I have a R52 and a l2 that I have retired. My opinion is the R52 will have the edge in corn I run a 830 hugger on mine and it handles it well. In beans I would say they are fairly even till you have some green stem beans or you are running in damp high humidity conditions then the l2 will out cut the R52. I ran a 820 on my l2 and a 520 on my R52. Butttttt since I have completely hypered the R52 it will out cut in all conditions the l2 now. Hyperizing the R52 made it a bean cutting hog. I also finished putting Dan Hurst floor mod on the R52 today and cut around 20 acres tonite in mud and water and it made feeding in the damp conditions behind double crop beans so much better. So if you are not going to do any mods or hyperizing on the R52, the l3 will handle beans better in all around conditions, and the R52 will have a slight edge over the l3 in corn. But if you Hyperize the R52 it will be the better machine in beans or corn in all conditions. Thats my opinion.