Yanmar 226d

[Cola]

Hello! I'm new here, well sort of...I've come to this site for information (and found it!) before now, but today, I am posting about my Yanmar 226 d tractor that I want to sell. I'm not sure the asking price. It's got good tires, a front end loader, live PTO, 3-pt hitch, power shift. Body is "ok" nothing horrible about it. Runs good; I don't use it enough to know it's full capabilities. Any ideas on what to ask for it? Anyone interested?

 

[Casey Martin]

Hello! I'm new here, well sort of...I've come to this site for information (and found it!) before now, but today, I am posting about my Yanmar 226 d tractor that I want to sell. I'm not sure the asking price. It's got good tires, a front end loader, live PTO, 3-pt hitch, power shift. Body is "ok" nothing horrible about it. Runs good; I don't use it enough to know it's full capabilities. Any ideas on what to ask for it? Anyone interested?

Interested in your machine. Still out there?

 

[4get gto]

I hate it too when you search for something only to find out it was 8 years ago.

 

[Casey Martin]

Well. That is the way my luck goes, just thought i would take a chance.

I bought a Yanmar 226D a few years ago, put a few bucks into it and it has served me well. Have brush hog and scraper blade and would like a loader attachment. Not sure what size or even if i should put that much money in to an older tractor. Sort of new at this. Appreciate feedback.

 

[rScotty]

One of the nice things about older Yanmars is their classic status. I've followed mechanical technology for 40 years now, and very rarely in any mechanical field does a mechanical design come along that is innovative, clearly better, and where the company choses to compete by emphasising quality rather than price. When it works, you stand a chance to make a classic.

Of course it helped that the company was #1 worldwide in large marine diesels, with all the resources that implies.
And a CEO whose passion was small hobby farms - something that has always been popular in Japan.

I don't think any of today's compacts have surpassed yours, and I'd bet it will outlast them as well. Even the parts situation on Yanmars is still looking good.
I wonder if you can still get that Yanmar loader for yours? Might be worth giving Aaron a call at Hoye. The stock loader was very well designed.
rScotty

 

[4get gto]

rScotty.. You are a wealth of information! :thumbsup:

 

[Casey Martin]

One of the nice things about older Yanmars is their classic status. I've followed mechanical technology for 40 years now, and very rarely in any mechanical field does a mechanical design come along that is innovative, clearly better, and where the company choses to compete by emphasising quality rather than price. When it works, you stand a chance to make a classic.

Of course it helped that the company was #1 worldwide in large marine diesels, with all the resources that implies.
And a CEO whose passion was small hobby farms - something that has always been popular in Japan.

I don't think any of today's compacts have surpassed yours, and I'd bet it will outlast them as well. Even the parts situation on Yanmars is still looking good.
I wonder if you can still get that Yanmar loader for yours? Might be worth giving Aaron a call at Hoye. The stock loader was very well designed.
rScotty

Thanks rScotty. I've done business with Aaron at Hoye in the past. Was very satisfied.

 

[Casey Martin]

Thanks rScotty. I've done business with Aaron at Hoye in the past. Was very satisfied.

 

[California]

One of the nice things about older Yanmars is their classic status. I've followed mechanical technology for 40 years now, and very rarely in any mechanical field does a mechanical design come along that is innovative, clearly better, and where the company chooses to compete by emphasizing quality rather than price. ...

rScotty

When compact and small tractors became popular in the 70's, John Deere made a decision to have Yanmar build for Deere in place of Deere designing a new line of small tractors.

Potential Yanmar folklore: In my opinion Deere concluded they couldn't surpass Yanmar quality. And the YM240 already sold here was likely the specific Yanmar model that spooked Deere to that conclusion.

 

[rScotty]

rScotty.. You are a wealth of information! :thumbsup:

Well, thanks. I never intended to be a Yanmar history guy; that sort of happened by accident. Back in the late 70s I was looking at the new Yanmar compact tractors because I had heard that their new front axle design might have similarities to an engineering project I was working on.
It did, but I couldn't use the design info because the Yanmar patent was still in the exclusive use stage. But in studying Yanmar, I became fascinated by their quality. Manufacturing tends to be dollar-driven, but here was a company that was equally dollar and quality driven. Unusual....

So I met the new Yanmar dealer, and as sometimes happens we became friends. With money from selling the family wheat farm he had bought a dealership from Yanmar and was excited about these Japanese machines. In his new shop he was the salesman and the maintenance dept while his wife ran the shop, parts, & books. Over the next few decades I got to hear all about their many trips to Japan and about Yanmar's battles with other brands & other selliing philosophies. And I eventually watched as Yanmar broke all their promises to their US dealerships and callously ruined the US Yanmar dealers financially - my friends among them - in order to concentrate on building tractors for John Deere. Apparently that is how business works sometimes - it makes me glad that I'm in a different profession. That kind of thing would bother me more than it seemed to bother the dealerships.

But the tractors didn't know any of this; they just went on being amazing. And to my surprise, a number of ex-dealers kept Yanmars for their personal use. So I've tried to learn from that. Maybe we ought to start a "History of Yanmar" thread.
rScotty
Here's a picture from an old Yanmar US brochure. Look carefully at the tractors on the assembly line...