California: I guess I can start at the front and work my way back. The L100 is probably 7 years old. It came with my property (it was my grandfather's lot) to service the...yard (it's not a lawn, and it's not the orchard or garden). It's sufficient, and does a reasonable job. It could stand a tighter turning radius and a 6th gear on the top end. It's a bit slow. I generally loathe "safety" features, and this one has a whole bunch of safety switches that turn the engine off for all sorts of reasons, or won't let you start it unless ____ is satisfied. However, it DOES allow you to press a button to cut in reverse, which other mowers do not. The discharge chute is laid out wrong, and it interminably clogs up with clippings. Bungee cording the chute guard open largely resolves this, but isn't preferred, for obvious reasons.
The Satoh ST1440 is the newest addition. I found it about 10 days ago. The previous owner was looking to get rid of it; it had lost a freezeplug in the head and the block, mixing the oil with the antifreeze first, then puking it all over the ground. I snagged it for use in the autoshop class as a diesel engine teardown and transmission rebuild project. It came mounted with a little 42 inch box blade and a loose 2 point tiller that the guy had never used.
My curiousity got the better of me, though. I pulled the valve cover and cleaned out the head, flushed the crankcase with some diesel, added some cheap oil, then pulled the injectors, pressed the valves open with a block of wood, and cranked the engine. Some water and oil sprayed out, but everything turned freely. I cranked it until nothing came out, even vapor. Then I put some silicone sealant on the edges of the freeze plugs and drove them back in. After that cured for about 30 hours (and baked by 90 degree weather!) I filled the radiator with hose water several times and flushed as much gunk as I could out of the system, then filled it up. I had to fiddle with the engine for several minutes before it finally fired.
Very abbreviated: I mounted the 2 point tiller on it to really work the thing and see if it would live. I had to resolder a new filler neck onto the radiator (The old one was cracked at the lips for the cap.) and changed the oil and filter. I've put about 4 hours on the motor (some of which, admittedly, was the thing just running at high idle while I graded papers...
) but at least an hour of it has been with the tiller running as hard as it will go....and so far it seems to hold together fine.
It feels a little weaker than the Yanmar 1401D, but is clearly the competitive product. It's a REALLY tight unit, no slop in the steering box, good paint, etc. It's branded Kumiai, which apparently is another Japanese farmer's co-op like Zen-noh. It's a 3 cylinder, glow plugs, no compression release. It has a 3 speed gearbox and high and low range, with a 3 speed PTO. The PTO shaft is smaller than normal and has more splines, but turns clockwise. It appears to be the same as the PTO shaft on the B6000; I haven't closely investigated. The B6000 came with a 6 spline adapter. I'm going to see if I can get it off as a test fit for the Satoh.
Now I'm conflicted because I should just sell the thing and turn a profit, but it's still, in my mind, a little shady to do so. The unit looks much nicer than something that was going to go for scrap, and I don't want to misrepresent the thing. It is the perfect size for tilling the orchard around the trees, and is extremely crisp handling and precise; that will be what keeps it in the stable, if I don't get rid of it.
Here it is in comparison to the YM1401D:
I apologize for the poor photographs. They aren't well composed. I was in a hurry, not that it's a sufficient excuse. See the toolbar on the back of the 1401D? I used it to weed my potato plants in their hills. Weekend before last, literally the day after 90 degree days for a week had gotten the plants really developed (I planted in February and early March) 4 inches of snow obliterated my entire garden. Except my strawberries. *sigh* Oh well.
The B6000...you've read the saga behind that. For those who aren't California, I literally drug, using a come-along, this little B6000 out of a horse corral, covered with horse muck and urine. I was misled by the seller, and negligent in my inspection, and didn't catch an axle kingpin that had come loose. I got it functioning and have the parts to repair the front end now; while I was waiting on those I painted it and used it in spite of needing some things done to it. My progress on it came to a pause when I found the ST1440. It's growing on me, but it's very specialized. It's so little it goes anywhere you can fit a refrigerator box. On the other hand, since it is tiny, the scoop doesn't hold much, and it doesn't lift very high. It beats pushing a wheelbarrow all to pieces though, and is only a scant bit larger. With glowplugs and a compression release, it's a breeze to start, and the 2 cylinder motor is a honey, for all its age and leakiness. It's kind of a toy, but has the ability to deal a lot of good work in places even the 1401 can't go. If I had a landscaping business and couldn't afford a small Bobcat type machine, I'd keep this one or one like it available. I just don't have much use for it, even though I like having the ability. For mucking out horse stalls, especially in more cramped quarters, it would be peerless. Visibility is superb, it's powerful for the size, burns essentially no fuel, has lots of loader capacity (I lifted 400lbs of suitcase weights effortlessly) and will fit through anywhere a horse can go.
The YM1401D was my first foray into compact diesel tractors. I wanted a machine with a loader to simplify yard cleanup and all the other tasks that go along with those things. I traded a little 2wd GMC Jimmy for it two summers ago; both of us were happy with the deal. I learned, later, that it's probably a Vietnamese recondition.
I don't care. It's a terrific machine. It starts easily, has ample power, and is a really nice size for working here on my small toy farm. (5 acres) It has never been the least bit of trouble, ever. The loader is perfectly matched to the machine in capacities, but it just didn't have the "umph" to lift some of the 1 ton axles and engine blocks and other project pieces around the place. Since some of them weigh over 600lbs, it would be abuse to pump up the bypass pressure to lift more. That lack of capacity led me to find my disassembled YM240, which you and the rest of the gang helped me reassemble, which eventually extended to the whole rest of this mess of little diesel tractors!
The 186D originated as a school buy for a garden project and landscaping tractor for the school. It has heavy side cultivators that work kind of like an upside down loader. It lacks ROPS, which is an OSHA requirement for it to be used by employees, and limited the role it could play. Adding ROPS is an option, of course, but is expensive. Lacking a loader, it didn't bring much to the table that the landscape crew didn't already have. It's at my place now, and I use it more out of curiousity than anything else.
I wish it had an 18 PTO horsepower two cylinder engine. The 15hp 3 cylinder is just too weak. It's a good thing it has the Powershift transmission, or else it would be more of a nuisance than a help to run. It's a heavy pig though: on flatbed double axle utility trailer, it will almost lift the rear end of a half-ton pickup right off the ground if you back off the trailer without blocking underneath. Maybe having a power to weight ratio in the realm of coal barges is more of the issue than the rest. The tires are all loaded, and have cast wheel weights as well, in addition to 220lbs of suitcase weights up front and the cultivator assembly.
The Mitsubishi D1800 came as a package with my girlfriend's YM2000. The pair of them were used in a nursery to haul their narrow carts around. It's a 3 speed, high-mid-low range machine with a 3 speed PTO and 18 PTO horsepower from a 2 cylinder with glow plugs. I found a 5' Shibaura tiller, made up a 3 point adapter rig for it (actually the same day I built the dual wheel spools for the YM2000), and wanted something to put it on.
I had just gotten the Mitsubishi operable, so it got selected. It's pretty well matched, but a 20hp machine would be slightly better in my applications. I've also tried a 4 foot brush hog type mower; it does fine. It has a poor excuse for a weight bracket up front, and is obviously designed for proprietary Mitsubishi weights. I have a couple Kubota 55lb suitcase weights dangling sideways like Dumbo ears, but they're secure and are just right, and still well within the wheel track out back.
I've got an offer to buy it that I should probably accept; the issue is they want my brush mower with it, and that's something I use and need. Buying a new one to replace it would eat up the majority of my profit margin, though. I'm lazy enough that it's currently more appealing to keep the mower or big tiller on the thing so it's ready to go at my whim. The convenience is well worth the money I would pocket.
The YM2000 is my girlfriend's. It was supposed to be her machine for gardening. Since it now has my brush hog on it, you can see how well that turned out.
It had a set of duals on it I made one afternoon that worked really well, but put it into a niche where I have other machines dedicated for the job. With duals it's within a couple inches of the width of the big 464, a 45 PTO horsepower machine that weighs something like 6800lbs. I pulled the duals off after goofing around with them for awhile, but the spools are still on, so it has kind of a Ben-Hur effect.
This is a terrific tractor. The big twin is powerful, though loud and raucous. It fires as soon as a cylinder reaches the top of the compression stroke, every time. It's got the original Japanese pan-style seat, and is pretty much untouched, I believe. There's not much else to say. The original plan was to paint it white with sunflowers on the hood. She bought some paint the other day, after seeing me squirt the B6000; it just might happen yet!
The YM240 is the lime green monstrosity. For those outside California's and my interaction, he and a crew of other extraordinarily patient, considerate and knowledgeable board members on another forum helped me turn it from a coffee can, grocery bag and milk crate full of parts into a functional unit. I've since punished him by tagging along behind him to this forum like a rescued gosling. Poor guy!
It's still kind of a basket case, having a cheap box end wrench for a high/low shifter and a supplemental electric cooling fan instead of a proper shroud. But it works, lifts a lot, and starts every time I need it. I can't ask for much more than that. I put a set of brand new takeoff R4s out back, filled them with water, and have acquired a set of cast weights that I think I'll throw on. (Sorry, California.) The bucket is narrower than the rear track, which is unfortunate, but lets the machine really power into harder soils, which are the norm here. Happily, the bucket is a bit wider than my 1401D's, so when I've had to excavate deeply, I just use the 240 until I can't drive into my trench, then swap machines and drive the 1401D down into the hole.
The next machine is a 284 International. My first memory, ever, is of standing on the seat with my grandfather holding me as we ran the disk. I had probably 100 hours of time driving it before I could touch the pedals. It's a 27 PTO horsepower 2 wheel drive tractor. It has a 4 cylinder gasoline engine by Mazda, quite similar to the one in the older Satoh Bison 650G. For a gasoline engine, when new, it was really respectable. Fuel consumption figures are remarkably close to comparably powerful diesel engines.
Mine doesn't work right. I don't know how to fix it. I've put in points, condensers, coils, rebuilt the carburetor numerous times, and put in uncounted sets of plugs and wires. It always works a little, but never works correctly. It's too bad. Nothing I've ever experienced has the smoothness and precise tracking of the nearly square wheelbase, and the 3 point adjustment is buttery smooth and accurate. Its a 4 speed transmission with high and low range. The PTO is 540 RPM, but can be converted to a 1000rpm unit, I understand, by pulling a cover and swapping a gear from one side to the other. These were also made in a 3 cylinder diesel version, sourced from Nissan, and with 4wd.
There's a lot of sentimental value there, obviously.
I bought the International 464 to use as my heavy tractor when I was doing a little bit more landscaping type work. It's dense and solid, built in England in the early 1970s. It's fairly small for what it is, and is much like my grandfather's old diesel he used for haying. (That one was a 404, basically the same) It has a mismatched rear tire, which was originally a field-expedient repair, but it gave the tractor a really sharp cutting ability: Stand on the left brake and the thing pirouettes like a ballerina.
It's easy to work as a result. I don't have much use for it in the orchard, and don't even know how to set up the baler for it. But every once in awhile, if I've let the weeds or sun get away from me and things are too overgrown and dried up hard, I can put the rippers down in the box blade, or attach the disk, and make a few passes doing more work than any of the other machines could do at any speed, at a ground speed faster than anything else I've got will transport down the pavement. It's akin to using a sledgehammer to drive finish nails here, but it lets me break through and get to where I can do the more precise work with a smaller machine.
