Case DX33 or Cub Cadet Yanmar 3200

MESSMAKER · Nov 19, 2018

rScotty said:
I've been around compact tractors for many years now. What I think is that both of those are not premium models, but the owners are wanting premium prices for them.

The first thing you should know is that unless you happen to live on some island where those are the only compact tractors for sale, I have to say that both of those tractors you are looking at are both priced several thousand dollars too high....& maybe higher than that. I'm being generous. You can do better. Not because of their age, age doesn't hurt a tractor if it is taken care of. But because they are both brands that were never that popular and are not much seen anymore. If it doesn't work out - and it didn't for the sellers - your resale will be difficult even for a lower price. Frankly I can enjoy just about any compact tractor, but I wouldn't lay out my cash for either one over a more popular model even if those sellers dropped their price a few thou.

You'll see a lot of that type of deal offered. Go slow and careful. Also, implements - other than a loader - never add more than $500/1000 to a tractor's price. That is simply because implements last forever and there are a ton of used ones that work good as new.

I would be astonished if you could get parts - or even common maintenance items - from your JD dealer for an older Cub Cadet in spite of the fact that Yanmar built tractors for both companies.

BTW, old red and green Yanmars built by Yanmar and labeled as Yanmars are a completely different story on parts. The old ones aren't made anymore, but they were popular enough in their day that there are several aftermarket & used parts suppliers. I saw someone looking at an older Ford compact..that's OK. Older JD and Kubota are good enough that they almost constitute a secondary market in themselves.

You can do better. This is a tool you will use so often it will amaze you. So particularly for your first tractor I would go with a popular model even if it is a little older. Please do NOT buy a discontinued brand for your first machine unless your best friend just happens to be a tractor hobbyist, has parts, and likes that brand.. A discontinued model of a popular brand that is still around is OK.

Keep in mind that whoever originally bought those tractors did so with price as their main concern.....think about that...
good luck,
rScotty

What do you consider a premium tractor?

Burns331 · Nov 19, 2018

I bought the Cub. Seems to be a great tractor. I havent used it for anything yet, but needless to say Im pretty excited. I gave him $10,700 for it. Given it only has 370 hours I feel that pretty good. Has a few scratch, but nothing major.

rScotty · Nov 19, 2018

MESSMAKER said:
What do you consider a premium tractor?

Fair question....I hope my answer is useful rather than just fuzzy. Keep in mind that I wrote in order to help a person who is brand new to the tractor world. He didn't seem to know one make from another, so we had to start somewhere.

BTW, congrats to Burns for chosing the Cub Cadet/Yanmar. Anything made by Yanmar tends to be good quality even if Cub Cadet tractors aren't around anymore.

And since I said "premium tractor", it's only fair you ask me to define it.

Here goes:
I'd consider a premium tractor to be a brand which has active dealership support and has had some degree of public popularity for at least a decade and preferably many decades. JD, Kubota, NH, MF, ... those are just the ones that leap to mind. Apologies to ones I've missed - it's not deliberate.

Brands that have active dealerships today but which haven't been around that long I think of as "up and comers" instead of "Premium Tractors".
I'll confess to being biased here. My bias is that I find myself preferring "up and comers" who are trying to compete by emphasizing quality, innovation, and customer service. New comers who are mostly interested in competing by selling for a lower price don't interest me much.

I'd like to propose two other groups: One is the "International Group". There are good machines that for whatever reason are not commonly seen in the USA. That would include Fiat, Zetor, JCB, and Yanmar just to name a few. You see them, just not often - about all I know is they are popular in other countries so there's probably a good reason for that.

And then there is the "Vintage Group". Here are the older US compacts and small Ag tractors as well as the early compact 4wd tractors mainly from Japan. These tend to be very simple and rugged. Parts are available because these vintage machines have a sort of hobbyist or cult following that often includes on-line part sources. Yanmar is well known in this group, and John Deere amazingly still has a lot of parts available for tractors they haven't made in 50 years. There are still good sources of parts for old Fords, IH, Massey etc.

MessMaker, did that answer your question?
rScotty

woolyAcres · Nov 19, 2018

Burns331 said:
I bought the Cub. Seems to be a great tractor. I havent used it for anything yet, but needless to say Im pretty excited. I gave him $10,700 for it. Given it only has 370 hours I feel that pretty good. Has a few scratch, but nothing major.

Congrats on the new machine. If you have any issues or questions I found the Yanmar forum on here (especially the old/classic yanmar forum) to be invaluable. Hope you get lots and lots of trouble-free use out of it.

My first tractor was the YM240D. The hour meter on only had 3 digits on it. I have no idea how many hours were on that tractor, but there's no way it was less than 1000. I'd believe it if you told me it had 4000. I've got another tractor with a Yanmar engine in it. It's at 1000 and it sounds and runs beautifully. I've also got a Case mini-ex with 4000 hours on a yanmar engine. Not one of them uses any oil, they start great, and have performed flawlessly. With only 360 hours your's isn't even broken in yet

.

Enjoy.