what do you think of this Yanmar 186D?

[mrmojorisin]

Hello,

I just looked at a Yanmar 186D today. says it has 991 hours on it. he says he is the second owner. he has the owners manual, service manual, hydrolic oil heater, and some extra filters. as you can see from the pictures it has turf tires on it. the seat is a boat seat. the hood has some scratches and a couple dents. he's asking $3,000, said he would go down to $2,800, i may offer $2,500. what do you guys think of this tractor? worth it? he is including a spiral PTO splitter. he has a rear PTO snowblower i can buy as well.

I have some hunting land that i could use this to brush hog, till/plow and maybe plow my driveway. this would be my first tractor, i was thinking on buying an ATV (we have a swisher pull brush mower already) but i thought a tractor might be more useful.

thanks

Craig

 

[California]

That's a near twin to the 186D I just bought for a similar price. Yours is less scratched up. Nothing wrong with that seat if it does the job. It's normal for Yanmars to have replacement seats on them (and sometimes mufflers) after 20-25 years. I hope he explained that is a mid 80's model. It is also a US model Yanmar, so you have both the gray-market part dealers and Yanmar-USA available for parts, manuals, etc.

Run it in every gear, and try the 4 wheel drive by trying tight turns on grass first with it disengaged then engaged. Likewise test the rear differential lock (under your right heel). It may take a moment while the gears line up before it engages but then it should make the tractor go straight ahead as the rear wheels are made to turn the same speed.

The ballast on the front bumper is something he put on. You may need more than that for a mower or tiller on the back.

Check fluids, steering, lights, etc same as a car. (plus the front axle dipstick).

I think it should mow and till fine with those tires but forget plow - you don't have the tractive force. Mine has ag tires and the seller included his only implement, a 6 ft rear blade he intended to plow snow with. He said as soon as he lowered the blade it was like he had tied the tractor to a tree. No change in engine pitch, simply all four tires went around like they were on glare ice. I don't have any experience on snow but I think somebody will add that it should run a snowblower great after you add tire chains. In summary it has a lot of power to drive a pto implement but way too little weight (and traction, with those turf tires) to pull an ag plow, or apparently even a snow blade.

They are pretty much indestructible. Mine exceeded the new-tractor specified dyno test horsepower, for example.

In my opinion that is a far more capable machine compared to an ATV. You can always tow an automotive utility trailer with it if you need cargo capacity (which is probably the only weakness of a mini-tractor - no place to carry stuff). Take along somebody who knows diesels to look it over. I would buy it - in fact, as I said, I just did buy one.

And I love my YM240 (24 hp) that I've had 5 years now. This small one is only because the 240 is too tall (with its ROPS) to take under my orchard trees.

 

[BruceR]

It looks like a nice little unit. Like California say's, tire chains and water/calcium in the tires will be necessary in the snow. Looks like somebody scraped a bumper sticker off the hood.

Bruce

 

[Buppie]

You'll like it a lot. I have turfs on my 186D w/loader. It needed a weight box and chains to move snow.