RobS
Super Member
This actually happened several years ago (when the truck was only about six months old /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif )
I had rented a Bobcat to dig a foundation for a room addition at our old house. Got a backhoe attachment with it and all went well. A friend suggested extending the hoe all the way out then inching up to the existing structure stopping with a bit of margin. That was a great tip, never hit the house.
Later, I was using the bobcat loader to remove some spoils. My nearly new pickup was parked on the street and there was the ever-so-slight downgrade to it from the lawn area. My first scoop of dirt was a doozy and boy was I proud of myself. I spun that machine around and headed down towards my truck thinking of nothing but the next scoop. Had the bucket up plenty high to clear the truck bed. Started slowing as I approached my truck and that is when I learned a rather abrupt lesson about Bobcat stability... there isn't such a thing! Between the slight downgrade, the full and high bucket and my slowing down the whole thing rocked forward faster than I could remember which controls did what. The attached picture shows the result. Bobcat meets truck bed /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
It wasn't pretty and the words coming from my mouth are certainly not suitable for this forum! The sheet metal of the truck just folded up like it was paper. Both bed side and tailgate. It was worse than the picture shows. After a brief cooling down period my previous body shop experience came to mind and I used the same Bobcat to push the bed side back in and up to a semi-reasonable position. You can see a horizontal witness line in the bed from that manuever. I later took a hammer and assorted other tools to the tailgate to regain functionality. It doesn't look pretty but it does work. No damage to the taillight, thankfully.
Sometime later I talked to insurance but they wanted to call it collision, which would have affected my rates substantially. I've since worn it as a badge of courage and happily continue to use the truck as it was intended, to haul things.
Some time later, we bought property tractor etc. I never even considered a skid steer, went straight to a CUT /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I had rented a Bobcat to dig a foundation for a room addition at our old house. Got a backhoe attachment with it and all went well. A friend suggested extending the hoe all the way out then inching up to the existing structure stopping with a bit of margin. That was a great tip, never hit the house.
Later, I was using the bobcat loader to remove some spoils. My nearly new pickup was parked on the street and there was the ever-so-slight downgrade to it from the lawn area. My first scoop of dirt was a doozy and boy was I proud of myself. I spun that machine around and headed down towards my truck thinking of nothing but the next scoop. Had the bucket up plenty high to clear the truck bed. Started slowing as I approached my truck and that is when I learned a rather abrupt lesson about Bobcat stability... there isn't such a thing! Between the slight downgrade, the full and high bucket and my slowing down the whole thing rocked forward faster than I could remember which controls did what. The attached picture shows the result. Bobcat meets truck bed /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
It wasn't pretty and the words coming from my mouth are certainly not suitable for this forum! The sheet metal of the truck just folded up like it was paper. Both bed side and tailgate. It was worse than the picture shows. After a brief cooling down period my previous body shop experience came to mind and I used the same Bobcat to push the bed side back in and up to a semi-reasonable position. You can see a horizontal witness line in the bed from that manuever. I later took a hammer and assorted other tools to the tailgate to regain functionality. It doesn't look pretty but it does work. No damage to the taillight, thankfully.
Sometime later I talked to insurance but they wanted to call it collision, which would have affected my rates substantially. I've since worn it as a badge of courage and happily continue to use the truck as it was intended, to haul things.
Some time later, we bought property tractor etc. I never even considered a skid steer, went straight to a CUT /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
