Some grey market tractors have multi speed PTOs. There is another difference with the PTO. Luckily I was able to jam the brakes and quickly jerk the transmission out of gear before I smashed through the fence. Although the clutch was released the tractor kept lurching forward driven by the heavy rotating blades of the mower. I pressed the clutch in an attempt to stop so that I might back up into the corner to mow closer to the fence. This became a real danger for me the first time I came to the corner of my fence while mowing with a 4 foot bush hog. Without this device the inertia from the rotating blades on a bush hog can be transfered to the drive train of the tractor even if the tractor motor is stopped. The Japanese do not use many heavy rotary implements like bush hogs and other rotary implements, and therefore have little need for an overun clutch. Another safety concern is the lack of a pto overun device. If they happened to be driving a grey market tractor, this could be disasterous as it would cause the tractor to speed up instead. A person who drives tractors often, would probably habitually be inclined to pull back the throttle to stop the tractor. It is easy to see why this is a s afety concern. This is reversed on Japanese made grey market tractors.
All tractors manufactured for US sale with a stick type throttle must increase engine rpms as the stick is pushed away from the driver and decrease rpms as the stick is pulled back towards the driver.
The main differences lie in some of the safety features. Many of the grey market models match nearly identical models which were manufactured specifically for sale in the US. A "Grey Market" tractor is a used tractor imported from another country (usually Japan) which was not specifically manufactured for sale in the USA. I had never heard the term before, but I was able to find some good information online. During this research I learned an interesting fact. In the first few weeks after I bought it, I spent some time online searching for user and service manuals. I have used this tractor for about 5 years now and have been very pleased with it.
This is a 13hp 4wd compact diesel tractor. This information and the low price was enough to make it an easy decision to buy the Yanmar YM-1300d I had been looking at. My father has used his John Deere for many years and found it to be extremelly reliable. In fact after looking thoroughly at my fathers compact John Deere (15hp), I found the Yanmar manufaturer ID plates on the diesel engine. After searching online I found that Yanmar had manufactered compact tractors for John Deere for several year models during the 1980s. I had never heard of Yanmar tractors, but I found a handful of them at very reasonable prices scattered around the area. When I was shopping around for a used compact tractor I came upon some brands and models that I was not familliar with.