Looking for a used skid loader/ compact track loader

Dave Black

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Messages
638
Location
Central PA
We are looking for a used skid loader to replace our old 1977 or so Case 1830 uniloader. We only have 1107 hours on ours but we need something bigger and newer. We looked at and drove a bobcat T190 yesterday and it seems nice. I don't have much experience with anything other than ours and thats not a great comparison since ours is so old. We also got some prices for a case 465? and a bobcat S185. My main concern is if a tracked machine is going to cost a lot more to maintain than w wheeled one. I've been doing some research and it seems that track parts are expensive and some people are having problems with having to replace rollers and idlers every 800-1000 hours. With our little use it should last a long time but since we are buying used it may be that we would need to do major repairs shortly after buying it and that would not be cool. Any thoughts about compact track loaders (CTL) vs skid loaders. I do like the idea of the low impact on grass with a CTL and increased traction but if its gonna cost an arm and leg then its not worth it. We are going to be using this machine for a little bit of everything, loading pallets, digging/ grading, use with a backhoe attachment , plowing snow etc. Any thoughts about CTL vs standard skid loader and loader brands in general. We are looking for a 1800lb -1900lb operating capacity machine.
 
My only thought is that I will never buy a wheeled one again.:thumb:
I have had good luck with Gehl, New Holland and Mustang. When I got my first one I went new and got the Ghel saved about 10K on it compared to the Bobcat and really couldn't see where they where coming up with the higher price except for name. I have also heard to steer clear of the Cats. Some thing about them haying bad tracks.:dunno:
 
I've used quite a few different models (Case, CAT, John Deere, and a few other makes) and like the case 435 for speed and overall balance. However, if it doesn't have a Cummings engine I'd stay clear of it. We use the machines hard and all day long on the farm so the engines see lots of hours. Even with regular maintenance it's getting it's third engine. (some Japanese engine) I heard Case is going back with the Cummings engines so they should be more reliable.

The bobcats are a good solid strong machine but I don't like the arm position nor the controls. Also I hate that you are supposed to turn off the high speed when you turn. Tried out a Kuboto the other day and hated it. Ended up tipping it on it's nose and the darn thing didn't have enough power to push itself back. The hydrolics were to slow to stop the tip.

Just got a Kubota pay loader. THAT is the ticket for moving lots of stuff.
 
My only thought is that I will never buy a wheeled one again.:thumb:
I have had good luck with Gehl, New Holland and Mustang. When I got my first one I went new and got the Ghel saved about 10K on it compared to the Bobcat and really couldn't see where they where coming up with the higher price except for name. I have also heard to steer clear of the Cats. Some thing about them haying bad tracks.:dunno:

What do you like about the CTL over the wheeled skid loaders? how would you compare the cost and frequency of maintenance of the CTL to the SSL ( skid steer loader)
 
I've used quite a few different models (Case, CAT, John Deere, and a few other makes) and like the case 435 for speed and overall balance. However, if it doesn't have a Cummings engine I'd stay clear of it. We use the machines hard and all day long on the farm so the engines see lots of hours. Even with regular maintenance it's getting it's third engine. (some Japanese engine) I heard Case is going back with the Cummings engines so they should be more reliable.

The bobcats are a good solid strong machine but I don't like the arm position nor the controls. Also I hate that you are supposed to turn off the high speed when you turn. Tried out a Kuboto the other day and hated it. Ended up tipping it on it's nose and the darn thing didn't have enough power to push itself back. The hydrolics were to slow to stop the tip.

Just got a Kubota pay loader. THAT is the ticket for moving lots of stuff.

Having operated a few pieces of heavy equipment I would imagine this is to keep some nit wit from getting in a tight spot & screwing up at high speed its easy enough for them or anyone for that matter to screw up at low speed.

No insult intended but we've all seen not so good things happen & they are usually worse at high speed.
 
No offense taken Bart.....Actually Bart, The bobcats are pretty stable, even on their high speed setting. They have a great center of gravity. The reason you don't turn much with the high speed on is that it's real hard on the drive train. I don't know exactly why or what is affected , but the farmer I work for told me to never turn much in high speed because it's an expensive fix. You will also notice when you do that the noise of the hydraulic system changes and the machine controls 'fight' the turn. I drive the Case wide open in high speed and it performs very good.

The only problem I've had with tipping is when I have the bucket overloaded. When you are picking up different kinds of material the weights change quite a bit. The Kubota I tipped was loaded with dry corn meal and all I did was raise the bucket up and give the bucket a shake to level the load. Just a little too much weight and it started to tip forward. The controls/hydraulics were too slow to put the bucket down to stop the tip.

It is real evident that the different manufacturers don't do their homework with center of gravity or hydraulic controls, or placement of buttons, etc. I like some things about each machine, but the Case seems to be one of the better designs for fast nimble work. Speed pays the bills. Bobcat is a real strong well designed machine and seems to be well built. I just don't like the arm position, In my opinion your arms are too far extended and not in a relaxed position like the Case. The Case controls are like sitting in an armchair with you arms resting on armrests. That is much better for hours of work.

All the same these are just my opinions. I did work in engineering for the auto industry and we found many design flaws in machines we used. I spent a lot of time re-designing stuff to make then work better and last longer. With robots we had to always calculate the center of gravity for end effectors to keep the robots from tearing themselves apart.
 
We have had a New Holland for a few years now and really like it. It does have tires, but we got the tracks for the winter. Nock on wood, we have never had a minutes worth of downtime with it.

Buddy of mine just got a new Cat . He said he would never buy another one, until he seen this one. Undercarriage, has been totally redesigned. Very nice machine.
 
What do you like about the CTL over the wheeled skid loaders? how would you compare the cost and frequency of maintenance of the CTL to the SSL ( skid steer loader)
The wheeled ones are always stuck, soft sand = stuck, mud = stuck, snow = stuck, wet grass on a hill = not getting to the top with out destroying the lawn.
The track ones I find are better at grading. maintenance depends on how it is used and how it is taken care of. If you use it in mud and never clean it it's going to wear out faster. One of the other things that will rip a track up is spinning it around. Just because it can does not mean you should.:thumb:
With the low ground psi the tracked rig can/will float up on deep snow. So you don't have to plow your way to some thing if you don't need to. I have used a tracked machine to fill an 8' deep hole with snow so we could side the house with out staging. A wheeled one would have only been good as fill in that situation. :thumb:
 
I do like the idea of CTLs but after talking with some people we are going to stick with a SSL. We don't use the machine everyday and I can't see a situation where we would NEED a CTL. The main reason for this decision is after talking to a few people we know in the business recommended the best choice for us is a SSL. We are going to be buying used and that means that we are not completely sure of the condition of the undercarriage( idlers, rollers etc) so we could possibly have a big bill to fix anything if it goes wrong in the near future. As for getting stuck I have only gotten stuck 2 or 3 times in the past 15 years and 2 of them were because of being on a slope sideways in the the snow. When we demoed the bobcat t190 it was snowing and we had the same problem. I think the CTL is much less likely to get stuck but I know we can live without it. If this was going to be a machine that we used for our lively hood or at least heavily relied upon it for our farm use then a CTL would make more sense.
PS if anyone wants to buy a 1977 or 78 Case 1830 with 1107.1 hours on it let me know.
 
Does anybody have any experience with backhoes for a bobcat. We have a davis D100 backhoe that we used with a case uniloader and would like to use with the bobcat that we buy. I am told that on bobcats the backhoe hooks to the quick attach and then there is some mechanism that ties the lift arms to the body of the bobcat. So far I haven't been able so see any pics of this, Here is my question: what is the purpose of hooking the lift arms to the machine? is it just so you can't lift up the arms by accident or is it to keep the the arms from being broken because of the forces from the backhoe? The davis D100 hooked onto our case with hooks mounted on the front of the machine, not the arms so I am not familiar with the bobcat setup. I want to convert the Davis backhoe to use the quick attach but I don't know how I would tie the arms to the machine or if I would even need to. I know how to convert it to the quick attach but not the rest. Any thoughts?
 
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