I just want to thank ALL of you on the forum over the last few years who have posted about the failing drive motors. My father bought an 2010 S150 in March of 2012 with 189 hours on it to plow snow. He turned 70 this year and was tired of getting on the farmall 560 with the bucket and blade in the cold of winter. I can't blame him. It has been a good machine and we used on the produce farm moving pallets on and off the delivery truck and out in the field with pallet bins. The only real downside is that it is a little slow and it will tear the **** out of the loading area if the person driving is not careful.
My father went to Bobcat of Madison and found a 2005 toolcat that a local municipality had traded in. They claimed they somehow mistakenly bought it without high flow and needed that, yet they kept it for a few years. This just sounded wrong to me from the get go. Anyway the local dealer said they would give it a once over. I started doing some googling and found TBN and the reports of drive motors failing.
I asked Dad to call them and have them check the hydraulics over. Low and behold they then told him it was in the shop having both drive motors replaced to a tune of $4000 COST to the dealer. Dad had not signed any paperwork yet and was VERY relived he did not.
My question is, has this drive motor issue been resolved with the latest replacement motors? Are they still using Comer for the motors? My father really likes the idea of the two seater since he can take the grandkids around the farm during the summer. They love riding on his lap in the S150 when he is pickup up full pallets in the field, but it is really tight with a four or five year old. He also likes the steering wheel and more conformtable ride during the winter.
The cost of these things and the reliability seems to be really bad. The 60 year old farmall 560 has NEVER had any issues like this. It was always stupid stuff like a dripping oil from the pan due to old o-ring, same for oil filter, etc. It ALWAYS started and never ground gears or had hydraulics fail. The idea of a $40,000 mini-tractor breaking down in 200-600 hours and costing thousands to repair just seems criminal.
How has Bobcat not had a class action lawsuit against them for this problem or a mandatory recall?
In the end, what would you recommend as a replacement? He wants to plow snow in the warmth and run pallets around in the summer in the cool. It really makes picking melons and other bulky produce a lot easier to just fill a bin and have it loaded on a truck, etc.
My father went to Bobcat of Madison and found a 2005 toolcat that a local municipality had traded in. They claimed they somehow mistakenly bought it without high flow and needed that, yet they kept it for a few years. This just sounded wrong to me from the get go. Anyway the local dealer said they would give it a once over. I started doing some googling and found TBN and the reports of drive motors failing.
I asked Dad to call them and have them check the hydraulics over. Low and behold they then told him it was in the shop having both drive motors replaced to a tune of $4000 COST to the dealer. Dad had not signed any paperwork yet and was VERY relived he did not.
My question is, has this drive motor issue been resolved with the latest replacement motors? Are they still using Comer for the motors? My father really likes the idea of the two seater since he can take the grandkids around the farm during the summer. They love riding on his lap in the S150 when he is pickup up full pallets in the field, but it is really tight with a four or five year old. He also likes the steering wheel and more conformtable ride during the winter.
The cost of these things and the reliability seems to be really bad. The 60 year old farmall 560 has NEVER had any issues like this. It was always stupid stuff like a dripping oil from the pan due to old o-ring, same for oil filter, etc. It ALWAYS started and never ground gears or had hydraulics fail. The idea of a $40,000 mini-tractor breaking down in 200-600 hours and costing thousands to repair just seems criminal.
How has Bobcat not had a class action lawsuit against them for this problem or a mandatory recall?
In the end, what would you recommend as a replacement? He wants to plow snow in the warmth and run pallets around in the summer in the cool. It really makes picking melons and other bulky produce a lot easier to just fill a bin and have it loaded on a truck, etc.