Earthforce goes red and white w/whiskers

[Tags]

Just thought I'd put this out there....I was just in Vegas for the Con Ex show and stopped by the Bobcat display and lo and behold they had a bunch of machines painted Bobcat red and white that used to be painted silver........it seems Bobcat(Ingersol Rand) has now re-badged the Earthforce machines as Bobcats,I would think that only good things can happen from here on in being that now that machine will have high visibility and strong dealer support,just thought I'd let you guys know!

 

[MChalkley]

Hmmm, interesting. I was on the phone yesterday with the EarthForce N.A. GM, and he told me the EF-250's and smaller are now re-badged in white Bobcat colors, while the EF-300 and larger are staying silver. Did you notice that, too?

I just got back from a big 5-day project with the EF-500 and found I wasn't as productive with it as I'd hoped, but it wasn't the machine's fault. Well, it sorta was the machine's fault, but not because of its capabilities. Details soon in the "Goodbye Kubota, Hello EarthForce" thread in the "Other Brands" section... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Tags]

Mark,
I'm not sure what model(or models) were there but I have seen the pics of yours and I don't think any of the ones there were your size,I also didn't talk to anyone from Bobcat ,I just figured they were taking over the whole line being that their whole display was kinda centered around the three or four EF machines they had there.

 

[MChalkley]

Tags - <font color=blue>their whole display was kinda centered around the three or four EF machines they had there</font color=blue>

That's interesting, too. There was a fairly small Bobcat area at the Louisville Farm Show. I told the guy manning the booth that I had an EarthForce machine, and it looked like I drained a gallon of blood out of him. Turns out, he was a Bobcat dealer, not a factory guy, and his dealership hadn't been authorized to sell EarthForce, presumably because somebody else in his area already had it... So I didn't make a friend there. I thought I was slapping a brother on the back, and ended up inserting the blade and twisting it. Ooops.

 

[MChalkley]

Tags - I forgot something in the last post:

EarthForce is a division of Bobcat now, but it's (so far) a separate product line entirely. Dealers are selected independently. Some will sell both Bobcat and EarthForce, some won't. That'll probably change before long, but for now, that's the story they're telling me. I know they're not yanking the EarthForce dealership away from existing dealers, even if they sell a competitor's skid steer, for example. But, as for models, they're all being handled the same, except for the paint: White Bobcat scheme on EF-250's and smaller, original silver, er, pink, on EF-300 and larger. I don't know why, but some marketing guy somewhere thought it was a bright idea, I'm sure.

 

[MChalkley]

Well, I just got off the phone with somebody who should know, and the latest on the EarthForce product line is this:

EF-250's and smaller can be sold by all Bobcat dealers, and will be white with red whiskers...

EF-250's and larger will remain a separate division under the Ingersoll-Rand brand, using existing EarthForce dealers and new ones to be named. These machines will be I/R beige. Supposedly, there was an EarthForce booth at ConExpo in Las Vegas which had a couple of the beige machines on display.

There's still some confusion over whether one or the other will end up with the EF-250, or they'll both be able to get it in their respective color scheme.

So, it looks like my silver EF-500 is the first and last of an extinct breed. Oh well, it was going to be unique anyway - now it's just uniquer. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Tags]

Mark,
There is a definite possibility that EF was there and I just didn't see em',but just to give you an idea of how BIG this show was....I went 2 days,9am to 5pm on thursday and the same time was spent there Saturday and I still didn't see it all,I talked to some of companies there and they said it would take three WEEKS to truck everything away and clean up.There was equipment there that you would probably never see or have a use for but it was cool just to look at such large equipment,don't get me wrong though,there were plenty of attachment,hydraulic,and instrumentation displays there to. The show runs every three years,I would suggest to anyone who likes equipment to make the trip in 2005.

 

[Muhammad]

Quite a change for the EarthForce line, I'd say ... was it a complete buyout? Are the EarthForce people still running that division, or is it all in Bobcat's hands now?

This certainly will mean a lot more sales of the smaller units... and more serious competition to the existing TLBs on the market now.

 

[MChalkley]

Muhammad - You know how corporate purchase are. Momma buys something and all the kids claim it's theirs.

Ingersoll-Rand bought Superstav, the Czech Republic based company that designed and produced the EarthForce line. Immediately, all the Bobcat dealers I talked to were saying "Bobcat bought EarthForce", because it made them feel good, I suppose. I can't see that it makes much difference, but it's pretty clear now that I-R thinks the smaller EFs should be shown to typical skid steer audiences, whereas the larger ones will profit from having the I-R name instead of the Bobcat one, and be sold from dealers with more of a "heavy equipment" audience.

It makes sense to me. Especially after having several people with skid steers tell me they wanted to hock them in favor of an EF-400 or EF-500 after seeing mine. When I first heard that EarthForce was being incorporated into the Bobcat line, I thought of the "fox guarding the henhouse" analogy. I didn't believe it for an instant, because it didn't make any sense for I-R at all. Then, when I got my machine, I noticed it had I-R logos on it, but no Bobcat ones. But, for the smaller ones to be sold as Bobcats, that does make sense.

In answer to your other question, all the EarthForce folks are still there, they're just reporting to I-R/Bobcat folks.

 

[ewoss3]

Mark, I'm just wondering if this will put another layer between the factory and the end-user, from reading it appeared that you had direct contact with Superstav for making modifications..any thoughts?

 

[MChalkley]

Rob, I have had, and still have, direct contact with the engineers in CZ and the management here. They're great folks to work with and really know their stuff. I'm a little concerned that the buyout will make the people who know what's going on less accessible, too. But, things don't seem to be heading in that direction.

Overall, my concerns about less accessability are greatly outweighed by the positive effect I-R ownership should have on EarthForce. It should give them the resources to be able to polish and refine the machine a bit. The manuals could be improved, the instrumentation needs to be Americanized and enhanced, some things like that. I know they're already working on those things, so things are heading in the right direction. As for accessability, I usually manage to be able to get to the folks who know what's going on anyway - I think it's because the corporate "professional talkers" don't have much patience with me (nor I with them), and I don't mind calling them every day if I need something - the net effect is that it doesn't take long before I'm given access to the folks that make things happen. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[ewoss3]

Mark have you sent your improvements to the engineers so they might consider adding them at some point.I think adding thing like better lighting and chain slots would be a welcome addition on any tractor. I know that the towing community has worked with manufacturers to improve tie-down points on other vehicle/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif