US Yanmars_The old days

[clemsonfor]

I was driving by this place a few days ago and stopped for a look. Had new Yanmar tractors on the lot. Looks like they are a dealer.

Products

They probably were, yanmar came back to the US market under their own name a few years ago, and for a few years prior to that had teamed up with cub cadet to produce their tractors with yanmar engines/ maybe other parts???

 

[clemsonfor]

Clemsonfor,
Are you old enough to remember a guy who usually had a couple of little imports for sale in his front yard in the late 70's or early 80's. I think they were Yanmars. He lived on HWY 25 somewhere around Ware Shoals. I think he was a dealer. Those and a few I saw at consignment auctions round the same time were the first I remember.

Nope, I was born in 82. I am from the low country. But went to Anderson my whole life to visit my grandmother. I was not around the ware shoals area until college and after. Now I go by the area you talk about all the time, just went by there twice this weekend.
There is that guy in southern Greenville county that has all the old American iron in his yard. I cant think of what its near, its on the right going to Greenville, maybe near that outdoor power equipment shop that is a stihl dealer, I think there is a car repair place in an old dome top building across 25? And several other small engine guys that have the junk in the front yard (one just seems to have grown lots in the last few years), but this is today not 30 years ago. ha.

 

[rScotty]

In the late 1970s, there must have been two dozen makes of compact tractor all trying for the US market. Some - like Case, IH, Deere, and Ford - were overseas versions of existing small acreage farm tractors - many from Japan - that were re-branded and then sold through traditional tractor dealerships to the US market. I heard a lot about these "tractor wars" because I was interested in imported machinery business at that time, and had a very good friend who was wild to get out of farming and into owning a tractor dealership. He compared all the makes, and even traveled to Japan to tour the factories.

Only a few companies - like Yanmar and Kubota - attempted to set up real tractor dealerships in the USA...and only in certain areas. Denver - being where my friend wanted to move his family - was one of those areas. So his choice came down to either Kubota or Yanmar dealerships. He looked into both, and he chose Yanmar. At that time, Kubota made a decent average tractor of medium quality and low price. Kubota tractors were becoming known and were particularly popular at rental yards. Kubota liked to sell to rental yards because of the free advertising they felt they got that way.

By contrast, Yanmar represented the high end of the compact market. Their machines were more sophisticated and technically advanced (and expensive). Yanmars had features that nobody else even bothered to try to match. Yanmar's powershift (1976), bevel gear drive front axles (patented), and the famous Yanmar diesel engine quality - a legacy of having for decades made most of the worlds big ship engines - meant that the Yanmar company made quality machinery. And Dan thought that quality that would win out over price in the end.

There was a reason for quality at Yanmar; they could afford the manufacturing cost. Tractors didn't have to show an immediate profit. Agricultural machinery was a sideline at Yanmar where small farming just happened to be a passion of the family that owned the company. Yanmar's main business was in marine diesels where they were already the world leader; most of the world's large and small ship engines were profitably Yanmars-built. So the company could afford to speculate in the ag machine business. Yanmar had the advantage of being a wealthy company who could afford the R&D expense required to make their tractors unique.
In an interesting sidenote, Yanmar's CEO at the time was a fisherman. So it is not surprising that in the 1970s and 80s Yanmar also had a division that concentrated on manufacturing a fantastic line of deep sea fishing gadgets. They made everything from hand lines and bobbers up to and including complete fishing yachts with speedy motors, automatic downriggers, and which featured Yanmar mechanicals & electrics .... even including Yanmar radar. The 70s and 80s were a crazy, over-the-top kind of era.... music was king, the space age was the future, world peace was attainable, and manufacturing was huge.
enjoy,
rScotty

 

[clemsonfor]

nice write up on your take on things.

 

[careyo63]

I believe I told Clemsonfor that my father actually worked for Ford as a Dealer Rep. in Ohio until we Transferred in the late 70's . He kept up to other makes which he needed to. Esp. Yanmar back then. And my mother worked for Hamilton co. basically Cinn. so they new what all was going on. I remember and still to the day hear from my mother some comments. She was worse than dad. Which they didn't blame Yanmar one bit. He finally retired in his mid to late 60's. He had enough of that business which I believe he says it was a mutual agreement.....

 

[Yankee Clipper]

After a few units were sold in the early 70s, Yanmar and Deere got together for compact tractors in North America. Deere would get kits at Horicon WI and assemble them with parts sourced here - engine and powertrain were all Japanese.

Lots of gray market / "reconditioned" units were sold here but not so much anymore. I think lack of ROPS compatibility and now emissions has killed this business - I know this is the case with Kubota so likely same with Yanmar.

YC

 

[California]

Actually Kubota used legal forces to end to gray market Kubota imports. They apparently registered their trademark in the US then used this as the basis to get a US Customs order to confiscate at the docks, any Kubota inbound that wasn't from/to Kubota corp.

Suddenly US gray importers had to pay storage in Customs warehouses then arrange shipment out to some other nation. No more gray Kubotas after that!

Yanmar's legal status is different, they haven't used a Customs ban like that. They did go after gray market and recon dealers after they got sued for a fatal rollover. I think only Fredricks, who had a prior arrangement with Yanmar, now has approval from Yanmar to bring in and recondition used Yanmars.

Fredricks is a quality operation. I have a ROPS on the YM240 that I'm pretty sure Fredricks contracted from the same large US manufacturer who supplied ROPS for Yanmar-USA back in the day.

 

[rScotty]

nice write up on your take on things.

Thats a nice sentiment. Thank you. If there is a slightest hint of a bias towards Yanmar in my write-up I freely admit to it. I've no more idea why I like Yanmars than I know what qualities define a beautiful woman....or scenic view.....or whatever. I just know what I like.

But when I comment on technical issues like the overall quality of design and build, then that's at least got some experience to go with the bias. Somebody has to make that call, and after 30 years as a mechanic and machinist, and then another 20 as a mechanical engineer I'm probably as qualified as anyone to compare how different machines are designed and made. But it's still just an opinion of course.
rScotty

 

[rScotty]

Actually Kubota used legal forces to end to gray market Kubota imports. They apparently registered their trademark in the US then used this as the basis to get a US Customs order to confiscate at the docks, any Kubota inbound that wasn't from/to Kubota corp.

Suddenly US gray importers had to pay storage in Customs warehouses then arrange shipment out to some other nation. No more gray Kubotas after that!

Yanmar's legal status is different, they haven't used a Customs ban like that. They did go after gray market and recon dealers after they got sued for a fatal rollover. I think only Fredricks, who had a prior arrangement with Yanmar, now has approval from Yanmar to bring in and recondition used Yanmars.

Fredricks is a quality operation. I have a ROPS on the YM240 that I'm pretty sure Fredricks contracted from the same large US manufacturer who supplied ROPS for Yanmar-USA back in the day.

There has certainly been a cut-throat side to the that imported compact tractor market. We've all heard bits and pieces, but I'd sure like to know the whole story. Among us old timers the Yanmar tractors are considered to be uniquely well made, but the Yanmar name will never be fully respectable because of the way Yanmar treated their US dealers when the deal was made for Yanmar to manufacture complete tractors for John Deere. This all happened just about the same time as the grey market tractors were being imported, and got sort of mixed up and confused with the whole grey thing.

For those that don't remember that era, in a business move that had nothing at all to do with the grey market, JD contracted with Yanmar for Yanmar to make a line of compact tractors exclusively for JD. As a part of that deal, apparently JD required that Yanmar stop selling their own tractors under their own name in the USA for some period of time. (25 years??). Perhaps Yanmar in Japan regarded that whole deal as just being "business as usual", and a normal part of a what seemed like a good business agreement. But in the USA the deal between Yanmar & JD spelled ruin for the existing Yanmar dealers who had invested some ten years and their own money into building a string of local Yanmar tractor dealerships. I knew two such dealers. They were devastated at being ruined financially by people they trusted.

For John Deere and their dealers, the agreement with Yanmar was a masterstroke. JD got almost everything they wanted and then some. What they didn't get was access to Yanmar's most recent technology such as the powershift tranny and some of the hydraulic technology. But JD did get to include the bevel drive front axle; that was huge. It can only be fully appreciated by us really old mechanics who wrestled with all the other ways that designers had tried to get drive to the steering wheels. Remember Rzeppa joints? what about Cardan joints??

What it boils down to today is that for those of us who have old Yanmar owners of machines that were sold here in the US back before the JD deal was done..... well, we are lucky enough to have some of the nicest and most unique tractors made. No wonder JD wanted to be associated with them.
hope you enjoy this stuff,
rScotty

 

[California]

An urban (rural?) legend I made up: Yanmar's early US YM240 spooked Deere so much that they realized they couldn't design small utility tractors better than this new competitor. So Deere instead contracted Yanmar to build Deere's small utility line, obviously with quality that upheld Deere's reputation.