Gray Market Tractor

[Gary Fowler]

My first tractor was a gray market Yanmar 4220 and I have had no trouble getting parts from Hoye Tractor. However, I have not needed anything other than stabilizers for the rear 3 PH and oil filters. Overall it has been a good tractor, but it did come with some problems in the hydraulic system . It seemed to be full of fine mud which took me several $30 hydraulic filters and 3 or so hydraulic oil flushes to get it down to manageable. It now has a little jerk up and down motion on the 3 ph hydraulic which I have been told may just be a seal. The V3 loader is very strong but the attachment points could have been modified to accept 4 bolts rather than 2 in several places and maybe they would stay tight. I have lost more bolts out of this tractor due to loosening and vibrating out. The bolt on stabilizer links wont stay tight on one side and finally stripper out all but 2 of the 4 bolts so I just welded it on. Seems to be holding ok. They have some quirks one of which is a small operator platform, by that I mean that you need to be small to operate it as there just isnt enough room for a western sized man to move around on these tractors. I change oil in mine about once a year and it absolutely uses no oil between changes. Really good motor, but it has no glow plugs and if it is below 40 F you have to use a heater to heat the intake. It will crank at 45F but it has to turn over a lot of times. I finally decided it was time to get a new one and bought Korean this time with the LS brand that seems to be good quality at low price. I would check into those if I were you. You can likely get a new LS for not much more than you are paying for the Japanese (sans equipment though)

 

[TMGUY]

I called a few parts places and they recommended getting the engine block number below the fuel injector. I called the owner and he found it "J843". I queried that number and it is the engine model number found in Ford tractors in the early 90's. 1715 -1725 models. I think I am good as long as the engines are the same. I cannot imagine there being a huge difference and as long as there are maintenance parts available I think its a good buy. Does anyone have any other information on the J843 engine or Shibaura for that matter? Please chime in I am getting ready to pull the trigger on this real soon and any information is helpful. Also what are some things to look at when before I buy. ie hidden faults or damage to check for? etc.

 

[sweettractors]

I called a few parts places and they recommended getting the engine block number below the fuel injector. I called the owner and he found it "J843". I queried that number and it is the engine model number found in Ford tractors in the early 90's. 1715 -1725 models. I think I am good as long as the engines are the same. I cannot imagine there being a huge difference and as long as there are maintenance parts available I think its a good buy. Does anyone have any other information on the J843 engine or Shibaura for that matter? Please chime in I am getting ready to pull the trigger on this real soon and any information is helpful. Also what are some things to look at when before I buy. ie hidden faults or damage to check for? etc.

Check your brakes, clutch, check for water in the oil or oil in the water,Engine blowby, slobbering around the exaust manifold, three point lift, all loader functions, leaks, guages, Tire tread left, etc. Ken Sweet

 

[mostly_gas]

the tractors Shibaura built for For/New Holland have been good tractors. I have a '79 1700 with 1350+ hours and am very happy with it

 

[Ford tractor]

Ford simply imported Shibura tractors and slapped on Engrish stickers. As you noted, the 1715-1725 models cross, just buy parts for them and you should be good.

With 102 hours on the clock, I would STRONGLY suspect it was a new meter. Does the clutch peddle, throttle lever, brake peddle, seat, etc look like it has 102 hours?

 

[ModMech]

To me, "grey market" means something other than uncommon or no longer marketed in the USA.

To me, Grey Market means a product sold in the USA that was built by company "A" and sold by company "B" under their own brand. Many times, these grey market products are WAY sub-standard models that do not meet applicable regulations (safety, warnings, emissions etc) which is why they are less costly to purchase.

If you are buying a NAME BRAND product, I do not consider it grey market even if they are no longer offered here.

But yes, the thought about parts is HUGE, most things are almost worthless if they cannot be fixed.

 

[rtimgray]

Grey market means a product that was built by company "A" that was never intended or designed to be sold new in a given market. The tractor in question in this thread is one that was (probably) intended to be sold new in the Japanese tractor market. It was never intended to be sold, new, in this (American) market. Shibaura used to make, and maybe still makes, compact tractor for Ford/New Holland.

I wouldn't say that Shibaura (or any of the other greys) made "sub-standard" tractors - they just made them to the standards of their intended market. The most apparent differences are usually a lack of ROPS and PTO shield, neither of which most domestic tractors had for years. Of course there are other differences, usually in throttle linkage, transmission and PTO gears, etc. However, these differences don't necessarily make greys inferior - just different.

There are several name brand tractors (John Deere, New Holland) that are grey market on the US market. They are units that were typically sold in Europe and the UK. There was a dealer in southeast MO that used to import them much in the same manner that the dealers of the Japanese greys import their tractors. I know that JD has gone so far as to issue bulletins to their dealers and took out an ad (?) in Progressive Farmer to warn folks of the grey market John Deeres. Kubota, also a well known brand name, has many grey tractors floating around in the US, although I believe they stopped the importation of their units long ago.

To conclude - I would never rule out the purchase of a tractor based solely on its status as a grey market tractor. The factors of parts and service support, quality, and overall value of the unit would be my deciding factors.

Good luck and take care.