Looking at Buying a YM2420D from TractorCo, Thoughts

[BG Rob]

Good morning. I have been lurking for a week, reading when I have a chance which has been some but I want to see if I can gather some last minute opinions before I pull the trigger.

Have roughly a 11 acre area around an almost finished house my wife and I recently bought. The YM24xx is probably a little bigger then what we need however, my feet do not fit in the foot wells of many of the smaller YM units I tested yesterday.

Yesterday, after trying to run several smaller units, I ended up looking at two YM2310D that were still not assembled and a really nice 2420D. I was told the YM2310D had the same consul or very similar to the YM2420D in the foot and space area.

I like the shuttle shift on the column of the YM2420D. So unless someone can tell me one is a far better design or more reliable (which is very crucial to me) I will probably pay the little extra to go the shifter on the column route.

So I have met with two dealers of these Grey Market YM so far. One was Tractor CO and the other is Tomoe Imports in Seattle.

TractorCO tractor are cleaner, (fresh paint) and their mechanics seem more knowledgeable and have a better shop set up. I haven稚 seen any negative press on them and their names come up on this forum periodically however I also haven稚 seen any good reviews either.

Tomoe, was cheaper by $1500 to $2000 on their units, but the tractor looked rougher (not re painted) and I was not impressed with their shop or mechanic. Let me re-phrase, Mechanic was probably very knowledgeable however, no English, and seemed to be getting told to be quite whenever he and I tried to communicate by two gals who claimed to be Japanese?however I am not so sure if that was true. The gals told me he was Japanese however he look more Vietnamese, Laos, Cambodian to me.

Has anyone had good or bad interaction or heard good or bad things about either of these dealers?

Any thoughts on the tractor choices? Reliability, availability of parts and so forth?
(I am planning on calling Hoye, I seem to always call them at 305 my time aka 505 theirs and they don稚 answer the phone after 500)

(I grew up working on cattle operations so I am use to old and some new, mainly big, JD, Cases, and one small Branson.)

 

[careyo63]

I went Org. and saved the money. Everything was Org. intact and working. I don't regret it at all. Check the Serial #'s and the parts availability on the model you want and make a decision. Most all them are easy to work on esp. for someone with tractor experience....

 

[BG Rob]

Careyo63, when you say ORG. do you mean original like none "refurbed/re manufactured"?

Thanks
Kent

 

[careyo63]

Yes! Your after a unit that's not pieced, parted and scrounged together. Always even on a so called Refurb. check the #. Then check with Hoye. even fredricks for info onit. Or even ask here and you maybe surprised....

 

[California]

My first guess is those two are both selling the same thing except one has a $2,000 paint job and possibly some warranty help.

Tractorco long ago had photos online of the VN 'rebuild' shop providing their product. The 'factory' looked similar to these photos in this thread: How to identify a VN Refurb. As a dealer pointed out long ago those shops in VN have no access at all to genuine Yanmar parts. I'm probably exaggerating but I suspect a 'rebuilt' could contain parts where they gave some guy a similar used part and a new file to handmake a one-off replica part.

My own choice would be the unmolested tractor sold as-is where you can see and appraise what it will need to put it in service. But that won't have any pride-of-ownership nice appearance, it's just a working tool. if you need respectable appearance for a riding stable or something then the painted one makes more sense.

And as Carey said check with Hoye first to see if your choice has good support and also discuss it here. If you get a Yes on both counts there isn't much to worry about, the whole reason 30 year old Yanmars are merchantable is because they remain quality units after years of use.

 

[California]

More comments: The VN importer/wholesaler that was here in Northern California, a branch of a VN overhaul shop, was upfront in stating they were merchants not tractor people. You buy the tractor, its yours. They didn't have parts on hand, manuals for parts, or really anything that a dealer of one brand would have. Just a long row of shiny new-looking tractors and a gorgeous distracting saleslady/business manager. (Van we miss you! )

That company was honest in making an exchange if your tractor failed during their warranty period but that's what killed them, the line of warranty returns parked out back kept growing until they shut down. I never learned if the factory they represented also served Tractorco, I think it might have.

 

[Cougsfan]

I looked at a grey market tractors from Tractorco several years ago. I did some research and was not impressed with what I found. There are two kinds of Grey market tractors. The first are those used in Japan or elsewhere and imported as is. The second kind are junk tractors that are overhauled in Vietnam, parts from various salvaged tractors are mixed, matched and pieced together, then painted to make them look nice.
This is what Tractorco sells. Some end up working great, some don't.

I ended up buying the first type; a low hours Yanmar FF245 from Earnie's Tractor in Portland. It was a great little tractor. I put a lot of trouble free hours on it before I sold it for more than I paid for it.

 

[FleetMan]

Unfortunately, Ernie is no longer in business in this area. If you have the opportunity to really "test drive" the 2420D, put it through it's paces and perhaps have a local mechanic look at it before purchase it is one of those situations where you pay your money and you take your chances. The shuttle shift is a real nice and convenient feature.

 

[BG Rob]

Thanks for all the advice. I am going to follow up with Tomoe on Monday and see if any stories or so forth changes.

I did work the YM2420D pretty hard on the test drive. At one point I buried the bucket in a mound of dirt revved it up locked the diff and 4x4 and started shoving. I got both re wheels spinning and I believe both front tires at the same time as well. Seemed to run well.

Gosh decisions, decisions. I'd really like to hear of any personal experience with either of these outfits?

 

[Cougsfan]

When the guy bought my Yanmar, he brought along a tractor mechanic to check out my tractor. One thing the mechanic did that I was sort of impressed with was to lift the front end of the tractor off the ground with the FEL. He then got off and wiggled everything on the front end to check for any slop in the pivot, steering, wheel bearings, etc.
He said that is a good way to check the overall condition of the chassis and as how well the tractor had been cared for. He also checked for slop in the FEL pins. Fortunately he found everything to be tight.