I've been tied up with my 'other' work a lot lately & haven't had much down time, but I have put about 20 hours on it now, and so far would give it an overall grade of an "A".
It's been completely soppy here lately, but it's done everything I've asked it to without getting stuck or even sliding much (I was fearing it might with the R4 tread versus our red clay soil). Power is very good, and smooth. I've had the 7' bucket lipping full with rip rap, and it didn't even whimper.
The self-leveler function can be a slight hindrance to visibility, and is taking some getting used to when it comes to raking loads forward and back on the back of trucks when I'm loading manure. If TYM is reading: it would be nice to follow Kubota's lead and offer a "switch-off" ability for the self-leveler. Truly though, since that is simply not an option on the TYM currently: weighing all the pros and cons as-is, I'd have to say that the SL pros outweigh the cons... I'd definitely still go with the SL FEL. Lastly, I'd read that rollback and dump angles would be compromised with the SL function, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is very little difference you can tell in reality.
Really, the only hit I would give on the tractor so far would be the paint quality on the front end loader. The bucket's coating has already started peeling off in places, and the loader's cylinders and arms came straight from the factory with what appears to simply be very thin and inadequate paint to be exposed to the elements. To TYM's credit, my dealer immediately offered to reimburse me for Rustoleum I could buy and touch it up. That means a heck of a lot, but my 'complaint' would simply be that neither the dealer nor the customer should have to be inconvenienced with doing that for a brand new tractor. The rest of the tractor's paint quality appears great, so I might just go ahead and pay to have a high-grade professional coat put on the bucket for now... it was nice on my former Allied loader not to have much rust or even bare-scratches on it after 6 years of heavy use.
Anyway, I can't stress enough that that is the only real complaint I've come across thus far. I looked all over for user-reviews when I was researching this tractor against others, so in case there's another "me" out there on the fence, I can only say 'get off the fence' and go for it. If I was buying again tomorrow, I would definitely still go with TYM over all the other brands I compared against (which was an exhaustive list, but I'd be happy to share the comparison spreadsheets I compiled if anyone needs the info).
Have a great Christmas!
