dieselfuelonly
Gold Member
Hi everyone, I was looking for some opinions on this Bobcat 743. I went and drove it today. Its a 1986 model I think.
While I didn't get to hear it cold start, I would of course do that before I purchased the machine. The owner said he would hold the glow plugs for about 45 seconds, then it would take about 3 tries to get it running in the 35ish degree weather. It fired up instantly when warm.
It doesn't appear to be burning any oil. It has a about 3200 hours.
The interior is a little rough, the coolant temperature gauge doesn't work, but the rest of the machine seems pretty solid. He said he had a new gauge to put in there.
If you look in the picture that shows the front of the machine, you can see 2 plates that are on the cross-brace above the bucket, on the arms. The owner said a crack developed here, but he welded the plates on there and from what i can tell he did a good job and it seems solid.
It has the 4 cylinder Kubota diesel. I think its 30 something horsepower.
I've only operated larger skidsteers before, like a 753-773.
This one seemed to be lacking power. I don't know if it wasn't running right, or if its just because its a smaller machine. Is it normal for the tires not to spin and the engine to bog when pushing into a pile of hard dirt to scoop it up? I noticed some white smoke at the higher RPMs, especially under load. It could have been because it was cold out. It didn't smell like antifreeze or anything, so I don't think the headgasket is bad. Maybe theres a hole in a fuel line drawing some air in?
Or maybe a little white smoke is normal. The exhaust smells like diesel exhaust, no oil or other bad "smells".
The owner was using the machine for a job he had, and it looks like he takes decent care of his equipment - it had dates written on the oil filter and such.
He operated the machine at about 3/5 to 3/4 throttle it seemed. I guess thats OK, hopefully someone can chime in there.
He was also including a backhoe attachment. It didn't appear to have been used much, and came with 2 buckets. Last time he used it a hydraulic hose busted, and he said it lost about 5 gallons of fluid.
I have asked him if he would take 6500 for the machine with the backhoe and regular bucket, and he said yes, it seems like a decent deal, but I wanted to have others give their opinion on the machine before I bought it. Its a lot of money no matter what way you look at it.
Hopefully these pictures and videos can help.
Thanks again for your input.
Dennis
Sorry about the crappy quality videos, its the best my cell phone can do.
While I didn't get to hear it cold start, I would of course do that before I purchased the machine. The owner said he would hold the glow plugs for about 45 seconds, then it would take about 3 tries to get it running in the 35ish degree weather. It fired up instantly when warm.
It doesn't appear to be burning any oil. It has a about 3200 hours.
The interior is a little rough, the coolant temperature gauge doesn't work, but the rest of the machine seems pretty solid. He said he had a new gauge to put in there.
If you look in the picture that shows the front of the machine, you can see 2 plates that are on the cross-brace above the bucket, on the arms. The owner said a crack developed here, but he welded the plates on there and from what i can tell he did a good job and it seems solid.
It has the 4 cylinder Kubota diesel. I think its 30 something horsepower.
I've only operated larger skidsteers before, like a 753-773.
This one seemed to be lacking power. I don't know if it wasn't running right, or if its just because its a smaller machine. Is it normal for the tires not to spin and the engine to bog when pushing into a pile of hard dirt to scoop it up? I noticed some white smoke at the higher RPMs, especially under load. It could have been because it was cold out. It didn't smell like antifreeze or anything, so I don't think the headgasket is bad. Maybe theres a hole in a fuel line drawing some air in?
Or maybe a little white smoke is normal. The exhaust smells like diesel exhaust, no oil or other bad "smells".
The owner was using the machine for a job he had, and it looks like he takes decent care of his equipment - it had dates written on the oil filter and such.
He operated the machine at about 3/5 to 3/4 throttle it seemed. I guess thats OK, hopefully someone can chime in there.
He was also including a backhoe attachment. It didn't appear to have been used much, and came with 2 buckets. Last time he used it a hydraulic hose busted, and he said it lost about 5 gallons of fluid.
I have asked him if he would take 6500 for the machine with the backhoe and regular bucket, and he said yes, it seems like a decent deal, but I wanted to have others give their opinion on the machine before I bought it. Its a lot of money no matter what way you look at it.
Hopefully these pictures and videos can help.
Thanks again for your input.
Dennis
Sorry about the crappy quality videos, its the best my cell phone can do.
