Buying Advice Bobcat 773

[lstinthot]

Looking at buying a Bobcat 773. Its a 2001 with ~1800 hours, has grapple bucket, 3&1 or 4&1 bucket (not sure on what they call it when it opens up to be a dozer blade), tooth bucket, post hole digger with 2 bits, forks, and tracks. He wants $18,000 for it all or $15,000 for the machine and one bucket.

I have never owned a Skid Steer and was not really considering one till I saw this one for sale near my house.

I have a 7000# trailer, will that be enough to carry it?
This machine will be used mostly for making motorcycle trails on our property and making holes and filling them in. Getting the kids out there to "play".
I do have a lot of brush I want to clean up and burn so the grapple bucket looked like it would work nice for this. Once that job is done it will be used mostly for playing unless someone wants me to so work for them.

I was looking for a TLB type setup so we could have a backhoe to play with, but this looks fun and may be able to add a backhoe sometime if this is a good deal.

Does it seam reasonable to get the package deal?

Finding the machines listed anywhere from $10,000 and up. What should I look for on the machine to make sure I will not have lots of maintenance costs right up front?

 

[High Compression]

That does sound like a pretty good deal. A grapple can be around $4k new, by it's self, and the 4-in-1 buckets are about the same.
One thing to consider is that a 773 was when Bobcat was playing with different loader arms for various reasons. A 773 is a "lift and carry" machine. It does very well at that, including loading dump trucks, carrying pallets, etc. On the other hand a 763 at the same time was designed for ground engagement. Grading, digging, and so on. Not that you couldn't do a little grading with the 773, but if you force it in digging or uneven loads on the arms, they have a tendency to bend or even break. Just a FYI. So it depends on your intended uses. Otherwise, Bobcat makes great equipment. That one will have a Kubota engine. 1800hrs is nothin, if it was taken care of. I had 2 Bobcat excavators that had over 4000hrs when I sold them.:thumbsup:

 

[SSdoxie]

A 2001 773 is a G series machine. Considerable redesign went into the loader frame on this machine to make it more rigid, it is a good ground engagment machine as well as lift and carry application. Once you get used to the 4 in 1 bucket you may never use the grapple or regular dirt bucket. With all attachments listed, price is in the ball park.

 

[lstinthot]

Thank you for the replys. I went by the dealer today and talked with them. They agreed the price is about retail price, maybe try to get it for $16,000 - $17,000. Also looked at new ones while there, momma thinks a new one is a lot of money for a toy.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Sounds ok on the machine, as others have said the 773's were for the most part very good popular strong machines.

The 7000 lbs trailer is too small, a 10K trailer would be minimum I'd put it on, with ALL the attachments I'd rather opt for a 12K trailer myself.

 

[lstinthot]

I test drove the Bobcat 773 today and it was not natural to get the bucket to move dirt after digging a little hole with it. I kept trying to use the joystick to dump the bucket and get it to go up and down. Kinda been using a joystick controlled machine for a while. How long does it take to break the old habits and start to use the hand and foot controls or should I be looking for an all joystick control machine?

Also when I turned the machine the hydraulic noise in the cab turns to a high pitched squell. Is this normal? Going straight the drive train sounds real good.

How do I know if the machine is supposed to have the bucket positioning feature? There is a button on the left control box, however, when I push it nothing happens. The owner does not know if it has it or not.


I was figuring the 7000# trailer would be too small for the tractor, I have been looking at bigger ones, just one more reason I should get one.

 

[SSdoxie]

I test drove the Bobcat 773 today and it was not natural to get the bucket to move dirt after digging a little hole with it. I kept trying to use the joystick to dump the bucket and get it to go up and down. Kinda been using a joystick controlled machine for a while. How long does it take to break the old habits and start to use the hand and foot controls or should I be looking for an all joystick control machine.

Also when I turned the machine the hydraulic noise in the cab turns to a high pitched squeal. Is this normal? Going straight the drive train sounds real good.

How do I know if the machine is supposed to have the bucket positioning feature? There is a button on the left control box, however, when I push it nothing happens. The owner does not know if it has it or not.

I was figuring the 7000# trailer would be too small for the tractor, I have been looking at bigger ones, just one more reason I should get one.

It won't take long to get used to the controls. At first just keep reminding yourself while operating it's Left foot - lift, Right foot - roll (the bucket not machine).

Engine RPM makes a big difference in amount of squeal. Low RPM has less charge pump flow so pumps will squeal more under load. When turning you are working each pump against the other, twice as hard as going straight forward with both pumps working in unison.
The dash panel in those machines is common to all G-series so the Bucket Positioning button is there, probably not the kit. The kit could be added and have a dealer reprogram machine to turn it on.


Definitely a bigger trailer is needed. 10K would be bare minimum.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Everything SSdoxie said, you will get used to it rather quickly and will be dissatisfied with slower tractor hydraulics again.

 

[lstinthot]

Does this tractor have slow hydraulics compared to other skid steers? or I would be dissatisfied with slower hydraulics on a normal tractor with a front end loader?

 

[zouheir]

hi

I need used 773 with a good price cause I might need more than one

Regards