... one advantage living on the left coast, lots of good machinery on the cheap. All those Yanmar tillers !!!! DROOL ...
I can't find even a used working PTO tiller out my way for less than $1,800 !!! New is $2,000 and up.
They're making a killing on those tillers! The salvage yards in Japan assume everybody is like Japan and they wouldn't sell a tractor without the tiller that has been on it since new. Lots more tillers were shipped over here with VN refurb tractors, than the number of US customers who wanted a tiller. Tractor Ernie posted that he took a load of junk tillers to the dump as he wound down his Oregon operation.
I went to the VN import wholesaler in Sacramento in about 2008 and asked for their cheapest tiller. How about $200 with a set of new tines included. Its a RS1400. Its decals show it is intended for YM2000 so its the matched tiller for my YM240.
Per someone's advice on here I replaced the watery oil and the bearing and seal at the non-driven end of the tine axle. As suggested, the bearing was rusted and in bad shape. Never did install the tines because it tills fine with the worn ones.
I didn't realize it at the time but that importer was desperate to sell anything. They were going broke taking back warranty returns from the dealers they had supplied. Lee, the manager, had gone home to VN to plead for better quality from this family-run factory but the stuff they had already sold was killing them. I had bought several parts there that I needed to refurbish the YM240, headlights and the original fuel filter assembly for example, salvaged off their warranty returns parked out back. They folded a while after I bought the tiller. They were honest, they honored their warranties, and it buried them.
Here's a thread that has pictures of the setup decals on various Yanmar tillers. And one question I asked in that thread is now resolved, I found that the depth-control wheels in back need to have the part from the pivot down to the axle (like one side of a bicycle fork) on the outer, not inner, side for the wheels to track properly. This is counter-intuitive because that's the part that gouges my orchard trees if I get too close.
Photos - I bought the farthest green one.
Photo - trying PTO 540 rpm then the YM240's 1000 rpm. The higher speed turns the dirt into fine dust. 540 is better if you're not in a rice paddy.
The little YM186D is more maneuverable but this RS1400 is more that it wants. It will stall when I cross-till and the front tires climb out of soft ground onto firm ground with the tiller down.
