New to me Yanmar 240

[284 International]

The solenoid-looking thing is your clutch safety switch. It looks like it has been bypassed. I was severely tempted by that particular machine and almost went to buy it; I think you got a good deal. It has regular R1 "tractor tires" on it, with a set of turf tires as spares. It's an early model, at least on the hood, but has a tall snorkel-type air intake that looks similar to later versions. The loader is a heavy aftermarket unit with a large reservoir on the right side, but the tractor was missing the lower lift arms and side links, if it's the same machine.

From my experience with a loader-equipped YM240 and turf tires, even when the tires were filled with water I struggled to pull a small disk that would cut deeply enough to do any good. The combination of the front bucket and slick tires made it rather useless for that application. Adding R4 tires helped, but my YM240D has conventional R1 tires, and pulls better in 2wd with those tires than the other machine. Your outcome may be different, but that's how it went for me.

If I were getting new side links, I would order a set from Hoye that have an offset. Regular ones will work, but I like to be able to narrow up my tires to drive into a ditch the width of my bucket, and with tires at a narrow setting they rub on my lift arms with some implements.

I wish I knew what to suggest for weed control. Copious amounts of money spent on pre-emergent herbicide is probably the best, unfortunately, if you won't/can't have goats or, perhaps, a bunch of geese. I have better luck with a scraper than a disk for weed suppression, but it doesn't really work that well. At some point I'm going to build an attachment for a box blade that pulls a cutting blade that just lifts and scrapes the weeds, and doesn't drag the soil.

Before you work it too much, it's probably worth your while to pull the radiator out and flush it and the block with a hose. I like to run one of the cooling system cleaners through it, then flush and fill with distilled water, antifreeze and some surfactant of whatever is on sale. ("Water-Wetter" is the best known.) It's smart money to make sure the water pump is in good shape, you have a new, quality belt, and the radiator fins are straight too. I think overheating from insufficient/absent cooling system maintenance kills more of these little tractors than anything, so I try to keep it in good shape.

Welcome to the forum, I hope you find it useful, and that your new machine is a useful worker for you! Congratulations.

 

[clemsonfor]

Disk or Box will work, but can you not spray herbicide? Maybe thats not allowed in California? If you disturb the soil too much its more likely to errode into the water with rains and runoff.

Maybe a picture of the place?

 

[clemsonfor]

284 gives good advice, esp on the radiator!!! We dont want to see your next post to be i over heated it and now what or i have a miss and have water in my oil!!

He gives a good perspective of the heavy loader and turf tires. That makes sense as that weight up there shifts it off the rears and without pulling tires up there i bet you do give some up. I have my rear ricer tires filled with winshield washer fluid and it can now pull a disk that is suffeciently weighted to do some good in my food plots that are a combinantion of sandy loam and red clay. The loaded rears makes all the difference. I am not a fan of turfs unless its on a machine that is strictly for mowing on sensitive lawns.

 

[jb92563]

Yes 284, its the same Tractor with the missing links for the 3PT system.
I'll take you folks advice and add a radiator/block flush to my list of early maintenance items.

I'm new to tractors so it will be a learning experience with the earth works stuff and weight/balance for effective use.

Being right on the lake I don't want to use strong herbicides if I can avoid it, and I had thought about goats but my area is not fenced and they might be too noisy for the neighbors.

We do get occasional rain and sometimes there's a bit of erosion but my real problem comes off an adjacent road were water races down a concrete ramp and where the ramp ends the water cuts a deep furrow diagonal across my beach and into the lake. I'm going to need to redirect that so it heads straight for the lake instead and stays on the neighboring property. No actual people live there, its vacant except for the road.

I guess scraping with a box scraper seems like the best implement to start with as it will have multiple uses.

What would be ideal is an implement that rips up the dirt weeds and all, separates the weeds from the dirt and lays the dirt back down again.

I can see a tool engineering project in my future. Maybe 284 will have already invented it by the time I get around to it.

I find it hard to believe that after a century of Tractors and implements someone has not invented something like this?
I just figured it was my lack of tractor knowledge and not looking in the right place.

 

[careyo63]

Once you get the 3pt. up and working and try a Box Blade you may be supprised of what you can do with it. If you set the the Rippers deep enough to dig the Roots up the Box will most likely catch and collect the Weeds/Roots and level the Dirt back. But with Turf Tires it may be tough to do since your loose alot of traction in the Sandy soil. I Grade a good bit of Crush and Run "Sand and Gravel Mix" on my small Road and Drive way. With the weight of full Box it would be tough to do and my guess is you couldn't keep much in the Box to level the Dirt from the Lack of Traction. You can see the Adjustable depth Rippers and How much Traction your giving up With Turf Tires compared to Orig. Ricers. And pay no Attention to my Lawn Trailer hookup. Hey it works great to carry you tools in when your out and away working.

 

[jb92563]

I ordered the missing 3PT parts from Hoye so now I have to find a Box scraper.

What should I look for in a Box scraper?

How wide?
With the adjustable rear flap? or do you use the back side as a plow in reverse?
Adjustable Rippers.

I also want a trailer hitch for launching the boat so I don't have to bring the Jeep down to the beach.

I think I've seen some box scrapers with a hitch attached,
does that work for something heavy like a 1800 lb boat/trailer or will it just wreck the scraper?
Seems smarter to use the flat bar slots under the axle for a trailer hitch.

Another Question, what is the lever beside the seat on both sides for. They are connected it seems.
I noticed my PTO shaft was turning so I pushed the lever down and it stopped, but I read something about diff lock and wondered if it was related.

Its about 400' to the lake but hard to see as the land drops away in that pic


This will be the before Picture, tough old girl before the Makeover.

 

[normde2001]

"What would be ideal is an implement that rips up the dirt weeds and all, separates the weeds from the dirt and lays the dirt back down again."

Sounds like a tiller to me.

"How wide?
With the adjustable rear flap? or do you use the back side as a plow in reverse?
Adjustable Rippers."

4 Feet. I would not bother with the adjustable rear flap. Do NOT use as a plow in reverse. You will destroy your 3ph linkage, (not designed for pushing). I think all have adjustable rippers.

 

[California]

I think I've seen some box scrapers with a hitch attached,
does that work for something heavy like a 1800 lb boat/trailer or will it just wreck the scraper?

Another Question, what is the lever beside the seat on both sides for. They are connected it seems.
I noticed my PTO shaft was turning so I pushed the lever down and it stopped, but I read something about diff lock and wondered if it was related.

I welded a hitch on the back of my box scraper. Find a hitch assembly in 'L' shape; a vertical section to weld to the box then a horizontal extension to the rear. The extension helps for sharp turns without binding. Weld it as low as possible because you need the box scraper high, clear of the ground while towing - or it can become an anchor if you bog down in soft ground when you can't raise it enough.

A simpler method if your intent is 75% towing is a simple cross bar between the ends of the 3-point arms, which has a ball in the center and a bracket on one end that prevents the bar from rolling over. These are standard items at TSC (Tractor Supply). A little better - a Quick Hitch (NOT the type that spammer Pat links automatically whenever that term is used) from Harbor Freight with the cross bar attached to that. Not essential but this will be handy if you swap rear implements often. I expect the YM240 is competent to pull an 1800 lb trailer with any of these methods, without damaging anything - but if that beach is too soft for a 4x4 pickup then you may bury the thing.

Big gearshift lever on the left side of the seat is PTO. Neutral in center, 540/1000 rpm in down/up positions (or maybe opposite that). All US implements (in this size) specify 540 and faster is dangerous. If you find a Yanmar Japanese tiller, they are designed for the higher speed.

Differential lock is a pedal under your right heel. Just touch it, it will engage after several seconds when the gears align. Don't stand on it, that won't help.

You should watch Ebay for a YM240 Operation Manual. Maybe $30. It explains all this plus the periodic maintenance. You don't need a shop manual (intended for the dealer) unless you have a teardown project. Parts manual is optional too. It's helpful, to visualize and plan a major project, but not essential.

 

[clemsonfor]

You need a 4 foot box blade any larger and you wont really be able to pull it well. You want the rippers to rip up hard material and to work it deeper. The triler ball is nice and yes it will pull 1800lb easy, thats not heavy, the tounge should only weigh about 200lbs at most as it should be close to 10% of the total weight on the tounge if the trailer is set up right.

Most box blades have the reverse pushing blade. but really you should not push much like norm says. I dont really dig with mine but will push loose dirt i have pulled into a pile to level it out.

 

[jb92563]

OK, consensus is 4' for the Box scraper, good, I'll see what I can find.
Ordering online could be a challenge cost wise since shipping for such a heavy implement is going to be expensive no doubt.
I'll have to see if there are any used or dealers around where I could go pick one up, or a free delivery to a local store for pickup.

I have seen these Ratchet Rakes that connect to your loader bucket.
It might be a good idea for me to rip up patches of weeds but it attaches by a ratchet band and I'm wondering if that holds up to the
forces applied when ripping stuff up with it.
Anyone try one of these or have an opinion?