Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
I dug an in-ground swimming pool with one of these. It was in 1978.
Tough little 4WD tractors. Wish I had land to own one. Lots of fun even when you're working. |
Neat. Back then Yanmar was a light green color. A bit more crude than the Kubota.
Memories: John Deere needed a small utility tractor to compete so eventually they adapted power plants from Yanmar into the still too light JD chassis but with their hood styling, grill do-dats. Eventually JD just adopted the whole damn Yanmar chassis as they had no other way to compete.
My father was one of the early dealers of Kubota.. 1973 ish?? There were quite a few snidely remarks having jap tractors brought in the states, but these Kubota's were outstanding compared to the throw away US products. These jap tractors were an invasion enough for legislation pushed for new tarriff's but really didn't stop the flood of them. They caught on especially well because of the three-point hitch, a key feature allowing other implement makers to jump on board. Those early 2 cyl. clackers were tough machines. The crates they came in were made of really decent redwood and the tractors saturated thick with cosmoline. PITA getting that stuff off. I even recall of Kubota offering a 100 percent remote controlled large lawn tractor... perhaps a 60 inch cut... thinking that was the early 1980's and sold for $24K... big dollar unit back then. The original little B2000 two cyl. guessing retailed for $2,400.