Y'know, California ~ most of the time I read something you've written about your jolly green Yanmar, I chuckle and think to myself, "That's a guy who loves his little tractor as much as I do."
I know, it's a little irrational, but I tend to have good relationships with well-made equipment, give them names, and they speak to me. I have to say that I love my little YM2010. I think it's beautiful, has classic lines, has the right balance of form following function, It's spartan, but powerful, capable and elegant, and is always eager to do what I ask of it, even if I am unreasonable or ignorant.
The little Yannie has the sparseness of expression common to Japanese industrial and commercial design of the 80's and it seems to be as persistent and tough as the Datsun/Nissan 4WD Pickup I acquired mid '80s. I was the 3rd or 4th owner of that unit, and I got it at 120K miles. I sold it in a trade a few years later with 240K on the clock, and I saw it putting around the county for years afterwards. I also sold it for about what I had paid for it. During the 120K+ miles I had it for, I replaced the spark plugs, and the water pump.
Equipment like that is what made the Japanese manufacturer's reputation, and exposed the corruption and decline of (some) American manufacturing.
But I have days when I question the wisdom of my purchase of an antique Japanese tractor to do today's work. I bought her because she was available and beautiful. I did some research (here& there) and decided that this was the best bang for the buck. I had about 10K to spend on a SCUT. There just wasn't anything available used from any dealer for the months I looked, Kubotas are big in the area, but there was very little to choose from used, it all looked like rental crap, and prices were, um, optimistic. (and many dealers were quite full of themselves when they learned that I wasn't going to finance anything - but I would pay cash and my budget was 10k) The JD dealer in particular was someone I made note of to avoid for the future.
I've since learned that the used CUT market is highly seasonal, and if you strike at the right time (fall around here) you could have a lot of choice and reasonable pricing - on par with or even lower than the premium UTDA YM models, for used orange iron of 5-10 year's vintage.
Anyway, It's just a little bit of buyers remorse, really more of a dread that something major will break and I will be SOL with parts and service. Yeah, yeah, the dealer, yada, yada, yada. I've got a good dealer. But it's 120 miles round trip, and I'm too independent and proud (not to mention cheap) to load it up and drive for a couple of hours and wait for how long to address item #23.. or 24. And I did a fair inspection of units. This was the best.
I am very mechanically inclined and I do get some pleasure out of the minor service and repair items, but good god it is a constant stream of service - nothing major so far, thanks, but just a endless stream of items that are mostly attributable to prior owners or "reconditioning". I'm 180+ hours of operation into my YM2010, and I think I'm getting to know her pretty well.
I have lost track of how many important bolts were nowhere near torque values when checked. I found the radiator oddly shimmed in the front with washers so that the fan wouldn't hit the radiator hose (which it was doing anyway); I found FEL mounting bolts that were looser than a nickel ho; an intake manifold that was mounted with the wrong gasket such that unfiltered air was entering the engine- thank god I decided to wash the engine with water while it was running; four or five hairpin clips missing from brake and shifting linkages, paint about everywhere it shouldn't be; electrical connections with the integrity of a Congressman. And don't get me started about leaks. nothing big, but jeez.
I know, it's used. Used on a Farm. By a Farmer. I'm not expecting a garage-kept 1987 Mercedes 450 SEL that was driven 45 mph on country lanes on Sundays. But when I bought a reconditioned tractor, I was hoping that meant something in addition to ROPS and Good Paint.
Sorry, just a whiny rant here - I should just thank my stars I didn't find 5 gm of copper and babbit on my first oil change, right?. She's reliable, strong, starts in the cold (20-30F around here) without any fuss, and seems reasonably tight. I hope my luck holds...
