Bobcat Compact Tractor

lawn_king · Nov 17, 2007

I have a 22 year business relationship with a company that does my heavy excavation & trucking when i sell a large landscape construction project. He ran bobcat equipment for years. He now runs all cat, not because of equipment failure, because of too many disasters with 3 local dealers!

davitk · Nov 17, 2007

That's too bad. Bobcat is gold in Southern Wisconsin - obviously they have to work on their dealer nework. No doubt dealer support is equally important to machine quality.

Leejohn · Nov 18, 2007

The way I look at Bobcat selling tractors as the new kid on the block. They do have ahead start over other new lines starting out new. They have a well known name and a dealer network already in place, not saying all dealers well sign up. I thank you well see alot at first then level off, faster then normal. It well sell good at first just because it has the Bobcat name and the people don't care so much who made it. If the tractor can live up to it's name, then it might become a big player. Until then I look at it as just a nice looking tractor.
Lee

mikeyd · Nov 18, 2007

Bobcat has been using Kubota diesel motors in thier skidsteers for years. Will they now switch to a Kioti diesel? Does Kioti make thier own motors?

lawn_king · Nov 18, 2007

I cant say im crazy about the white color, i guess that is a bobcat trademark? Perhaps im semi color blind from so many years of persian orange?

IslandTractor · Nov 18, 2007

mikeyd said:
Bobcat has been using Kubota diesel motors in thier skidsteers for years. Will they now switch to a Kioti diesel? Does Kioti make thier own motors?

Yes and yes. Daedong is the motor name. Same company that builds Kioti tractors (which are painted white for Bobcat).

MessickFarmEqu · Nov 18, 2007

mikeyd said:
Bobcat has been using Kubota diesel motors in thier skidsteers for years. Will they now switch to a Kioti diesel? Does Kioti make thier own motors?

They have not yet, only time will tell. Probably depends on how tense the relationship between the two companies gets.

RAILTRAC · Nov 19, 2007

I was curious who owned the local Bobcat dealer here.So I did a little net surfing.
Home - cervuslp.com.

N80 · Nov 28, 2007

Will we see Kubota enter the skid steer market? Every mini-excavater you see in this region is Kubota. If Kubota made skid steers, I suspect the same would be true. Bobcat doesn't need anymore competition in that market. I see more Cat and NH skidsteers as it is.

bota7800 · Dec 8, 2007

kozak said:
Sure is purdy but they painted the wheels the wrong colour. Other than that, sharp looking tractor. What kind of warranty does it come with ??

Vic

Looks like the right color wheels to me- Bobcat skidsteers have orange wheels

I like the Kiotis quite a bit and may replace my Kubota with one. I had not heard of the Bobcat branded ones till this thread.

davitk · Dec 8, 2007

I know for a fact they're at the dealer's (select and far between) now; wonder why it's so quiet.

radman1 · Dec 8, 2007

Yes, they bobcat tractors should be showing up at select dealers soon or maybe now. Talked to a bobcat select dealer 1 month ago and he had already ordered a few. Said I could order one if I wanted.
Bobcat rep I spoke with said they will be priced below the competition.

ChuckinNH · Dec 9, 2007

I saw a couple at the Bobcat dealer in Chichester,NH (near Concord) yesterday when I was driving by... Looks like they are here

davitk · Jan 15, 2008

caddison · Jan 20, 2008

You would think a Bobcat tractor would come standard with a quick-attach bucket.....wonder how hard it is to remove the loader?

davitk · Jan 20, 2008

Wierd, isn't it? QA isn't even available on these tractors. Yet.

IslandTractor · Jan 20, 2008

caddison said:
You would think a Bobcat tractor would come standard with a quick-attach bucket.....wonder how hard it is to remove the loader?

No reason to remove the loader...maybe you meant the bucket. That should be trivial. The issue is how to get a pin mount QA adapter for whatever pin spacing arrangement Bobcat has decided on for the loader. The loader is the one piece of the Bobcat tractor that is not sourced from Kioti so a Kioti bucket will not fit. You can get QA adapters for most pin mount FELs from places like ATI and Horst Welding (and others) but I don't know if any of them are manufacturing anything for the Bobcat specific pin mount QA adapter yet.

The other thing you could probably do is buy the Bobcat tractor and put an orange (Kioti) FEL on it. Should be a simple bolt on given the tractors are identical. You can definitely get QA adapters for the Kioti FELs. Of course if you were going to do that you might as well just do the whole deal with a Kioti dealer and have an orange tractor too.

fishpick · Jan 22, 2008

davitk said:
...No doubt dealer support is equally important to machine quality...

More so - IMHO - since EVERY tractor used as such will have SOMETHING break, bend, stick or snap at some point in its life - no matter how refined the engineering - the QC - or the materials used... and it's at that time the tool is broken and it really doesn't matter the color... just the willingness of the human on the other end of the phone to fix the problem.

HPDrifter · Jan 22, 2008

I had a chance to take a look at the new Bobcats at the National Western Stock show here in Denver last weekend. Nice enough machine but they definetly need to do some dealer training. I have been a salesman most of my adult life and I asked some basic questions about the machine which they really had no clue how to answer. In fact they told me I was there nightmare customer since I actually knew what the tractor could do. I hit them up about the missing QA bucket. I while quote them on this and this is supposed to be Bobcat's answer to the question. If you want quick attache attachements you should be buying a skid loader. I told him wrong answer and that would turn me off right there. I run a masonry company in my spare time and I want a machine that not only can I work my acreage with, but also put on a set of pallet forks and load bagged masonry onto my truck. Also there price was way to high for a company trying to get market share. Quote was in the 18 1/2k range on the 25 horse model. Biggest laugh was I asked him what the specs were on the loader and he changed the subject to point out there nice cup holder.

IslandTractor · Jan 23, 2008

That sort of experience with established Bobcat dealers is the reason dedicated Kioti dealers should not be too worried about losing market share.

You can get a new 41hp DK with loader for roughly what they were asking for a 25 hp CK.