Cabelas Tractors (2013 - 2016) ... just curious

[scaredychicken]

I checled for previous threads on this, but they were all dated Years ago, so I thought I'd start a new topic / thread.

I don't mean to scrape the scab off an old wound, but I am really interested in the short term run of the Cabelas tractors. Was there quality in the tractor, or were they simply re-branding a generic tractor suppliers' unit in an effort to expand the Cabelas line ?

Several Years ago, when I was researching tractors for a purchase, I saw an ad for these Cabelas tractors and I was intrigued. I was in a Business Administration MARKETING program, and it caught my attention.

It was a good name brand, but tractors seemed to me, to be a misfit. I don't even know if they were available in Canada ? Certainly none of the area dealers carried this line, so I never saw a Cabelas tractor up close and personal. For me it was Intrigue rather than Interest.

I checked them out, and requested a brochure, but by the time I made the Kubota purchase, Cabelas were no where to be seen.

What kind of experience did buyers get ?
Are any of those Cabelas tractors still out there?
Are they useful, or a part of tractor history, and for collectors value only ?
Manufactured in Korea


I'm still curious

 

[TractorTYMe]

Made for Cabela's by TYM, still plenty of Cabelas tractors out there

 

[scaredychicken]

Made for Cabela's by TYM, still plenty of Cabelas tractors out there

I was aware of that, but I have yet to see even one

 

[Handloader109]

Well, ai bought one of the little 25hp scuts. Got a good deal on the tractor and loader combo, about a month after buying, found out they were discontinuing the line, got a mid mower for roughly half price and a woods tiller for about a third off list. Been pretty good, I'm well past the 3 year bumper to bumper warranty that was only 14 months for me and past the 5 year also. I had cracked fuel tank that I barely got a replacement for before Bass Pro sold the repair shop to their contractor for boat repair. Yes, parts have been hard to get, tym doesn't want to talk to you, Bass pro won't ever get another dime from me, and the internet is a good source for parts.. I've got about 285 hours on the tractor, use mainly for mowing, moving, and general tractor duties.
I have found that mahindra is another parts source as the e series is similar. Just another orphan tractor brand.

 

[scaredychicken]

Handloader109 - Thanks for that reply. You might have a rare bird there. All the best finding parts as you need them. Have you checked out tractordata ? they have the specs for your unit.

 

[tman1020]

I too was intrigued by the Cabela’s tractors. There were lots of promises made on how they were in it for the long-haul. Fortunately I along with many others saw the writing on the wall and steered clear. I think they were good tractors for sure just no Long term after the sale support.

If you would like to see basically what they’re like find a rural King Store and go check out their tractors they are almost identical just no fancy camo stickers. (I think the loader and implements were made by woods for the Cabelas ones though)Still seem like good machines but not sure rural king would be the place to count on for parts and service.
If you do a web search for RK tractors there are many YouTube videos out there showing them in action.

 

[Have tractor did travel]

Like scaredychicken, I viewed what Cabelas was doing in tractors from a businessman's view. Whatever were they thinking ? Northern Tool also sells tractors. That seems like a mis-fit as well.
I was once offered the U.S. distributorship of an Italian line of tractors. After viewing the quality competition - Kubota, John Deere, New Holland, I decided that wasn't an arena in which I should sink my money.
Bobcat is (back) into tractors, after having dropped out 5 (?) years ago. Like Cabelas, their sales people will be sure of assurances of being "in it for the long haul." What else can they say ? Bobcat is a better fit for tractors than Cabelas ever was.

 

[masseycuzdad]

Interesting. I work in a Cabelas/Bass Pro Distribution Center now for years. When I started I saw a few tractors and implements come through, mostly returns or demos. Of course me being an equipment junky I had to take a look. I remember some implements coming through, and they were defiantly built by woods. But the tractors... After getting involved with management for a time, you are wondering what they were thinking? They were thinking how to save the company from bankruptcy, Deere food plots, slap some camo paint on a tractor, a one stop shop, deer corn, tree stand, food plot seed, and the machine to plant it, in camo, and financing! Who wouldn't buy that? Turns out a lot of people wouldn't buy that, along with some of their other stuff... Now its Bass Pro, and they (he) only cares about one thing... and its not me.

 

[nyone]

Unless cabelas was building there own tractor and I highly doubt it. There just rebranded tractors and with the availability of parts on the internet today if its available in the world today it can most likely be shipped to your door without even making a phone call.

I recently needed a flywheel ring gear for my 30yr old kubota..not a single one in the country, it was shipped from Japan and I got it in 3-4 weeks. How a cabelas tractor will hold up over 30yrs who knows.

Northern has been selling tractors for quite a few decades and I believe continues to do so.

 

[TractorGuy]

I considered the TYM offerings a couple of years ago. The pricing for what you got was VERY attractive. At the time they were offering a 37 HP hydro cab tractor with a loader for 25K. The main drawback for me was the nearest dealer was a independent home garden shop 180 miles away. While saving ten grand on a tractor sounded appealing, having to trailer it 3 hours away and trusting a dealer that specialized in azaleas and lawn mowers weighed heavy on my mind. What if it developed a problem under warranty?

At the time I was thinking about a TYM I had read enough about the Cabelas snafu to be leery of ANY rebranded tractor. It seems the deal Cabelas made with TYM made them solely responsible for follow up parts, warranty, and service. I'm not sure how that would prevent anyone from fitting TYM branded parts to keep them going or if many Cabelas parts were specked differently from the TYM parts. Never mind the hurdles people went through for warranty repairs.

I bought a Country Way tiller from RK last year. At the time they didn't list any warranty information on the web site but I went for the low price. The service guys told me the tiller was all serviced and ready to work. Nothing could have been further from the truth. (That's another topic but needless to say I wouldn't trust they could service a tractor.) Now they list all the Country Way tillers with a 30 day warranty and all are out of stock. They list a handful of parts but those are also all out of stock. Not sure why they don't just remove them from the web site.

My wife eyeballed the RK branded cab tractors while we were there and tried to talk me into one. That conversation didn't last long.

 

[rngrrymd]

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.

 

[Grumpycat]

My wife eyeballed the RK branded cab tractors while we were there and tried to talk me into one. That conversation didn't last long.

RK is a rebranded TYM.

 

[scaredychicken]

thanks for the informative posts