Both Cabela's and RK Tractors were/are partnerships with TYM that were setup by the same person. I'll call him "the guy" instead of using his name. "The guy" has been in the tractor business for 30 years and worked for Case, Agco and McCormick.
"The guy" set up a partnership between Cabela's and TYM to market tractors in 2013 but I believe Cabela's never fully committed to service and support and when old man Richard Cabela passed away in 2014 the tractors appeared to be thrown to the wayside by the rest of the family running the business. We all know that BassPro bought Cabela's out in 2016/2017 and they did nothing to bring back the tractor line which Cabela's decided to stop selling in 2016 or service existing tractors. That's probably a good thing - instead of taking Cabela's strengths and BassPro's strengths and making an awesome combined company BassPro instead seems to have kicked a lot of Cabela's vendors to the curbs (especially clothing vendors) and have just turned the Cabela's stores into BassPro clones so tractors were out of their capability anyways).
When the Cabela's partnership ended "the guy" set TYM up with Rural King. RK Tractors launched in 2017 and it seemed like RK might be successful as a lot of thought and effort went into the launch and infrastructure of the product. However, it seems like the "RK Tractor Guy" was the lone face of the tractor division and something happened in the fall of 2019 which caused the guy and RK to part ways. Stress? Internal Corporate Politics? Who knows. Rural King is still selling tractors I believe (no stores around me to check - does anyone know if that is the case?) as their website is still up but not sure what the long-term outcome will be there. It's possible (this is just a guess) based on comments in a 2019 thread where someone here on TBN talked to "the guy" at a RK store in Florida that "the guy" was pushing for RK to branch into dedicated dealerships for their tractors rather than just selling them at their retail stores and expected to lead that division. I think the service and parts issue was looming larger and larger with the seeming success of RK tractor sales and that could have been a solution. Again, this is just a guess and "the guy" appears to have parted ways with RK a week or 2 after that conversation with a TBN member.
I did a little checking tonight and discovered "the guy" created a new tractor company name in 2020 so he's cooking up a new partnership scheme or something. Only time will tell but with the money needed to successfully launch a line I think RK was the best possibility out there for him as he's getting up there in years and might run out of time to set up another line. 2020 didn't throw any favors to anyone in manufacturing and the raw material shortages and shipping shortages in 2021 aren't helping, either. Personally, I think TYM Tractors would be better served trying to actively create a bigger nationwide dealer network for their own brand like Kioti seems to have done than all the re-branding of TYM tractors to sell under other names. They are selling tractors in the short term but long term it won't help TYM's reputation as a reliable company u can get parts and service from down the road.
So, there is a little background info on Cabela's tractors, "the guy" behind it all and my little dig at BassPro for ruining my Cabela's. My wife is still pissed they did away with all the Cabela's branded women's hunting gear and I had to find a different brand of jeans to buy because they switched the vendor for Cabela's brand jeans to the manufacturer of their Redhead branded gear and the jeans suck now. Hth.
"The guy" set up a partnership between Cabela's and TYM to market tractors in 2013 but I believe Cabela's never fully committed to service and support and when old man Richard Cabela passed away in 2014 the tractors appeared to be thrown to the wayside by the rest of the family running the business. We all know that BassPro bought Cabela's out in 2016/2017 and they did nothing to bring back the tractor line which Cabela's decided to stop selling in 2016 or service existing tractors. That's probably a good thing - instead of taking Cabela's strengths and BassPro's strengths and making an awesome combined company BassPro instead seems to have kicked a lot of Cabela's vendors to the curbs (especially clothing vendors) and have just turned the Cabela's stores into BassPro clones so tractors were out of their capability anyways).
When the Cabela's partnership ended "the guy" set TYM up with Rural King. RK Tractors launched in 2017 and it seemed like RK might be successful as a lot of thought and effort went into the launch and infrastructure of the product. However, it seems like the "RK Tractor Guy" was the lone face of the tractor division and something happened in the fall of 2019 which caused the guy and RK to part ways. Stress? Internal Corporate Politics? Who knows. Rural King is still selling tractors I believe (no stores around me to check - does anyone know if that is the case?) as their website is still up but not sure what the long-term outcome will be there. It's possible (this is just a guess) based on comments in a 2019 thread where someone here on TBN talked to "the guy" at a RK store in Florida that "the guy" was pushing for RK to branch into dedicated dealerships for their tractors rather than just selling them at their retail stores and expected to lead that division. I think the service and parts issue was looming larger and larger with the seeming success of RK tractor sales and that could have been a solution. Again, this is just a guess and "the guy" appears to have parted ways with RK a week or 2 after that conversation with a TBN member.
I did a little checking tonight and discovered "the guy" created a new tractor company name in 2020 so he's cooking up a new partnership scheme or something. Only time will tell but with the money needed to successfully launch a line I think RK was the best possibility out there for him as he's getting up there in years and might run out of time to set up another line. 2020 didn't throw any favors to anyone in manufacturing and the raw material shortages and shipping shortages in 2021 aren't helping, either. Personally, I think TYM Tractors would be better served trying to actively create a bigger nationwide dealer network for their own brand like Kioti seems to have done than all the re-branding of TYM tractors to sell under other names. They are selling tractors in the short term but long term it won't help TYM's reputation as a reliable company u can get parts and service from down the road.
So, there is a little background info on Cabela's tractors, "the guy" behind it all and my little dig at BassPro for ruining my Cabela's. My wife is still pissed they did away with all the Cabela's branded women's hunting gear and I had to find a different brand of jeans to buy because they switched the vendor for Cabela's brand jeans to the manufacturer of their Redhead branded gear and the jeans suck now. Hth.
