Buying Advice Why isn't Yanmar a bigger deal?

[airbiscuit]

I think the front end looks tough!

 

[California]

Take a look in the Yanmar and New Yanmar forums here. Terrific brand loyalty.

My two elderly Yanmars (see sig photo below) are American versions from the early 80's when Yanmar was a serious competitor to Kubota, before Yanmar started building Deere's compacts. Both of these are as good as the JD 650 that PossumHound described above. I bought the 24 hp one in 2003, spent a month repairing a lot of neglect (such as finding an OEM battery holddown, fuel filter assembly, etc) to restore it to what it should be. No real repairs needed, just remedying a prior owner's botched stuff. Since 2003 it has run flawlessly, never needed anything beyond the ordinary maintenance stuff available by mailorder from Hoye. A local dealer would starve, there's nothing to fix.

it's not quite accurate to say Yanmar mostly builds for other brands. They sell worldwide, all stuff they buid themselves, under the Yanmar brand name. The Deere and Cub Cadet experiments never were a major part of their worldwide sales.

One more point - Yanmar when they sold here under their own name was a premium brand at the high end of pricing. Returning to the US market they have selected the same position, premium quality at a premium price. So they are likely bought by contractors and commercial farmers who run them hard, and are a little expensive for the 'weekend warrior'.

The weekender may instead be perfectly satisfied with a 30 or even 40 year old Yanmar expertly reconditioned to new condition. Fredricks is the only US firm authorized to sell reconditioned and use the Yanmar trademark, they earned that right by providing quality.

 

[Rustyiron]

Cali, my buddy had a little green Yanmar like your avatar. Got it at an auction and it came with dual rear wheels. We hung a huge pc. of steel off the 3 point (2'x40''x4") for weight and worked that little machine way beyond it's intended use. I'm sure we didn't do it any favors but we never broke it!

 

[DK35vince]

I owned a John Deere 850 (built by Yanmar ) for years.
They had a reputation for being a solid/reliable machine and mine was good.
I would have considered Yanmar back in 2001 when I was looking for a new tractor if they would have been marketing machines under there own name, made for the US at the time.
Ended up purchasing a new Kioti DK 35 in 2001.
Still worked out fine. My Kioti has been every bit as solid, well built and reliable as my Deere/Yanmar was.

 

[charlton289]

Here in VA. There's only 2 yanmar dealers and each only have 1or 2 tractors in stock and to get one is a waiting game first they have to order it to replace the one that is on the yard and then find any attachments for it such as a fel and mowers. But to my understanding Yanmar just built a huge new manufacturing plant just outside of Atlanta all tractors are built in house from tires up so as to say each engine is matched to the transmission and everything thing built as a unit. I think they also custom build for a buyer who has a specific purpose for the tractor not sure if that is true but I am sure you can find out more about it by going on line for Yanmar tractors. My dad had a Yanmar tractor I have some pictures of it I can't find a model number of it but it's green with diamond tread on the tires they were useless in the winter but he would put chains on it and then you could plow snow with it. And my dad lives up in CT. Up in Northwest corner in a town called Norfolk my dad passed away 5 yrs. Ago but he sold the tractor to a friend of his and he uses every summer doing bush hoging it could only run a 4' bush hog but it was and is good little tractor and I hope if possible to maybe get a chance to buy it from the guy who has it. It will be a good to have and to help with my GC1705 to take some of the load so to give it a break. I have a question if anyone can help me identify the years they made the green tractors it would help my curiosity as to the years made thanks for any info on this tractor and I will see if I can get a couple pics of it on here.

 

[California]

I have a question if anyone can help me identify the years they made the green tractors it would help my curiosity as to the years made thanks for any info on this tractor and I will see if I can get a couple pics of it on here.

Yanmar and Kubota arrived in the US early 70's and were neck and neck competitors until Yanmar contracted to build Deere's under 50 hp models. Yanmar sales lessened after the early 80's and I think ended around 1988 (?) as the Deere versions increased.

Yanmars were green at first. As the early models were retired, early 80's, replacement models were red. The final year of green, around 1981, is easy to spot: they switched from an air cleaner under the hood to a 'Donaldson' type air filter outside the left side of the hood with a snorkel on it.

I posted the YM240 showroom sales brochure here since I own one. It was one of the last green Yanmars, a 24 hp 2-cylinder that is a mix of simple, crude, and elegantly simple so any farmer anywhere in the world can keep it running with little more than a screwdriver and a crescent wrench. Literally.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/yanmar/288670-ym240-showroom-brochure.html

In Japan, the same tractor was called YM2000 and its first series was green. Then they switched to red when they went to new sheet metal - a front-hinged hood - while the US YM240 stayed green after this upgrade until the end of production, 1981.

Here's an old thread I posted comparing my 24 hp YM240 with my smaller, later (1983) YM186D that has one huge advantage: Powershift transmission. 3 ranges then in each range an, in effect, automatic transmission that can be shifted up or down under full load. After the hydraulic clutches engage (instantly) it's a straight mechanical gear train, no torque converter. I love the little tractor, in fact when I found another with loader and power steering I replaced the first one, (photo) and now use the larger green YM240 only for the backhoe and rarely to lift something with its larger loader. All three look thrashed, abused, and run like new. I had the first YM186D dyno tested. It exceeded its 18 rated horsepower ... 30 years after it was new. This illustrates why they have such a loyal following.

YM240 / YM186D comparison:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/yanmar/170137-mowing-big-twin-ym240-vs.html