Yanmar refurbs, who refurbished the machine?

[tillers]

Fredricks Equipment has been refurbishing equipment for years in the US. If i lived near them it would be easy to just buy one, but they are 500 miles South. Is there a way to know if what i am looking at on Craigslist, Marketplace, etc is refurbished by Fredricks?

My little farm is on 8 acres in Northern Indiana; and i would like to bush hog, till with these kind of tractors. Just learning about them and hoping to get the right one the first time.

thanks

Edit: There are probably other importers, sorting this all out probably going to take a long time. Kubota will tell me to just relax and cart their stuff home, as their is plenty of that around here. But still i feel that this is worth looking into.

Buying a used Yanmar can be Very Good or Very Bad...decisions

 

[normde2001]

ask Fredricks

 

[Oldoak]

I know nothing about Fredricks. But if I were to deal with them, I would be asking Fredricks what kind of warranty comes with their refurbished machines and who would be authorized to perform such service if required? Also, I would never make any major purchase of refurbished or used equipment sight unseen. Pictures alone don't tell the whole story.

 

[tillers]

well i just found one locally on Marketplace, the guy is selling his last one from Fredricks Equipment. he says there is not much demand for them here.

YM2 — Fredricks Outdoor

Fredricks has a good reputation, been refurbing for 15 years. parts and service should be an issue, even getting a manual is a problem. the YM240 is the US equivalent tractor.

in the end, getting a good one is an economical and durable choice. that is the reason people even bother. JD has the same thing, but very expensive.

owners have told me that these things just dont break IF you find a good one and treat it right.

a lot of IF's but that is life i guess with tractors.

edit: found the US version shop manual at Amazon....

Yanmar: I&t Shop Manual - Models Ym135, Ym135D, Ym155, Ym155D, Ym195, Ym195D, Ym240, Ym240D, Ym 330, Ym330D

hoping the fog will lift on this conumdrum. i guess every Yanmar owner has to go through this, but they say it is Worth It.

 

[clemsonfor]

Fredericks looks right. The color is right, it's done right. If you have seen enough you can tell. That's said if it is a VN recon and it has been in service 10 years and runs fine and looks half decent there is no reason to worry about it.

As far as buying from them, if you want they will have one delivered or you can get a freight hauler. As to the warrenty situation. They will look after you. There have been guys within travel distance where they sent out a mechanic another time they went and got it. 500 miles they would send you parts I am sure, labor I have no idea that would be their call. But VERY few issues come up in that warrenty period. And we have read more than one person buying from them for people in the Midwest and north east.

 

[California]

The I&T Manual is for the experienced mechanic who works on tractors all the time and just needs to know the specifics - valve clearance, head bolt torque, etc. It assumes you have a good instinct to analyze a problem and know what to take apart, based on daily experience with similar equipment. It does an excellent job within this constraint.

Yanmar published English-language Operator, Parts, and Shop manuals for the US models. They are broadly comprehensive. Sometimes they appear on Ebay as CD's. Paper reprints are also available. I recommend the Operator Manual, the other two won't be needed unless you need to do a significant teardown to repair something where the parts and method aren't obvious - and that is not likely needed for years for a Fredricks rebuilt.

The models from the 70's, the ones covered by the I&T manual, seem designed to be maintained by the owner himself using simple tools, anywhere in the world, assuming he has the factory manuals to guide him. I've always wondered if this came from Yanmar's experience building marine engines where reliability is critical and repairs - assuming the manuals are available - might be done anywhere under simple conditions. YM2000/YM240's engine is a twin to a marine version and I suppose some of the other small engines are also. Yanmar is primarily a major marine engine company with tractors and ag equipment as a second line.

Yanmar's later tractors are more sophisticated than the YM's but aren't as instinctively obvious to maintain.

If you found a Fredricks YM2000 locally it's an excellent choice for your 8 acres. My orchard is that size and the YM240 has served me well. It looked severely neglected when I bought it, doesn't look any prettier 14 years later, but has been absolutely reliable. I doubt many tractors bought new would be as troublefree.

I later bought a YM186D because that is low enough to go under the trees but I kept the YM240 to do backhoe and loader work.

Recently, for the first time, I needed both of them at the same time.
See: Gotta have two Yanmars! (Worst Stuck)

 

[normde2001]

Unless you possess the qualities that California describes, I would not recommend buying any vintage Yanmar, no matter the condition. It's near impossible to find anyone to work on them.

 

[tillers]

Unless you possess the qualities that California describes, I would not recommend buying any vintage Yanmar, no matter the condition. It's near impossible to find anyone to work on them.

thanks all.

and that's the problem for the small gardener/farmer. it seems to take a Boat Load of skills just to get efficient in our efforts.

for the time being it may be wise to just stick to a Troybilt Horse tiller and a high wheel Weed Mower. between those two machines, it will buy me time to figure out the small tractor game.

Locally we have JD, Kubota, MF, Ford, and Kioti dealers; perhaps wise to just stick with the Name Brand to not get stuck in the mud with Rusting Iron.

i love the Yanmar stories on this forum, and was hoping this newly purchased Yanmar 2000 from Fredricks Equipment would be the Ideal situation...and it still May be. the man selling was a former dealer who bought a boat load of Fredricks Yanmars and was dumping his last one. He said these tractors just don't sell up North here. Probably nobody wants uncertainty....kinda like me.

thanks.

 

[airbiscuit]

What is the model# of the Yanmar you are looking at locally? 4wd? Loader?

You said Just learning about them and hoping to get the right one the first time.

If the price is right, it might be a case of buying the first one at the right time.

My first CUT was a 15hp Shibaura with rice paddy tires. I bought it for $2,500, bought a 4' rough cut mower and made a boatload of trails. A couple of years later I sold it for what I paid for it and stepped up to a 24hp John Deere.

Was there uncertainty, and did I take a chance? Yes, but it was affordable and I felt worth the risk. These tractors are pretty basic and reliable. Only you can asses your comfort with this type of purchase. That said, it's good to find a way to get your first CUT.

 

[tillers]

What is the model# of the Yanmar you are looking at locally? 4wd? Loader?

You said Just learning about them and hoping to get the right one the first time.

If the price is right, it might be a case of buying the first one at the right time.

My first CUT was a 15hp Shibaura with rice paddy tires. I bought it for $2,500, bought a 4' rough cut mower and made a boatload of trails. A couple of years later I sold it for what I paid for it and stepped up to a 24hp John Deere.

Was there uncertainty, and did I take a chance? Yes, but it was affordable and I felt worth the risk. These tractors are pretty basic and reliable. Only you can asses your comfort with this type of purchase. That said, it's good to find a way to get your first CUT.

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the one i was looking at was a basic 2wd with no loader YM2000.

the tractor was from Fredricks Equipment and sold locally by a farmer who had quit the tractor business.

after studying the issue, i realized that local equipment dealers may not be there if trouble hit. just getting a decent manual was asking toooo much, so i thought to just stick with the tried and true and look for a tractor that had Real Support.

i like the Concept of a simple and reliable tractor.

that idea seems to have escaped most other modern tractors out there. even the Kubota dealer admitted that any tractor over 27 hp diesel is a night mare when troubleshooting all the fun electronics they have to throw in for pollution.

a lot of us just don't like that game, we are not here to play mechanical gymnastics with our equipment. plant and go, so i am trying to rethink this thing. maybe the next Play in this Act is BCS, a better tiller i suppose over the Troybilt.

in the mean time, probably the best thing to do is just keep reading the forums and see what kind of Tractor is for the Rest of Us.