caution when considering purchasing a bobcat

_RaT_ · Apr 25, 2006

Do you use this pretty much exclusively for snow removal? If so, my snow remover from Tahoma, CA used to use skidsteers for snow removal but now has a very fast machine, even faster then a Bobcat. If you want, give him a call and discuss it. I would be glad to give you his number.

TimH4 · Apr 30, 2006

We have a bobcat T200 track loader that has 1500 hours on it. The drive motor on one side went out at 1200 hours, 200 hours past the warranty period. Bobcat picked up 50% of the cost, which left us with a $2000 repair on a newer machine. Another contractor is on his 4th drive motor on a 2000 hour 863 machine. He has $12,000 + in drive motor repairs. Has anybody else heard of these drive motor problems?

jmc · Apr 30, 2006

My problem with Bobcat is their parent company, Ingersoll Rand. They are a Bermuda incorporated company which can be a corporate strategy to take all the advantages of the US market without the full burden of paying US income taxes. Attached is a link to an infuriating book called "Perfectly Legal", with IR mentioned about 3 lines down. If a company weasels out of its tax obligations, would it be inclined to weasel out of other things?

Perfectly Legal

MikeD74T · Apr 30, 2006

Maybe I read this wrong, but did the Cat or JD dealers agree to cover damage caused by "this something was a piece of ice that had froze itself from the bucket to the auger"? At face value this sounds like an operator problem. Was the machine left to freeze with snow in the auger/fan? Was the damage instantaneous on startup?
I sympathize with your situation . The New Hampshire dealer has a reputation for high prices & a reluctance for warranty repairs. If mechanics sold them & salesmen had to fix them it might be different, but probably not better.