California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,741
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
That Zen-Noh article that Scotty Dive linked in post #2 emphasizes Kubota, but Wallace was bringing over clean Yanmars from Japan in likely equal quantity.
One major part missing from that Zen-Noh / Kubota history is the story of the sweatshops in Vietnam that rebuilt junk tractors that were first used in Japan, then had been run to death in a second lifetime working in Vietnam, then were torn down and 'overhauled' with no access at all to genuine Yanmar parts. Used parts from tractors bought as tons of scrap, or handmade parts, were the ingredients. 'Here, kid. A new file, and a chunk of used something unknown. Go make me a replica of this irreplaceable Yanmar component'.
Then a museum quality paint job and send it over. Some retailers here misrepresented 40 year old gorgeous machines as 'low hours, recent model' or even as new.
I bought several salvage parts I needed to restore my (US) YM240 from an importer of those VN rebuilts. Le, general manager, told me he wholesaled 200~400 tractors a month and they were the US branch owned by the VN 'factory'. Sales and setup staff were likely the next generation in the family that owned the factory, with one Good Ol Boy Texan as marketing manager.
They had plenty of warranty-return gorgeous incomplete tractors parked out back to salvage parts off of for warranty claims, and everything I needed. One day I asked the young (and gorgeous) woman who was now marketing manager where is Le? She said her brother had gone home to VN to try to convince them to send over better quality.
A while later, this importer closed. They were honest, they had taken back so many warranty returns that it buried them. I think they had disappeared before Yanmar followed Kubota's lead and sued the pants off all the gray market Yanmar importers and retailers.
If you ever see a decal TractorMaster or MasterTractor on a Yanmar, it came through that importer.
One major part missing from that Zen-Noh / Kubota history is the story of the sweatshops in Vietnam that rebuilt junk tractors that were first used in Japan, then had been run to death in a second lifetime working in Vietnam, then were torn down and 'overhauled' with no access at all to genuine Yanmar parts. Used parts from tractors bought as tons of scrap, or handmade parts, were the ingredients. 'Here, kid. A new file, and a chunk of used something unknown. Go make me a replica of this irreplaceable Yanmar component'.
Then a museum quality paint job and send it over. Some retailers here misrepresented 40 year old gorgeous machines as 'low hours, recent model' or even as new.
I bought several salvage parts I needed to restore my (US) YM240 from an importer of those VN rebuilts. Le, general manager, told me he wholesaled 200~400 tractors a month and they were the US branch owned by the VN 'factory'. Sales and setup staff were likely the next generation in the family that owned the factory, with one Good Ol Boy Texan as marketing manager.
They had plenty of warranty-return gorgeous incomplete tractors parked out back to salvage parts off of for warranty claims, and everything I needed. One day I asked the young (and gorgeous) woman who was now marketing manager where is Le? She said her brother had gone home to VN to try to convince them to send over better quality.
A while later, this importer closed. They were honest, they had taken back so many warranty returns that it buried them. I think they had disappeared before Yanmar followed Kubota's lead and sued the pants off all the gray market Yanmar importers and retailers.
If you ever see a decal TractorMaster or MasterTractor on a Yanmar, it came through that importer.
