clemsonfor
Super Member
thanks all.
and that's the problem for the small gardener/farmer. it seems to take a Boat Load of skills just to get efficient in our efforts.
for the time being it may be wise to just stick to a Troybilt Horse tiller and a high wheel Weed Mower. between those two machines, it will buy me time to figure out the small tractor game.
Locally we have JD, Kubota, MF, Ford, and Kioti dealers; perhaps wise to just stick with the Name Brand to not get stuck in the mud with Rusting Iron.
i love the Yanmar stories on this forum, and was hoping this newly purchased Yanmar 2000 from Fredricks Equipment would be the Ideal situation...and it still May be. the man selling was a former dealer who bought a boat load of Fredricks Yanmars and was dumping his last one. He said these tractors just don't sell up North here. Probably nobody wants uncertainty....kinda like me.
thanks.
If you do your own repairs on your cars and trucks thsee YM tractors are easier.
The common ones have almost every part needed from Fredericks or Hoye to fix or rebuilt pretty much anything on them.
I have a VN recon tractor. I had a few issues right up front that the dealer took care of. I installed the part. But in 10 years everything I have done has mostly been maintence. I rebuilt the 3 pt lift cause I am sort of a perfectionist. Put a new belt on it, a new battery, several fuel filters, changed oil every year, unstuck stuck brakes, resurfaced a brake drum which had rusted due to the stuck brake I mentioned previously , which is a common thing. Replaced a leaky brake shaft seal, replaced both wheel seals due to leaks. All the parts are cheap and work is sttaught foward like California said. I even documented most of this on here. But if you can't do anything I have mentioned, replace seals, use a puller, know the techniques to remove stuff you probably don't need to buy any older tractor. But like Norm said most won't mess with these cause they assume there no parts and don't want to fool with it. But a good old school diesel or can fix anything guy can fix these, you just have to find that guy.
To give an idea of costs, the orings and stuff for the 3 pt might have cost me $20 for the parts.
Doing the leaky wheel seal the right way all new parts cost me less than say $40. That is assuming you catch and reuse the oil.
I love these machines