What's not to like about the Yanmar LX490/4900 tractors?

[KiwiBro]

The loader is impressive. Strong lifter, with piranha bar it is a real digger, can fill the bucket every trip in heavy clay. I just excavated two feet of dirt for a barn floor. And I dug out stumps with it on some large stumps. there were no rocks and this thing really was able to tear into a stump digging down on each side and then in front letting the piranha bar chop the roots by easing into the area under the stump repeatedly and after the bucket has cut to depth of bucket just lift and push on top of stump and over it goes. Surprise surprise. Blew my neighbors away and the Yanmar is becoming the talk of the neighbor hood.

I have done a several acres o bush hogging and this thing really handles a 6 footer easily in heavy grass, brush and everything in between using 6 foot deck. I would not hesitate to hook to a 7 footer.

I can just reach the 3 pt lever when hooking up but that will be easier when I mod the lever to be about 6" longer.

Having the tank in rear is OK since if it is not there it has to be somewhere. That spot works well since I spend a lot of time among bushes so am glad it is now down low and it is easier to fill on rear than it would be up front with loader.

This tractor is very fuel efficient when doing utility work, dragging a tree here, digging a hole there, making trips to the burn pile then tearing into another dirt mound where you need alternately something strong and then a lighter tractor would do. I chalk this up to direct injection in combo with turbo.

I have not found the placement of the tank to be visibility problem, that would depend on what I was doing though.

This is an awesome quality built tractor. Just make sure it is what you need.

Thank you for this. How does the power reverser work? Don't you still need to clutch to change gears or do you have to be in the low gear to start with and it just kicks you to neutral and then reverse? Are there any gears/ranges it won't work in?

A big chunk of my tractor use is in and around bush and trees so I have just assumed I'd always need to make up a skid plate to suit whatever tractor I buy. Which makes me wonder, does anyone do skid plates guaranteed to fit various models?

 

[Katahdin]

I have the Yanmar LX4500, which is the naturally aspirated engine model. I like it a lot, I'm close to 175 hours on it. I use it for box blading/scraping gravel, plowing snow, bush hogging, firewood harvesting, and stump grinding. Like most LX owners I agree the 3-point hitch lever should be lengthened to make it more comfortable, but that is a simple modification. Other than that I don't have any complaints. I have personally installed the rear remote hydraulics kit and its working great.

Regarding the tank placement, visibility hasn't been an issue once you've removed the slow-moving-vehicle triangle sign. I feel more secure in this than I would be being able to look down and see a spinning PTO shaft. A year or two ago I recall someone getting killed on a John Deere after the seat failed and the operator fell into the PTO shaft (shudder!).

Regarding the front-end loader, the New Zealand model probably comes with one locally sourced. Here is a picture of a LX sold in Australia, US owners will recognize its not the curved CL600 loader included with LXs sold in the USA.

 

[KiwiBro]

I have the Yanmar LX4500, which is the naturally aspirated engine model. I like it a lot, I'm close to 175 hours on it. I use it for box blading/scraping gravel, plowing snow, bush hogging, firewood harvesting, and stump grinding. Like most LX owners I agree the 3-point hitch lever should be lengthened to make it more comfortable, but that is a simple modification. Other than that I don't have any complaints. I have personally installed the rear remote hydraulics kit and its working great.

Regarding the tank placement, visibility hasn't been an issue once you've removed the slow-moving-vehicle triangle sign. I feel more secure in this than I would be being able to look down and see a spinning PTO shaft. A year or two ago I recall someone getting killed on a John Deere after the seat failed and the operator fell into the PTO shaft (shudder!).

Regarding the front-end loader, the New Zealand model probably comes with one locally sourced. Here is a picture of a LX sold in Australia, US owners will recognize its not the curved CL600 loader included with LXs sold in the USA.

Thanks Katahdin.

I doubt there is a New Zealand model because there doesn't seem to be any Yanmar tractor representation here at all, other than someone who imports older second hand models from Japan. There are separate, and confusingly so, marine engine and heavy construction Yanmar distributors, but nobody seems to be doing the tractors. We are too small I assume. Sometimes the Aussie distributor becomes the regional distributor that will handle NZ too so it's a great bet to assume if Yanmar tractors ever got here, they would have the same FEL as the Aussie ones. Provided the specs are the same, it works, and visibility is not too much worse, I couldn't care less whether it's curved, square, or any other form of boom/FEL. It will probably come with Global/Euro hitch if it's for the Southern Hemisphere.

I googled power reverser and it looks like a great feature that gives the best of both worlds; no-clutch forward and reverse for FEL work, and no power loss or higher maintenance costs. Is that about right? Obviously there's more to loader work than changing direction and the power reverser option would still miss out on no-clutching when going through gears. Why did you choose the HST option (00 instead of 0, if I have understood the codes correctly)? What swayed you towards the HST rather than power reverser?

I wish we had a distributor here and could get on one of these tractors.

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Thank you for this. How does the power reverser work? Don't you still need to clutch to change gears or do you have to be in the low gear to start with and it just kicks you to neutral and then reverse? Are there any gears/ranges it won't work in?

A big chunk of my tractor use is in and around bush and trees so I have just assumed I'd always need to make up a skid plate to suit whatever tractor I buy. Which makes me wonder, does anyone do skid plates guaranteed to fit various models?

The power reverser works in any gear. You can change gears by first putting the power reverser in Neutral, (halfway between forward and reverse, one or the three lightly detented positions) cnange the gear and push the reverser back into the direction you are going ---- or you can change the standard way using the clutch. Yes you have to be disengage the clutch one of these two ways to actually change a gear. But you can drive all day with out touching the clutch, just use the reverser lever. Great if you leg needs to not clutch. the power reverser does a better job that most people can do in applying a smooth clutching action, no hard jerking. When I am doing loader work, I set throttle at about 1500 rpm so the engine is always in a good hard pulling range, this keeps the speed down, and use the foot feed when transitionsing from forward to reverse. Push hard, let off foot feed, pull power reverser, apply foot feed again and you are making a really smooth transition. If you want to inch into a load, you can use the foot clutch. If I was doing mostly digging, I would prefer a hysrostat, but the power reverser makes it almost as easy, actually sometimes easier because you do not have to be so careful with the foot pedals, the power reverser makes a smooth transition. I know exactly how fast I am coming out of a hole, using the foot accelerator to enhance speed as needed.

The tranny is syncro mesh so gear changes are very smooth.

Hope this helps. You still need to use your imagination, to grasp this. I wasn't sold until I happened to test drive the Yanmar one day.


I have been on many tractors where visability was not as good to the reare as the yanmar. Yes You cannot see the plow and disk like on the old Ford 8n or Dexta but I have no problem with the rototiller, bush hog etc. and when I hitch up 3pt I can see the arms as they approach the implement so I neve thought of a visibility problem until I saw your concern. I was thrown off a bit from not being able to see the tires spin. Every tractor I drove from years you coud see the ground, and see what the tread was doing to the dirt. Modern tractors take that away. I have heard no complaints, even though I saw it as a problem. But I am not going back to my old straddle the transmission machinery

 

[scoutcub]

I owned an LX490 before I traded it in on my LX4900. I own 2 other compacts, and they are both hydro, but I wanted to give the sync shuttle (power reverser) a chance. Plus, I really wanted an LX to work my property, and bought the 490 just before the 4900 came out.
I was amazed at the power reverser inthat you could transition from forward to reverse or vice versa at any speed.....that was definitely something to witness. However, for my application, and already having 2 other hydro's, I just didn't personally care for the shuttle. I would find myself always having to stop to shift gears, or ranges, or both. (4 gears, 3 ranges) I do lots of loader/grapple work, and the hydro is the way to go....for me.
Another great feature on the LX is the snycro-throttle, you can enable/disable it, I keep mine on all the time..... so when you press on the forward/reverse pedal, the more you press, the more rpm's are fed into the engine. Very kool!

 

[KiwiBro]

Thanks everyone.

Does anyone other than Yanmar and JD have the power reverser option? It's something I think I will have to get a feel for personally, so see if it will be worth it for the slow, inching forward that often happens when picking up logs off the ground, or when lowering onto bucking tables or onto a trailer. For me, this is often done in tight spaces and as such I am in the same gear and range the whole time. But after a day of doing that my left leg can get a bit tired clutching all day long on my previous tractor.

There is JD here but the only one I could come close to affording (new, but haven't ruled out used) is the E series and I am not interested in an Indian origin tractor, regardless of the paint colour.

It may be HST is more suitable but I really should get on a power reversing model for comparison, just to be sure.

If you own a Yanmar and do ground engaged work with the 3PH, does the lack of draft control bother you?

 

[scoutcub]

The LX does have load control on the 3-pt.

 

[KiwiBro]

Thanks. Sounded like a pretty massive oversight if it wasn't there on any tractor with 3PH. Maybe I'm just not understanding Eyecatcher's issue with his/hers?

 

[Wasted Income]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/yanmar/304249-new-yanmar-lx4500-owner-2.html

Here is how I fixed the issue with the 3 point lever.

 

[KiwiBro]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/yanmar/304249-new-yanmar-lx4500-owner-2.html

Here is how I fixed the issue with the 3 point lever.

Nice work.
Did you ever install a rear remote kit? If so, any probs with your revised handle position?

On a side note, I have contacted Australian, Japanese and American Yanmar organisations or reps to learn more about their tractors, etc. Granted, I'm not likely to buy one in the absence of local dealer support as there are none here in NZ, but out of all those contacts, only the USA organisation ever got back to me.

If I were in USA, a Yanmar would be at or near the top of my 'must inspect' list. Not just because of the quality I perceive these tractors to be, but the fact Yanmar USA even bothered to get back to a nobody on the other side of the world when there was absolutely no chance of them making a sale from their time. It's courtesies like this that speak volumes about an organisations integrity. So, well done and thanks, Yanmar USA.

The only other time I've received a similar level of respect from tractor dealers is when a great one from USA stepped in to help me sort out a refund on a tractor that the local retailer here wasn't stepping up to help me with. Meant allot to me that someone in a position of influence on the other side of the planet was willing to help.

So, I guess that's two plugs for USA tractor organisations.