The joint venture marketing Cub Cadet Yanmar compact utility tractors in the United States took a deliberate step toward industrial/commercial customers with the 2009 introduction of the Sx3100 compact backhoe loader. The four-wheel-drive tractor's new chassis and new 31.2-horsepower Yanmar diesel fills a gap between the venture's Sc and Ex tractor lines. Starting at $24,000, the Sx3100 is a competitively priced backhoe loader for municipal and commercial buyers.
“We've opened up the operator platform, making more room for people wearing construction boots, and making the controls more operator friendly,” says Nathan Walker, senior vice president of sales for Cub Cadet's parent, MTD Products. “We're getting a little better flow (gaining about 1 gpm) with the dual hydraulic pumps, and more-efficient circuit design facilitates using the loader and power steering or multiple backhoe functions simultaneously – you're not robbing power from one function to use another.”
The Sc line starts with utility tractors at about $10,000 and goes up to the new 24-horsepower Sc2450 compact backhoe loader at about $18,000. The Ex line starts with a 29-horsepower Yanmar at about $14,500, and extends to 32-and 45-horsepower models with backhoes that top out around $18,000.
Like all of the Cub Cadet Yanmar compact tractors, the Sx3100 makes use of Cub Cadet's Select Cut System drive-over mower deck. The Sx3100 is matched to a 60-inch version of the mid-mount deck. Users can drive the tractor over the seven-gauge-steel deck and attach it to the tractor with a few simple connections.
None of the backhoe sub frames interfere with mower-deck installation. Curved-boom backhoe attachments used across the Cub Cadet Yanmar line are manufactured by Amerequip. They're designed to attach and detach quickly from a four-point, sub-frame mounting system. Smaller loader attachments, like those on the Sc Series and Ex2900 and Ex3200, are made by MTD. Loaders for the Ex450 and Sx tractors are made by Yanmar.
Cub Cadet Yanmar tractors are the result of a three-year-old joint venture called Compact Utility Tractor Supply Co. (CUTSCO) formed between Cleveland's MTD Products and Yanmar. Yanmar continues to wholesale slightly larger compact tractors to John Deere, which Deere markets under its own brand. But Yanmar and MTD share ownership in CUTSCO. Yanmar designs and manufactures the littleyellow tractors, with final assembly in its Adairsville, Ga., facility. As the marketing partner, MTD provides input to keep the machines in step with North American preferences.
“We have heavier tractors coming,” says Walker, “and expect to introduce new models every year for at least three, but probably five years.”
