A SIMPLE, low cost, locally configured high clearance tractor is making inroads in the horticulture and specialty agricultural segments in Australia.
The YTO LX904H is a four wheel drive equal wheeler designed with 850 mm clearance that’s been targeted at the vegetable and specialty crop market since its launch.
With a sharp price point beginning at just $45,000 for the 60 kW Chinese made machine there’s already been strong sales in applications as diverse as tea growing in Victoria’s north east and Queensland sugar cane according to Australian importer Les Clarke of AusEquip.
“This machine has appealed to veggie farmers needing the high clearance for covering crops for fertilising and spraying," Mr Clarke said.
“It’s also appealed to strawberry growers because they’ve got the clearance to go over the plastic hoops without ripping them out.
“We’ve also sold one into Japanese managed green tea plantations near Bright in Victoria and it's used regularly and can clear the bushes for trimming, fertilising and spraying.
“They talked to us at the Henty Field days and while it’s very new to the job it is planned to be an almost daily use machine for one of the tea growers in that situation. We delivered the machine about a month ago and he plans to use it on his neighbours tea crops as well.”
The YTO 905 is essentially an adaptation of a 90 series Fiat tractor with locally driven design and specification modifications requested.
“We actually helped with the design of this particular YTO model which was about making it suitable to our Australian specification,” Mr Clarke said.
“We told the manufacturer what we needed to have done to make it a high clearance, equal wheel tractor, what we needed with hydraulics and things like side shift on the linkage.
“We ended up spending time in China and YTO design engineers also visited us and we then put a test model into a vegetable farm to go through it's paces and make sure it did what we wanted it to.
“We’re focused on continual modifications to further improve it to Australian conditions and requirements - we are seeing the results of that in our sales,” Mr Clarke said.
“Because it’s a Fiat 90 Series drivetrain throughout and the part numbers are all the same it is very easy to get spares
“If we haven’t got a part in stock we can get Fiat parts or get one from China in a very short time. That’s a great comfort to buyers."
There’s even been interest from cereal growers for spraying applications.
“Some cropping tractors are too large or heavy for spraying at certain times of the year whereas this can clear the crop and it is at full height which is good for spraying rust and similar diseases which are time critical - you can put a large linkage sprayer on the back and still get the high clearance,” he said.
The LX904H has been designed with an Italian pedigree and adopts a variant of a Perkins style water cooled four stroke diesel engine, German made Luk clutches and Bosch starters, and alternators.
“It’s probably $30,000 to $40,000 cheaper than its nearest competitor and it's got the higher clearance than any of the other equal wheel tractors,” Mr Clarke said.
“We’ve had a lot of interest and it is a developing project so we are improving the tractor all the time but it remains an excellent machine - as far as value for money goes nothing compares.”