No lime, no soil treatment, beyond turning under the annual grasses in the spring.
I don't have a real objection to the grays but they cost 50-100% more than these unrestored US Yanmars. My YM240 seems to be a low hour unit that got parked outdoors and badly weathered after the first half of its life. I was told that the first owner sold his riding stable business (an easy life for a tractor) after several years so he just parked it - outdoors. Where the weather trashed the appearance. I had to clean up several neglect issues, murky fuel, replace the battery etc but then it was at least as solid as those fresh VN 'rebuilts' with their museum-quality paint.
At the time there was a local high volume VN importer/wholesaler here and I got most of my restoration parts from their boneyard. For example the rubber grip on the 3-point lever had been missing from mine. The kids from VN running that place were great but they took back so many warranty returns that it finally killed them. When I was in there once the acting manager told me the real manager was back in VN trying to convince the factory to ship him better-repaired tractors. I also found a retailer 100 miles a way who said he had sold their rebuilts until he got buried under warranty claims and then quit selling their tractors.
Likewise for my more recent YM186D I couldn't find a YM1510D anywhere near the price. This one is pretty beat up but it will get scratched up more sliding under orchard trees. Like any Yanmar it starts instantly and runs like new.
One minor advantage of the US Yanmars is there is already an overrun clutch inside the PTO, so one less thing to hook up before mowing or tilling. Also the documentation is excellent. Of course, the fundamental quality of US and good imported Yanmars is identical, they all came off the same assembly line.
So for me, my preference for US Yanmars is price and availability. As you can see from my photos I don't rank appearance with much weight in my buying decisions.
