Comparison Pros and Cons YM1700 and YM2000D

[clemsonfor]

"Reconditioned" (VN) is different than "gray market?"

My confusion is I thought they were the same , just done in different places.

The 2000D I am thinking about is the one with 900+ hours, so it seems like anything going wrong has gone wrong. It spent some time or came from a dealer-- Corrriher in Newton, NC.

What surprises me is how many little guys there must be reworking them, as I have talked with two more sellers (the 1700 - 2wd :-(, and another 2000 - 2wd ;-( ) Both said their tractors were redone at dealers. One in GA, one in NC. So are those the VN ones? Or someone who gets a container full of them....

My one concern would be whether the 900+ hours on the YM2000D is getting up there.

Anyone know what the hours are when they get dumped from Japan?

The one in GA was possibly Spalding Tractors, they get theirs from Fredricks in AL. But there are more VN dealers in GA though, many clustered within 100miles of ATL. But VN Tractors (the business) has a distribution center in ATL with hundreds of them on the lot ready to ship out. I have seen an add in tractor house with an aieral of there lot.

But yes there are less than there was but anybody even you can import a container of these things and then put them back togeather and sell them so they are all over the place. I think a container of 10 will cost you 20K + depending upon condition size etc. And they come stacked in fenders and wheels stacked in the open areas.

Right now you can get a tractor from Spalding in GA for less than some of the VN dealers and it comes with the 1 year parts and labor warrenty, far better than the 30-90 days parts only at most VN dealers.

And yes a Grey market tractor came from the overseas market, not just for japan market, they can sell the same model new in Korea, tiawan or VN, that they sell in Japan. So no Grey does not just mean reconditioned and sent here from VN. There are tractor yards in Japan that buy these things strictly to export to other parts of the country. This is all based upon gov policy and tax incentives which make new tractors more appealing in japan than used ones.

A US model yanmar, apart from its name has an internal ratcheting safty device in the PTO which means you dont need an overrun coupler on the PTO. This device keeps the Spinning bushhog blades from pushing the tractor after you have clutched and trying to stop, as it disengages the driveline similar to a socket wrench when it ratchets. (this is like older US tractors form the 50s and before). The other difference is that "grey" tractors have a throttle that increases engine RPMs as you pull it backward, on the US models you push it foward to increase RPMS which was designed to match the US standard at that time.

No Winston the YM2000 and Ym2000D had a 3 digit (with tenths its really 4 places) hour meter. So at 999.9 hours you flip back to 000.0 and have a brand new tractor.

Also Burning Bush a thing to remember is that these old yanmars have a variable hour meter, unlike a newer tractor. This means that the meter only records 1 hour on the meter at 2400 RPM (in the case of the ym2000). At 1200rpm it will take 2 hours on your watch to rack up 1 hour on the meter. So if you let that thing idle at 800 rpms it will take almost 3 hours on the clock to make it roll over 1 hour. Keep this in mind when looking at the hour meters 900 does not mean that tractor was only on for 900 hours i bet more like 1500 hours. Like when you box blade you may only run at 1500 rpms or if you put around loading poop out of you barn you might only slightly go above idle for an hour or so. This gets bact to what Storm said so a tractor with 3000 hours may actually be more like 6000 hours or more so you may actually be correct on this.

Burning bush i think they say that the Jap market gets rid of there machines around 600 to 1200 hours. Many of the originals you see have around 600 hours on them, of course a ym2000 is getting older so there more likely to be in the 800-1100 range. They say they only roto till there small farms there in Japan for a few hours twice a year so that a 35 year old tractor used 20 hours in the field a year will only have 700 hours or so on it. From what i understand these size tractors are for the smaller japaneese farmer that cant use a walk behind tractor, say from 20 -50 acres?

 

[rScotty]

I buy the equipment, hubby works on it (does all our car stuff, our truck is diesel...) We're not going to be as innovative as many of you ... just looking for dependable little workhorse. Oh yeah ... we're also "old." Well, not really, but sort of ... pretty active retired.

Oh yeah -- I played the "I Want a Yanmar" video for my husband. He laughed. *I* want the Yanmar. He thinks I'm a little crazy but is trying to humor me. He didn't think we needed the old 4x4 F250 either. But tells me fairly regularly now that he "loves my truck."

Good Morning to you. I see that you have horses, pasture, and some acres..

I've been around Yanmars and tractors of all kinds for lots of years now. If you look long enough you will run across a few of my old tractor postings here and there.

I think you are on the right track, and I suspect you will use that tractor more than you ever dreamed you would. A lot of days these days.....well....a person living on the land starts the days off with walking over to the tractor just like the way people used to start the day by feeding and brushing their horse. Take off the tarp or blanket, check it over, and do the fluids. Then warm it up while loading the FEL bucket with feed, hay, fencing, and whatever tools are needed. Be sure to put on a manure rake and a shovel, and then try to figure out where to carry the chainsaw without it either biting you, getting too beat up, or oil all over the place... Don't forget a fishing rod. Lunch bag gets hung by a strap to an unused control lever and I sure do hope whichever tractor you end up with has a comfortable seat plus some sort of canope or umbrella and a coffee cup holder. What we are seeing is that our tractor spends a lot of days as a tool carrier, transportation, wheel barrow, portable chair/and shelter and we havent' even hooked any implements to it yet!

Like anything you spend all day with, it is essential that the experience be one you enjoy.

What I am saying here is I don't know if the first tractor you get is the tractor is the one you will end up with. Shucks, we don't even know that about spouses anymore. From not having seen either, the 2000D sure sounds better to me...but the fact is that there are a lot of really good old used tractors out there. Not just Yanmars, too. truth is that most tractors don't ever get used up; they just get older. The way the resale market stays high proves that point beyond any doubt. I do absolutely believe that if you could move forward a few years in time you would look back and be glad that you spent whatever money it took to get a good reliable tractor. And unlike cars, in the the tractor world a good reliable tractor is just as likely to be an old used one that still works good as it is to be a refurbished one.
good luck, wish I was close enough to help with the search.
rScotty
An old John Deere ag tractor or two, a new Kubota, a couple of US Yanmars - YM336D and 165D - plus enough implements to make sure everything has a job...and so do I.

 

[stormpetrel]

I would dissagre with that first statement. Correct a large AG tractor or heavy equiptment with big Catipillar or JohnDeere engines in them yes will go 10,000 or 15,000 hours before they are just to worn out to go. I doubt these would make it half that long. Most around here say there pretty well worn at around 3,000-4,000 hours. No body here will ever see their trator hit 10K so we probably wont know.

I work with loggers daily and they rack up almost 2500-3000 hours a year on some of the equiptment so 10,000 is less than 5 years of daily use. I have seen plenty of equitment with 8K + hours on it, but its all heavy equiptment not tiny yanmar deisels.

So you have a tractor that shows 4,000 hours...but it probably has 6,000-8,000 because of the strange hour counting system. Ok, that's closer to what I thought. I have owned 15+ diesel engines, I'm on my third Yanmar engine, had Cummins, GM, Ford,Volvo, Mitsubishi, still have a Cat 320 hp 3208 in my boat, have rebuilt a couple......I stand by what I say. Perhaps with limited use an engine might not see it's potential longevity, but if you ran that puppy every day, I say you'd get from 8,000 to 12,000 hours. Assuming regular oil changes, valve adjustments, filters, etc.

The Volvo I had died at 700 hours, was probably an example of not enough use. I put 1600 hours on Yanmar 240s in two years, they were like brand new when I sold the boat.

What is it you think makes smaller engines live shorter lives? My experience says lower hp, simple non-turbo engines will always outlast their higher-horsepower intercooled, turboed counterparts.

 

[clemsonfor]

So you have a tractor that shows 4,000 hours...but it probably has 6,000-8,000 because of the strange hour counting system. Ok, that's closer to what I thought. I have owned 15+ diesel engines, I'm on my third Yanmar engine, had Cummins, GM, Ford,Volvo, Mitsubishi, still have a Cat 320 hp 3208 in my boat, have rebuilt a couple......I stand by what I say. Perhaps with limited use an engine might not see it's potential longevity, but if you ran that puppy every day, I say you'd get from 8,000 to 12,000 hours. Assuming regular oil changes, valve adjustments, filters, etc.

The Volvo I had died at 700 hours, was probably an example of not enough use. I put 1600 hours on Yanmar 240s in two years, they were like brand new when I sold the boat.

What is it you think makes smaller engines live shorter lives? My experience says lower hp, simple non-turbo engines will always outlast their higher-horsepower intercooled, turboed counterparts.

In my lang drawn out ramblings i think i actually said you are probably correct, like you noted. Due to the variable hour meter an older yanmar with 4500 hours on it may actually be more like 6000 hours of run time.

I would tend to agree that they should last longer but i think the infrequent use of these size tractors leads to a shorter like that a large engine in a commercial peice of equiptment weather it be a marine deisel or a piece of heavy equiptment. Think of that JD ag tractor, started up at 730 and turned into the sun and naved by gps all while the guy sits inside, not even stopping to eat lucnch just watches the auto piolt steer it in the rows. His tractor racks up 15000 hours before it needs a rebuild. But our little yanmars where we bushhog 3 times a year for 3-6 hours a time and do a couple foodplots a year and it sits condensating on the indside in the hot and cold, probably gets small surface rust on spots due to the humidity and gets up to temp then cools back down quickly. Instead of starting up at dawn and run 10-12 hours and then shut off and back onthe next day. Or in the case of a commercial fishing boat, cut on to go fishing and then cut off 3 weeks later when they go to port and never switched off inbetween inless there is a problem or maintence has to be done.

 

[stormpetrel]

In my lang drawn out ramblings i think i actually said you are probably correct, like you noted. Due to the variable hour meter an older yanmar with 4500 hours on it may actually be more like 6000 hours of run time.

I would tend to agree that they should last longer but i think the infrequent use of these size tractors leads to a shorter like that a large engine in a commercial peice of equiptment weather it be a marine deisel or a piece of heavy equiptment. Think of that JD ag tractor, started up at 730 and turned into the sun and naved by gps all while the guy sits inside, not even stopping to eat lucnch just watches the auto piolt steer it in the rows. His tractor racks up 15000 hours before it needs a rebuild. But our little yanmars where we bushhog 3 times a year for 3-6 hours a time and do a couple foodplots a year and it sits condensating on the indside in the hot and cold, probably gets small surface rust on spots due to the humidity and gets up to temp then cools back down quickly. Instead of starting up at dawn and run 10-12 hours and then shut off and back onthe next day. Or in the case of a commercial fishing boat, cut on to go fishing and then cut off 3 weeks later when they go to port and never switched off inbetween inless there is a problem or maintence has to be done.

Yep, that's about the size of it!!:thumbsup:

 

[normde2001]

In roughly 10 years of ownership, and following 5-6 Yanmar forums, I don't believe I have ever heard of a Yanmar tractor with over 4000-5000 hours without needing serious engine work.

 

[stormpetrel]

In roughly 10 years of ownership, and following 5-6 Yanmar forums, I don't believe I have ever heard of a Yanmar tractor with over 4000-5000 hours without needing serious engine work.

True....but if you ran that same engine for 10,000 hrs in five years..........


That's what Clemson was getting at, I think he's right. My boat engines just love to run; the more they run, the better they run!! I suspect all diesel engines are like that.....and that the problems are a question of NON-use, not overuse.
Just my opinion, of course.....

 

[clemsonfor]

In roughly 10 years of ownership, and following 5-6 Yanmar forums, I don't believe I have ever heard of a Yanmar tractor with over 4000-5000 hours without needing serious engine work.

And norm what i was saying about the variable hour meter that 4500 hours is not 4500 hours like on my uncles 99 model JD 4400. If your putting around with your loader hauling tools you probly dont have the throttle pegged at 2400 rpm to make it click 1 hour in 60 mins. You more likely in 7th gear at 1400 rpm or such.

Id agree with you these things once 4000 hours is on the meter they most likely will need something. But as i analyzed my response as i typed we can cheat that total up due to the nature of the meter. Also what Strom said about use. The loggers i deal with crank the tractors up at say 7am, cut them off at 12pm for an hour lunch and then back on till about 5pm or so, 5 to 6 days a week. They put on 2500 hours minimun on a daily use machine in a year. These are big cat 525 oto 565 skidders though.

I have not cranked my tractor up in about a month. hopefully the deisel is keeping the cylinders shiney but i always wonder after a while dose it run down and cause them to loose lubrication and slightly rust? In a month i doubt it in 4 months i doubt it, but what about 6 months, a year? I guess an easy test would be to soak a piece of shined metal in deisel and set it in the shed on the shelf and see.

 

[sacsr]

Found this tractor that should be close to you. No front end loader...but looks like it may be a 186 4wh drive. Price seems a little high based on what I have seen them sell for....but it looks like it has been well taken care of by the pic.....never know till you see them up close.....maybe after a couple of weeks he will come down to a price that is more reasonable and with luck you can find a fel....like everyone else here.....finding one already with the fel would be the best deal.....

Yanmar 4x4 Tractor

I have found if you keep looking and look consistently you will find what you want in good shape at a fair price. I have seen a couple of nice yanmars with fel in the Greensboro area in the past 4 months.....keep looking and learning....these guys know a ton about these tractors they can shorten your learning curve by years!

I too live in NC ....but in the flat lands...eastern NC.

 

[sacsr]

Ebay has a 226 4x4 with a fel that looks to be in good shape....

Yanmar tractor 226d 4x4 22 horsepower diesel US model - eBay (item 190472089121 end time Dec-03-10 19:30:25 PST)