Tractorable
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2017
- Messages
- 1,326
- Location
- Marshall, Va
- Tractor
- Tractorless, 2022 F350 Tremor, 24ft Diamond C HDT Equipment Trailer, 1980 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40
I've noticed very little discussion on the tractor forums about the new Yanmar YT347/359 tractors so I wanted to get y'alls opinion about how this tractor stacks up against Kubota and Deere, specifically the Kubota Grand L4760.
But first, let me tell you a story about my past experiences with Yanmar. About 25 years ago when I was in college in the early 90's I worked in a boat yard during the summers. I remember there were many nice 40-50ft sailing yachts that would come to the boat yard to replace their old loud smokey and underpowered diesels from the 60's and 70's with new modern diesel engines. Almost all of them chose to have new Yanmar diesels put into their boats. I recall that the mechanics thought that the Yanmar made the best small marine diesel engines and from what I could tell they really seemed to be very high quality engines.
Fast forward twenty-five years and I'm 45, just bought a small farm (8 acres), and am in the market for a new tractor. Last week I was kicking tires at the Kubota dealership and talking to the owner and I asked for his opinion of them. He said "they build one **** of a diesel engine and the people that buy them seem to be very happy". The dealer has a sister dealership that sells Yanmar so he called over and asked for a quote on a new YT347 ROPS w/loader and it was $32K which is roughly $3k less expensive than the comparable L4760. The YT347 is a premium tractor that specs out almost identically to the L4760 and has the new iHMT (integrated hydro mechanical transmission) which claims to provide the flexibility of HST with a more efficient conversion of horsepower to PTO power. And I gotta say, the YT347 is one sexy looking machine.
So my research has determined that Yanmar has been building diesel engines for nearly 100 years and supplies engines for the marine, agricultural, and construction industries, and for a good while they built the smaller John Deere tractors, and continues to provide JD with engines.
What are y'alls opinions of of the new YT347/359? Is there any reason to believe that these tractors aren't as high quality as anything offered from Kubota, Deere, and others?
But first, let me tell you a story about my past experiences with Yanmar. About 25 years ago when I was in college in the early 90's I worked in a boat yard during the summers. I remember there were many nice 40-50ft sailing yachts that would come to the boat yard to replace their old loud smokey and underpowered diesels from the 60's and 70's with new modern diesel engines. Almost all of them chose to have new Yanmar diesels put into their boats. I recall that the mechanics thought that the Yanmar made the best small marine diesel engines and from what I could tell they really seemed to be very high quality engines.
Fast forward twenty-five years and I'm 45, just bought a small farm (8 acres), and am in the market for a new tractor. Last week I was kicking tires at the Kubota dealership and talking to the owner and I asked for his opinion of them. He said "they build one **** of a diesel engine and the people that buy them seem to be very happy". The dealer has a sister dealership that sells Yanmar so he called over and asked for a quote on a new YT347 ROPS w/loader and it was $32K which is roughly $3k less expensive than the comparable L4760. The YT347 is a premium tractor that specs out almost identically to the L4760 and has the new iHMT (integrated hydro mechanical transmission) which claims to provide the flexibility of HST with a more efficient conversion of horsepower to PTO power. And I gotta say, the YT347 is one sexy looking machine.
So my research has determined that Yanmar has been building diesel engines for nearly 100 years and supplies engines for the marine, agricultural, and construction industries, and for a good while they built the smaller John Deere tractors, and continues to provide JD with engines.
What are y'alls opinions of of the new YT347/359? Is there any reason to believe that these tractors aren't as high quality as anything offered from Kubota, Deere, and others?
