Skid steer info

[Kong]

CAT period, I’ve owned all of them and the rest are fighting for second place. Anyone that doesn’t agree with that comment simply hasn’t owned/ran all the brands to come to that conclusion yet. The old saying you get what you pay for has never been more true than when it comes to heavy equipment. I could write a book on the in’s and out’s of the newer models and it’s been an expensive learning curve for me to be able say that and embarrassing at the same time.

If you have any questions about a certain model feel free to shoot me a pm, some brands are way better than others and some you need to steer clear from all together.

[BrianL]

Been running a JD 333 with mulcher for several years, and no complaints. trade every year or 1000 hrs though. Had a Kubota svl95 prior to and much prefer the 333.

[andre3k]

I wanted something that i could work on myself so I went with an older pre def skid steer. Its a wheeled machine but for the price I paid I can't complain. I picked up a Gehl with a 60 HP oil cooled Duetz engine and its a tank. If I had to do it again, I would go with another Gehl machine, probably the CT320. Fairly simple machine, 114 HP and 50% tipping capacity is 4500 lbs, much cheaper than most other brands.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

I’ve been looking to… we have a bobcat T870 at work that has been a total POS in my opinion. Right at 650 hours and it’s been very unreliable. Can’t get parts can’t get good service…good luck

[samson33]

Stay away from one that’s been mulching.

I don’t know anyone with a kabota that’s been happy. I don’t know anything about the Deere. I’ve got a 259D CAT and it’s been flawless for years, but I know some bigger models have their problems. Mostly DEF and sensors (mine don’t have def)

I’ve owned several brands including multiple kubota and have been very happy with kubota

[Kong]

I’ve been looking to… we have a bobcat T870 at work that has been a total POS in my opinion. Right at 650 hours and it’s been very unreliable. Can’t get parts can’t get good service…good luck

Funny you mention 650 hours, my mark for them to start falling apart on most of the other brands other than CAT is 700, beyond that point your rolling the dice every time you fire them up. JD has serious hydraulic issues and burning to the ground running brush cutters, ASV undercarriages start falling apart, Kubota’s are all over the place and well as Bobcat’s, Tak’s are electrical nightmares, and the rest aren’t even worth mentioning. Any of them can burn down running a mulcher or brush cutter if not well maintained but the JD’s are by far the worst. We lost 2 on a single ROW job in the same week cleaning them every 4 hours cutting an overgrown mile long pipe line. Try explaining that to your insurance company, I always go back to the theory you get what you pay for. We’ve lost one CAT to a fire but that was due to a blown hydraulic line from a limb ripping a hose loose.

Hydraulic fluid is very flammable when introduced to an ignition source, another lesson learned the hard way.

[rferg84]

I've got a 2006 Bobcat S220 with 3800 hours.

60% of the time, it works every time. Joking, it works 99% of the time.


I've had normal wear and tear issues, belts and such. I have an actuator out right now and need to haul to bobcat.

I have friends who love Kubotas, I have had good experience with their other products but haven't owned one of their skids.

[rferg84]

I have an older New Holland LX885 that is tank. It's got over 6k hours on it and while it won't win any beauty contests, it does the job. You can usually find a deal on them, especially in the winter on places like FB and the like.

Whatever machine you buy, make sure to get the manual on it and learn to fix it yourself and keep up on the maintenance. You'll save tons in time, hauling it, and money without getting a dealer involved. Messicks.com is my go to site for parts.

Great advice.

Youtube and that manual are your friend for sure.

They aren't hard to work on, everything is pretty easy to get to on most of them.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

Funny you mention 650 hours, my mark for them to start falling apart on most of the other brands other than CAT is 700, beyond that point your rolling the dice every time you fire them up. JD has serious hydraulic issues and burning to the ground running brush cutters, ASV undercarriages start falling apart, Kubota’s are all over the place and well as Bobcat’s, Tak’s are electrical nightmares, and the rest aren’t even worth mentioning. Any of them can burn down running a mulcher or brush cutter if not well maintained but the JD’s are by far the worst. We lost 2 on a single ROW job in the same week cleaning them every 4 hours cutting an overgrown mile long pipe line. Try explaining that to your insurance company, I always go back to the theory you get what you pay for. We’ve lost one CAT to a fire but that was due to a blown hydraulic line from a limb ripping a hose loose.

Hydraulic fluid is very flammable when introduced to an ignition source, another lesson learned the hard way.

We run a mulcher on ours and it overheats constantly… I have broken 3 sets of tilt cylinders and had to weld them up because I couldn’t buy any. I ended up have a machine shop make new ones that cost 2 times the msrp cost. Pops tracks off daily even after adjusting track tension to be tighter. Electric issues from day one. Bolts randomly fall out of the track rollers.broken track rollers you name it this machine has done it lol.

[BrianL]

Funny you mention 650 hours, my mark for them to start falling apart on most of the other brands other than CAT is 700, beyond that point your rolling the dice every time you fire them up. JD has serious hydraulic issues and burning to the ground running brush cutters, ASV undercarriages start falling apart, Kubota’s are all over the place and well as Bobcat’s, Tak’s are electrical nightmares, and the rest aren’t even worth mentioning. Any of them can burn down running a mulcher or brush cutter if not well maintained but the JD’s are by far the worst. We lost 2 on a single ROW job in the same week cleaning them every 4 hours cutting an overgrown mile long pipe line. Try explaining that to your insurance company, I always go back to the theory you get what you pay for. We’ve lost one CAT to a fire but that was due to a blown hydraulic line from a limb ripping a hose loose.

Hydraulic fluid is very flammable when introduced to an ignition source, another lesson learned the hard way.

JD has increased the size of the belly pan plates/clean outs that have really helped with that. Debris in the bottom was causing the fires(on all of them), along with messy servicing that allowed hydraulic fluid to soak into that debris. We did have one burn after dealership worked on a hydraulic leak and my guess they never cleaned it after service. It was MUCH harder to clean on the older machines. JD insurance and resale values are hard to beat though.

[Kong]

JD has increased the size of the belly pan plates/clean outs that have really helped with that. Debris in the bottom was causing the fires(on all of them), along with messy servicing that allowed hydraulic fluid to soak into that debris. We did have one burn after dealership worked on a hydraulic leak and my guess they never cleaned it after service. It was MUCH harder to clean on the older machines. JD insurance and resale values are hard to beat though.

Hydraulic leaks being the key words, the three we’ve owned all leaked non stop regardless how many trips to the shop they made. I dumped the third one we had before it cost me another $20,000 hit to the pocket book. The JD resale value was horrible compared to a CAT’s as well. You loosing one to a fire pretty much proves my point on them burning down with leaking hydraulics, not many survive past a thousand hours without a fire department involved. I’m sure some guys have great luck with them but if they gave me a new one today I’d never start it prior to being sold.

[BrianL]

Hydraulic leaks being the key words, the three we’ve owned all leaked non stop regardless how many trips to the shop they made. I dumped the third one we had before it cost me another $20,000 hit to the pocket book. The JD resale value was horrible compared to a CAT’s as well. You loosing one to a fire pretty much proves my point on them burning down with leaking hydraulics, not many survive past a thousand hours without a fire department involved. I’m sure some guys have great luck with them but if they gave me a new one today I’d never start it prior to being sold.

Guessing those were older machines since they were out of warranty?

[bloodtrailer28]

Cat
Cat
Cat.....Cat lol.


Only other one I'd remotely consider would be Kubota although they are much rougher riding than the cats and we had a brand new one catch fire. The guys were driving it down the road it heard a pop next thing you know she's on fire. From what we could tell it came from the turbo. Luckily it was a rental! Lol think it had less than 100 hours.

Our oldest cat has around 4000 hours and that machine has been put through hell.

[Kong]

No sir they weren’t old machines, the new ones burn just like the old ones. Did your warranty cover yours burning up? If so I need to make some phone calls and get my money back I lost, I could go on a nice hunt for 20k. A moose hunt sounds nice lol

Seriously though I don’t want to derail the OP’s thread to far off course but you love them and I hate them, I hope you have better luck than we did.

[Kong]

Cat
Cat
Cat.....Cat lol.


Only other one I'd remotely consider would be Kubota although they are much rougher riding than the cats and we had a brand new one catch fire. The guys were driving it down the road it heard a pop next thing you know she's on fire. From what we could tell it came from the turbo. Luckily it was a rental! Lol think it had less than 100 hours.

Our oldest cat has around 4000 hours and that machine has been put through hell.

Wisdom speaking , the suspension on the CAT’s makes a night and day difference nobody talks about when your in them for hours at a time.