cpy911
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2020
- Messages
- 75
- Location
- Oregon City, OR
- Tractor
- John Deere 445, Craftsman GT 6000, Yanmar YM186D
First of all Johndeere3720 is a class act! Great guy to deal with and extremely talented! Highly recommend him and his work!Oh I bet the other forum member is happy too!
Love the tractor...but had a setback. I'm a novice user and with the hills here, want to add a roll bar to the YM186D for extra sanity check and safety, especially for my teenage boys to drive.
I had already seen that Hoye and Fredericks sold them and figured it would be OK to buy the tractor as roll bars were readily available (so I thought). Went to place an order and out of stock. No problem I think, but alas, they had a ROPS mfg build 50 only and all have sold out. I called the mfg and the tooling is long gone, no more production samples. Fredericks and Hoye have no plans to order anymore.
I then started hitting the salvage market. Found Farmland down in Tangent, OR near me had a 186D with a roll bar. Great I thought, but they wont sell it to me because the original nursery owner modified it.
Found a Gray market supplier next state over "Tractor Co" that was selling 1510D's (gray version of the 186D I believe) with some sort of ROPS on them. I asked the guy if he would just sell me a ROPS, but have not heard back. He did say probably not worth it for him, but to send him an email with the request anyways.
Supposedly Hercules via justtractorparts.com has a 1500 series ROPS that might work. http://justtractorparts.com/rolloverprotectionstructuresropsforyanmarymseriestractors.aspx but they have not called me back...said they are going out of business, but still plan to sell manuals and ROPS. That is my last hope.
I left a message with Yanmar corporate to see what can be done, as this was a US model that had the ROPS as an option. I heard that John Deere started making ROPS for older 650, 750, 850 models and selling them, maybe Yanmar might someday follow suit.
I am going to keep looking at the salvage market. You never know what is out there. I am sure I can become comfortable driving it without the ROPS, but such a fairly straightforward piece of equipment seems like a no brainer if easily obtainable. I would not let my boys drive it without a ROPS though.
Not sure of my plan right now...the machine may end up in new hands that lives on flat land or with a more experienced operator. It is such a nice machine! I would just be more comfortable as a novice to have a ROPS.
Any thoughts, suggestions or input would be appreciated.
Thank you!