YT235 down again!

[kthompson]

Mauser12, could not help but wonder if Rep made it by dealership last week as expected and or any updates or progress with your tractor?

Went by nearest dealer Friday to look back at the YT359, still like it the most between JD 4066r and Kubota L6060 for the total package and pricing. Your tractor still makes me question the Yanmar. The JD and Kubota dealerships are nearer, been dealerships many many years. Also have JD and Kubotas (for another dealership that closed due to owners passing) and know not perfect but near enough for me.

 

[TnAndy]

Just waded thru the whole thread. Wow ! I had several mickey mouse problems with my LX410 (2011 model) which I've documented in threads in this forum, but they were NOTHING compared to this goat roping. Honestly, I would have laughed in the face of someone that said bouncing a bucket across a field will cause lines to burst...such pure BS. They simply bought some dead cheap lines from a parts subcontractor and need to own that fact.

I put logs on my front forks too heavy for the hydraulics to even lift, (like a 20- 24" diameter x 16' long green oak log) and "bounce" them up by goosing the tractor forward while holding back the stick....lift picks up 4-6" at a time as the log bounces upward, and holding the stick back keeps it suspended. I do this to get them up on a log deck to roll into my swmill.

IS this a good idea ?....well of course not, and if I break something doing it, I won't blame anybody but me for abusing it.....but guess what...never broke a line or anything else so far in nearly 10 years of doing this ! (Ya'll feel free to heap on some abuse now..... )


My local dealer (a Ford/New Holland dealer for 30-40 years) took on Yanmar right before I bought mine, and ended their dealership with Yanmar a couple years later. This attitude of Yanmar might explain some of that, as all I ever got from the dealer was "irreconsilable differences" for the divorce. Funny thing is about a year or so after I bought mine, dealer called to ask if I would host a van load of Japanese engineers visiting the dealership for an afternoon of what I thought about the tractor. I agreed, and spent that night writing up a several page list of things they could do to make a fairly good tractor into a GREAT tractor.....things I've documented over the years here.

They were all smiles and polite, and I got a size M tee-shirt that no way fits me, but my wife still wears from time to time, and that was all I ever heard back. I did run into one of the engineers at a Mother Earth fair in Asheville, NC and was looking at the new red paint tractors (mine has yellow/black, a holdover from their days with Cub Cadet). I remarked "well, see you changed this or that, but this and that still need work." Polite smile again. Oh well.......you can lead a horse to water, but can't make 'em drink. You'd think feedback from end users would be almost priceless in product improvement and future growth.

One thing interesting when they were at my place, they wanted to know which internet websites I visited about tractors/farm stuff, and I told them this one first. They were very familiar with it, so they do read this site.

One of the reasons I photo and document the heck out of things I've had to do to mine....so they see it, as well as maybe it offers some tips to other folks with issues. IF I could say anything about posting here, TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS OF STUFF AND POST THEM....(not just yanmar) because photos really are worth a 1000 words.....and the whole point of this Al Gore invention is communication.

 

[kthompson]

Wanted to update my search for a tractor which this thread did play a part in, really a major part.

I am retiring from farming and selling my farm equipment and moving to a compact tractor such as the Yanmar YT359 which honestly was and is still the tractor I liked the most. Was looking at JD 4066R, Kubota L6060 and Yanmar YT359. With cab and fel. Want rear remotes which Yanmar is standard but about $2,000 extra cost. Liked the transmission a lot and cab. The side rear windows are something JD does not have nor does the MX Kubota. Using the doors for ventilation on mild days is to me just dangerous.

Why I am not going with Yanmar: I find it hard to grasp a tractor having this many issues. If it is all owner or operators fault have honest talk with them and if they need training or how to do it! I really thought we would have heard this issue would have been solved but not hearing from the OP now makes me wonder why. Had Yanmar basically said shut up and we fix it? Have no idea. Not saying that is what is going on. Just know the OP is amazing quite. Taking that into consideration also have given hard look at the dealers any where near me. The dealer I would be working with are great people. However they are totally new to tractors as to selling and servicing. They are farm raised but still only been a tractor dealer for about a year. Then if something happens with them next dealership is over two hours away. Even then they are some of those give me no confidence. I have always recommend you study the dealership you plan to buy from and then consider should something happen to them where is other dealerships. If something were to happen to the dealership would be buying from the options would not be convenient and some of those are not impressive at all.

Kubota did a very good job bringing their product (small tractors) to established tractor dealerships. In my part of the world many Massey, Case and New Holland dealerships became Kubota dealerships. Amazes me with the true tractor dealerships who have no product to sell due to mergers, Yanmar has not "one" of the few establish dealerships I know.

It came to the point I wonder about the future of Yanmar with the dealerships I am aware of. Hopefully my concerns are not valid for they build a good if not a great product but a great product with no support is not a valuable to me as a good product with great support. BTW I think Kubota and JD are great products with great support. Now saying that even as current JD owner not a fan of JD 5000E models. Hear more issues with them than all other JD models.

Mauser, hope your tractor has been taken care of.

 

[tier4]

so here we go again bashing the Manufacture for some thing most people on here have no clue as to what is going on MAUSER12 has not made a post in about 20 days how about asking him what is going on with his tractor before you make statements that may or ,may not be true. but as usual that's not how the internet game is played, it`s more non information than fact.

 

[rScotty]

Wanted to update my search for a tractor which this thread did play a part in, really a major part.

I am retiring from farming and selling my farm equipment and moving to a compact tractor such as the Yanmar YT359 which honestly was and is still the tractor I liked the most. Was looking at JD 4066R, Kubota L6060 and Yanmar YT359. With cab and fel. Want rear remotes which Yanmar is standard but about $2,000 extra cost. Liked the transmission a lot and cab. The side rear windows are something JD does not have nor does the MX Kubota. Using the doors for ventilation on mild days is to me just dangerous.

Why I am not going with Yanmar: I find it hard to grasp a tractor having this many issues. If it is all owner or operators fault have honest talk with them and if they need training or how to do it! I really thought we would have heard this issue would have been solved but not hearing from the OP now makes me wonder why. Had Yanmar basically said shut up and we fix it? Have no idea. Not saying that is what is going on. Just know the OP is amazing quite. Taking that into consideration also have given hard look at the dealers any where near me. The dealer I would be working with are great people. However they are totally new to tractors as to selling and servicing. They are farm raised but still only been a tractor dealer for about a year. Then if something happens with them next dealership is over two hours away. Even then they are some of those give me no confidence. I have always recommend you study the dealership you plan to buy from and then consider should something happen to them where is other dealerships. If something were to happen to the dealership would be buying from the options would not be convenient and some of those are not impressive at all.

Kubota did a very good job bringing their product (small tractors) to established tractor dealerships. In my part of the world many Massey, Case and New Holland dealerships became Kubota dealerships. Amazes me with the true tractor dealerships who have no product to sell due to mergers, Yanmar has not "one" of the few establish dealerships I know.

It came to the point I wonder about the future of Yanmar with the dealerships I am aware of. Hopefully my concerns are not valid for they build a good if not a great product but a great product with no support is not a valuable to me as a good product with great support. BTW I think Kubota and JD are great products with great support. Now saying that even as current JD owner not a fan of JD 5000E models. Hear more issues with them than all other JD models.

Mauser, hope your tractor has been taken care of.

OK. I've gotta say this.
I've been around Yanmar since back in the 1980s. Their quality & innovation is what attracted me from the first- that and reading about how their company philosophy works in Japan to do things like smelting and casting thier own alloys and putting so much of R&D into new methods of agriculture. They are apparently innovative and committed. At least they are in Japan. But I've also seen that the things that make Yanmar regarded as a manufacturer of the best top tier products thoughout the world has not translated into tractor dealerships in the USA.

All you have to do to convince yourself of their quality is to take one apart. Look at the insides and make your own decisions. I climbed the ladder from mechanic, welder, machinist, to college and mechanical engineering and have a lifetime of looking at manufacture. But any journeyman mechanic will see the same. It's just nice to look at things like seals, bearing support, and machining and think, "Yes! Now that's how it ought to be done."

But we keep running into the same problem: i.e. The quality and innovation that has made Yanmar tops in the world in so many areas - including marine diesels, small agriculture, and cutting edge aquaculture.... all those things have not translated to their US tractor operation.

As far as the problems with the YT235 in this thread, I wouldn't personally put to much emphasis based on one account. I'll be frank - and I've posted this before - but something about that whole story doesn't make sense to me. I'm just not buying it in total until I know a bit more. Partly it was the broken hydraulic lines combined with the broken 3pt arms. Put those two together and it sure sounds to me like abuse. Both are common failures modes caused by banging the tractor around too fast over rough terrain with a full load would be my bet. Hydraulic shock does the rest and is the cause of the final damage up front. Simple abrupt momentum changes can cause the 3pt damage. They aren't built for that. There are pressure and shearing limits to even the best tubing, fittings hoses and arms. About the only way to exceed the material specs is to combine load and velocity. i.e. sudden impacts. So Is it abuse? Who know? Could be. It's a "he said/she said" kinda thing. But it does color the story for me.

What else did he say? Oh...the fuel in the oil. Well, that's a different type problem. That is something that is documentable, a real warranty problem, and one that one would expect to be handled immediately by the dealer and Yanmar working together. They clearly didn't - or not aggressively enough. How much of that is owner, and how much dealer and Yanmar is not clear. But if the OPs response to being dismissed like that was to take off across the pasture too fast and too loaded and break something ..... I'm not so sure I wouldn't feel the same. So even if so, I can't get too far down on a guy for doing what I might do in the same circumstance....

But if you ask me if all the above would cause me to reject a larger cabbed model from Yanmar on the strength on one side of one guy's story? Well, probably not....
Like I said, there's got to be another side. And they sure do build some nice top notch tractors. As does Kubota of course. And half a dozen other brands build perfectly suitable tractors, too.
rScotty

 

[Kiwibru]

Gee, one bad example does not ruin the whole line of tractors does it? I have had nothing but good work out of my YT359C and no problems. You can find lemons in any group of manufactured products. Hopefully Yanmar US is learning something and bellying up to the bar to make sure it is not happening across the whole line of tractors.

 

[Blue14]

You need to go on (Mauser12) forum posts from March,April,May June 2018 and you will see he had a new Mahindra Max 26XL that he was making payments on and coincidentally he had a lot of the same problems with the Mahindra that he supposedly is having with the Yanmar. I smell a scam. Wouldn't be the first time somebody comes on a public forum claiming to have a lemon to get out from under the payments or get a new tractor out of it by simply beating the crap out of the machine then maligns the manufacture in the court of public opinion on the internet.

 

[kthompson]

Sorry if you think I am bashing Yanmar quality. I have said hard to believe a tractor having this much problems. I have also said if the operator is the issue the company and dealer has some responsibility to educated them on proper operation. I stand by those thoughts. FYI I had gone back and read the post on his previous tractor, sounded similar to these. HOWEVER, Yanmar's reputation is what stands to suffer more so than any person does from such, I think. Therefore to me they need to work to protect their reputation in any reasonable way. Tell me why they could not post something in this thread themselves if they found abuse to be an issue? Realize they would have to be very tactful and careful in their wording. What would be wrong their saying something like: "we are pleased our rep was able to meet with the OP and the dealer and were able to determine the cause of the issues and work with the OP on the capabilities of the machine and safe working guidelines"?

But let me be very very clear, looking only one dealership within about 100 miles of me is amazing and some have very little true tractor experience. Just does not give me the confidence I want for such as a tractor. A $500 tv okay. A $40,000 machine that should last twenty years or even longer their network at this time does not give me that confidence to make that gamble. As to the tractor itself I have done my best to do an honest comparison of it with a JD 4066R and Kubota L6060 and the Yanmar YT359 is the machine I prefer, period. It came down to how short of time the dealer has been a tractor dealer, basically a very nice lawn mower dealership with Yanmar tractors for about a year. I really respect the dealership and those who own and run it. Yet they are the ONLY dealership within a hundred miles of me. When LS and Mahrinda are able to find establish tractor dealers and yes some had lost their product line due to mergers in the same area but Yanmar is not succeeding. That is why I am passing on Yanmar.

It would really be great if the OP or Yanmar or both to fill in the missing info. Doubt it happens.

 

[rScotty]

Sorry if you think I am bashing Yanmar quality. I have said hard to believe a tractor having this much problems. I have also said if the operator is the issue the company and dealer has some responsibility to educated them on proper operation. I stand by those thoughts. FYI I had gone back and read the post on his previous tractor, sounded similar to these. HOWEVER, Yanmar's reputation is what stands to suffer more so than any person does from such, I think. Therefore to me they need to work to protect their reputation in any reasonable way. Tell me why they could not post something in this thread themselves if they found abuse to be an issue? Realize they would have to be very tactful and careful in their wording. What would be wrong their saying something like: "we are pleased our rep was able to meet with the OP and the dealer and were able to determine the cause of the issues and work with the OP on the capabilities of the machine and safe working guidelines"?

But let me be very very clear, looking only one dealership within about 100 miles of me is amazing and some have very little true tractor experience. Just does not give me the confidence I want for such as a tractor. A $500 tv okay. A $40,000 machine that should last twenty years or even longer their network at this time does not give me that confidence to make that gamble. As to the tractor itself I have done my best to do an honest comparison of it with a JD 4066R and Kubota L6060 and the Yanmar YT359 is the machine I prefer, period. It came down to how short of time the dealer has been a tractor dealer, basically a very nice lawn mower dealership with Yanmar tractors for about a year. I really respect the dealership and those who own and run it. Yet they are the ONLY dealership within a hundred miles of me. When LS and Mahrinda are able to find establish tractor dealers and yes some had lost their product line due to mergers in the same area but Yanmar is not succeeding. That is why I am passing on Yanmar.

It would really be great if the OP or Yanmar or both to fill in the missing info. Doubt it happens.

Fair enough, and well said. I don't think that I implied that you were bashing Yanmar quality. Did you read it that way? Did others? It wasn't at all what I meant to say.

I will say that I am less concerned about having a convenient dealer than others may be. I've bought several new tractors and never had a reason to take one back to the dealer - although I have had a couple of times when it helped to have the dealer's mechanic bring out their service truck. But that is - or should be - part of the sales agreement when you sign it.

Anything that needs attention is likely to happen in the first year or two. After that, most all tractors are bulletproof for the next few decades.
So if I had one dealership that was fairly close that would be good enough for me. Especially if they seemed to care.

I think that we all agree that the national organization needs to step up to the plate. And especially they need to do that when there isn't a convenient local dealer. To me that includes working to enhance their reputation on this type of social media.
rScotty

 

[kthompson]

rScotty, agree with your post.

My biggest concern with the Yanmar is dealership or dealerships. The only dealer that is any closer to me I do not think has a true tractor or diesel mechanic. They have only been a tractor dealer for at most 1 1/2 years. That is not much of track record. That is why the post here on Yanmar rep concerns me. If the dealership were to fail for any reason what am i left with?

However, even though my wife does not like the Yanmar...gold rims need to be painted black being one. lol Not sure she cares for the shade of red they have either. Does not match our ruby red pickup, again, lol. Cab is not as nice as JD. She will trust my judgement after all I chose her many years ago. I am going to have one more conversation with the dealer. I owe them that. Maybe they can handle my concerns or not but they deserve that.