development and mitigation projects — exactly the kind of sustained, hydraulically demanding mulching work where a properly sized carrier pays for itself in both productivity and undercarriage longevity. A 335 P-Tier running a mulching head through that kind of vegetation all day is working within its intended envelope; a smaller machine pressed into the same role is working past it.

Renting a High-Capacity CTL vs. Owning One

Top-of-range compact track loaders like the 335 P-Tier tend to be in shorter supply at rental houses than mid-frame machines, simply because fewer contractors need the extra capacity on a casual basis — which means when you do need one, availability and pricing both work against you. For a land-clearing, grading, or heavy-attachment operation where this capacity is a standing requirement rather than an occasional one, owning the machine outright removes that availability risk entirely and converts what would be a recurring rental expense into equity you're building with every payment.

Depending on your business's tax situation, a purchased CTL may also be eligible for depreciation benefits, including potential first-year Section 179 treatment — confirm the specifics with your tax professional, since eligibility and limits change year to year. That's simply not available on a rental invoice, and for a machine running hydraulically demanding attachments regularly, the ownership case tends to be straightforward once you look at what a season or two of rental payments would have actually cost.

Cab and Controls Built for a Full Day of Attachment Work

Operating a high-flow attachment all day — constantly modulating hydraulic output for a mulching head or cold planer — is more demanding on an operator than general loader duty, and the P-Tier generation's electro-hydraulic controls make that easier to manage. Operators can dial in joystick sensitivity and response curves to match their preference and the specific attachment they're running, rather than working with a single fixed hydraulic response across every task. Combined with the improved visibility and reduced cab noise that came with this generation's redesign, it's a meaningfully less fatiguing machine to run through a full shift of demanding attachment work than the platform it built on.

Comparing the Field Before You Commit

If you're weighing the 335 against competing large-frame CTLs, our existing coverage of the 333 P-Tier against Kubota's SVL97-3 and Bobcat's T86-2 Pro, plus the New Holland C345 vs. 333 P-Tier comparison, both give a solid picture of where Deere's large-frame CTLs stand against the field — the 335 simply sits a step above the 333 in raw capacity. And if what you actually need is a wheeled skid steer rather than a tracked machine, our spotlight on the 320 P-Tier covers Deere's compact skid steer end of the lineup.

BFC finances compact track loaders across the full range — from general-purpose mid-frame machines up through top-capacity units like the 335 P-Tier — with deposit requirements that flex with your credit and business history rather than a fixed number, from as little as $0 down for well-established operations up to a larger deposit for newer businesses.

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