Bobcat Brand TLB?

[Yardscaper]

Anyone out there own/operate a Bobcat brand Tractor Loader Backhoe? I have demoed a B300 and am now demoing a B250. I am just wondering what kind of luck people have had with these machines as far as reliability and power. I believe these machines used to be under the Earthforce name. I am wanting to know if this is a wise choice on a TLB.

Thanks for any information! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bill

 

[Richard]

My guess is, if you do a search here under Earthforce, you will find a plethora of comments, mainly by Mr. Chalkley who traded his Kubota L-4610 monster for one. I'd venture to say he'd give you a very positive feedback on it.

 

[Chechnya]

Nice machines but very expensive. People are asking for bigger tires too.

 

[RobertN]

I used a rental B250 for a couple days. It worked well, and was smooth to operate. Two days before, we used a Kubota L35TLB. It was nice, but the hoe controls were really jerky.

The B250 manuevered and dug really well. It was also nice to switch between loader buckets too. I like the fact that you can put pretty much any skid steer attachment on there, including hydraulic driven.

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Bigger tires -- yeah, Bobcat just doesn't go large. *sighs* They won't market a three-stage telehandler (IR won't either, because they have their own) and they won't make a larger mini-TLB (though IR DOES market such a model). Bobcat in Europe does market both larger telehandlers and larger TLBs, but I guess not here. Oh wel.

 

[Yardscaper]

I demoed a Bobcat 250TLB and it was terrible. I do not know if something was wrong with mine or not, but every time I tried to dig with the loader ar push a pile of dirt to backfill, it would stall. It would not even lift what it was rated at. I told my salesman about it, and he said they would look into it, but said that is about as good as that machine will do. I had used the B300 the week before, and it is the clear winner. I like the John Deere 110 TLB, but I am trying to keep maneuverability, and the four wheel steer Bobcat has just that.

Thanks for the replies!

Bill

 

[RobertN]

We worked the you know what out of that B250, heavy rock,, digging, backfill. We had no problem; it worked great. Between the hoe on the back, and a tooth bucket up front, watch out /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

I think it may be like the Kubota L35 I rented too, the 'hoe controls were pretty poor on it. I would go out on a limb and guess that it was a rental, and worked hard.

The B250 should have had no problem working the loader; there must have been something amiss with it, which is not a good thing to have come up in Demo use!x

 

[Yardscaper]

It especially concerned me with the B250 that with all of these short comings that occur with hard use on all types of equipment, this demo had only 115 hours on it!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I told my dealer that he really should not demo this machine in particular, especilly for someone like me that is really on the fence with these TLBs.

 

[v8dave]

I rented a B100 for two days to dig up a lot of bushes and small trees in preparation for a major excavation. It was my first backhoe operating experience. It did all I asked of it and withstood my learning experiences.

I feel it was more stable, on my not so level property, than the Kubota I now have. However, the lack of four wheel drive on the Bobcat B100 knocked it out for me. It would not climb some of the mild slopes that were covered with dry grass.

Dave