Joined the toolcat club!

[radman1]

Today I officially joined the toolcat club. Picked up my 5610 and used it about 4 hours. Mowed with the 90" finish mower for 2 hours. Glad I listened to everyone and got the 90" instead of the 72". Most of the grass was about 8-10" and worked fantastic. With my previous rear finish mower and CUT, the tires would knock down the taller grass and leave some skips of unmowed grass. I have owned a few other CUTs and skid steers. When I get more seat time, I will do a comparison of those to the toolcat 5610.

Really glad I got the air pre-cleaner kit. With the mower in front and rear discharge, there is a lot of debris near the motor and ground. It has been dry the past 4-6 weeks and lots of dry grass and visible dirt in the air. I could see visible dirt in the pre-cleaner bowl even when mounted up high. The higher mounted main fan on the 5610 showed no grass or debris after 2 hours. The only place grass clippings tend to reside was on the cover over the A/C fan/condenser.

I did find the mower safety stop a little annoying. Lift the mower and the blades stop. I know it is a safety device but those same devices don't exist on tractor mounted RFMs. Sometimes it is nice to lift the mower over bare ground, roads or small amount of dirt/rocks without shutting off the mower.

Tomorrows test is using rear 6' rhino rotary mower and making mods to add TNT on the 3 pt.

 

[3Bladz]

Wish I could see it! Cant wait to hear more.

 

[mouse]

hardly a challenge to decommsion the safety cutout should you so desire....

congrats by the way.

 

[Dargo]

You guys make me so jealous! I just think the Toolcat is such an awesome machine but I'd have to part with some of my existing toy....er, machines to get one. I'm particularly interested in hearing how well they work for finish mowing. To be able to mow with one of my kids would just be the cat's meow! I can technically do it now with the buddy seat in my JD tractor, but it's such a big machine that weighs 2 1/2 times as much as the Toolcat (which isn't light!) and the RFM isn't as nice as one out front of a Toolcat as best I can tell. Congratulations on your new machine!!

 

[radman1]

Dargo

I thought the front finish mower (FFM) wouldn't be a big deal over a rear finish mower (RFM). The big pluses are not having to look back when mowing next to objects or under objects such as trees. Second there is no down grass due to tires. The down/driven over grass tends to pop up in a few days and is more noticeable.


Mouse

I looked in the pictures in manual on the mower stop device but haven't removed the cover yet. The safety stop could be disabled without too much bother. Has anyone disabled it yet or afraid of the flack from the safety police?

Mowed prarie grass today with 6' bush hog mower. Grass was from 18-24" tall. Had not been mowed this year and had more rain than usual. The 5610 did much better than I expected. The pto rpm read out was very handy to tell how the 5610 and mower were performing. Most of the mowing was done near 3.5 mph. If I went over 4 mph, the cut was not what I wanted. The poor cut was not due to rpm drop but instead due to speed of travel. My blades are probably very dull and I never sharpen bush hog blades. I have owned the mower 6 years and bought it used. I never really slowed the pto rpm much, even if traveling fast. The rear pto can easily exceed 600 rpm with the motor near WOT. At first, I really missed the depth stop of a CUT for lowering the lift arms. On a CUT it is set depth stop, drop and go. Looking back all the time to check the 5610 depth was becoming a hassel. I was mowing mostly in a small area with frequent turns. The 5610 has a depth guide (does not give true depth but rather a guide with numbers on a piece of metal). After 40 minutes it dawned on me to use the rear view mirror. The mirror actually has a dimmer tab on the bottom. Flip the tab and the depth stop is easily visible. Now I just watch the guide in the rear view mirror. The numbers are backwards but easy to see. I have a set of aluminum depth stops for cylinders. I will try them out next time and see if I can get a repeatable depth. Interestingly, the 3 pt lift cylinder is a 2 way cylinder. It powers up and down. However, Bobcat built the 3 pt so it behaves like a normal tractor 3pt with no down force. I haven't studied it well, but one maybe able to modify the 3pt for power up and down. Could be useful for rear blade work or modified to use with my tree spade to act like rear stabliizers and get more down force on the front for the spade.

A big plus for the 5610 over a CUT is the suspension. A path in my field that I use to go 5-7 mph with the CUT, I was able to go near 15-16 mph with the 5610 and probably could have gone at full speed. Even with a load on the front or back, the ride was far superior. The implement doesn't bounce like it does on a CUT. There is no comparison in how much smoother the ride is with the toolcat. In case you didn't catch it - THERE IS NO COMPARISON IN HOW MUCH SMOOTHER THE RIDE IS WITH THE TOOLCAT'S INDEPENDANT SUSPENSION.

 

[PAFarmboy1]

Radman: Congratulations on your new 5610. When Bobcat sent me their most recent quarterly publication "Worksaver" the 5610 is on the cover. I have a 5600c which I use for many purposes on my property. The possibilites with the three point hitch are awesome, however I do like the dump bed on the c series. I had a tremendous problem with overheating when I first purchased my toolcat when mowing. Thanks to the guys on this forum, I keep the radiator clean and have never had a problem since.

 

[trlbrkr]

I disconnected the safety on my finish mower last year with no regrets.

 

[radman1]

I disconnected my mower safety this weekend. No regrets. Now I can lift it slightly when I need to.

 

[Tigger]

I just got on board as well. Bought a low hour (250) 2007 5600 with all the upgrades, light package, bigger tires, flasher beacon and a custom built (by the dealer) snorkel intake for dusty conditions. Also ordered an 8 way blade for snow pushing but haven't got it yet. Gotta phone the dealer rep to day and get him a reminder. Had the machine since end of September but haven't had much time to (play) Work. Had to make a trip to Texas to see a new grandson. Just back now and put the rig to work yesterday afternoon moving shale on a new ball diamond. It worked like a charm and hopefully with a little more practice I'll be able to make a nice level finish on the job. I was working with a buddy who was using a tracked Cat skid steer and he was finishing while I was spreading piles. The Case dealer had dropped of a demo for us and it quit working after it was shut off. couldn't get it going again so phoned the dealer to pick it up. Kinda funny actually. Just signed up this morning but gotta get to work so we'll chat later. I've got questions about oil etc. So ttyas (talk to you all soon).
Tigger

 

[radman1]

Tigger

Congrats on your new purchase. Let us know how it performs for you. The guys here are very helpful and ready to answer any questions.