PICs of Rust Spots

[dfeck]

Since there's been a lot of talk about the fit and finish of the Bobcat tractors I'd thought I would post some PICs of what was delivered to me. To me, these were acceptable and consider it somewhat ok seeing that the tractor was sitting outside for almost a year. The issue is the metal body work and the white paint makes rust standout like a sore thumb. Other owners can comment if this is what they received or worst.

BTW - I mixed in a few PICs of my tractor sitting in its' new spot in my garage!

Thanks,
Doug

 

[Sprocket]

Looks like that Cat made its first kill (croquet ste under the bucket in the second photo)

Some of those rust spots look like a pain, but nothing major...Clean them up real good and hit em with good primer and topcoat. White shows rust but is very forgiving on touch up.

 

[boatyard]

That much rust on a new tractor would concern me. My neighbor has a 20 year old Ford tractor that has been outside from day one. Your Bobcat is quickly going to look similar to his tractor. That much rust should take far longer then one year outside. Most cars live outside and do not show any signs of rust for maybe 10 plus years. I would be calling Bobcat. Maybe even jumping up and down.
Good luck with this.










STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

 

[dfeck]

I'm comparing my Bobcat with a New Holland my brother just bought. His New Holland (65HP) was a 2008 left over that was sitting outside at the dealer. His also had some surface rust on some of the welds. Not very much but blue is harder to see the rust. To me the worst was the fading of the light gray plastic (due to UV) that is on the New Hollands. Because of it being light Gray it stood out to me. Again, not bad just noticeable. I'm not very concerned about the rust on my tractor. As mentioned, a light sanding and paint will do the trick. For the price I paid ($9500) I consider this a minor issue. Yes, I could have spent 3-6K more on another name brand to get a better paint job but decided the price wasn't worth a better paint job. I'll put that savings to use somewhere else.

Doug

 

[Robert_in_NY]

That much rust on a new tractor would concern me. My neighbor has a 20 year old Ford tractor that has been outside from day one. Your Bobcat is quickly going to look similar to his tractor. That much rust should take far longer then one year outside. Most cars live outside and do not show any signs of rust for maybe 10 plus years. I would be calling Bobcat. Maybe even jumping up and down.
Good luck with this.









STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

Cars rust too but you don't usually see exposed welds on cars like you do tractors. The sheetmetal on this tractor doesn't look bad just like you would expect on a car or truck.

Can it be better? Yes, but I don't really see very many other tractors that are better. You just don't notice it as much because of the darker colors most tractors are painted.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I'm comparing my Bobcat with a New Holland my brother just bought. His New Holland (65HP) was a 2008 left over that was sitting outside at the dealer. His also had some surface rust on some of the welds. Not very much but blue is harder to see the rust. To me the worst was the fading of the light gray plastic (due to UV) that is on the New Hollands. Because of it being light Gray it stood out to me. Again, not bad just noticeable. I'm not very concerned about the rust on my tractor. As mentioned, a light sanding and paint will do the trick. For the price I paid ($9500) I consider this a minor issue. Yes, I could have spent 3-6K more on another name brand to get a better paint job but decided the price wasn't worth a better paint job. I'll put that savings to use somewhere else.

Doug

You would be hard pressed to find tractors with any major upgrade in paint. The tractor industry has always had the motto, "when in doubt add more paint". This was to hide inperfections as well as give a more robust paint job to protect against weathering and abuse from normal use a tractor would experience. The only parts they ever took care of painting nice was when they started adding sheetmetal to tractors. If you look close you will find runs in the paint on the engines and other areas of the tractor as they do not worry about it as much as car manufacturers do.

There is most likely only 1% of the people on this board that worry so much about the paint on these machines that they would pay a premium for a high quality paint job.

 

[chucklesva]

Doug
My ct 230 has rust in similar locations. I am suprised that our grill guards have the same rust in same place. I ordered my ct 230 and when they delivered it I advised the saleman that I was not satisfied with the rust and was tempted to refuse delivery. My major concern, was that mine had rust at the weld points on the underside of the fenders and inside the hood. Andy my salesman assured me that Bobcat would make it right. They picked it up on Weds. and are going to strip it down to the frame and paint it. I thought it would be easier to just replace the fenders and hood. I will let you know how that works out. I must say the my salesman Andy Pawlak of Bobcat of Fredericksburg at 800 296 7340 has been great.

Chuck

 

[tinman955]

Doug, I have a new 440 that was just built and to my knowledge has not been outside other than a few days and I have a few rust spots also. I plan on gettin after them before they get out of hand. I keep my stuff new!!

BTW yr tractor is way to clean, no mud on the tires yet,lol.

Ok now who here wax's their tractor, other than me?

 

[dfeck]

Wax, didn't you notice the wax job on the tractor? Of course I wax my tractor! Doesn't everyone?

Doug

 

[horticattleman]

if you're waxing a tractor then you didn't have enough use to buy it in the first place

 

[bbse]

Are we talking about tractors or sports cars? Hey, I wash my tractor once a year whether it needs it or not, unless it gets rained on real hard then that counts....right? What is tractor wax btw? never heard of the stuff.

 

[allenr]

I know it's not always possible but it would have been good to get it in a shed from day one.

Glad to see it's got one now!

 

[demoman357]

When I got my CT335 recently, I did not notice any rust at all. This thread got me to look closer. No visible rust in any of the similar places as the OP. What I did notice is areas (6) where there was evidence of sanding and painting. The grill guard had one spot that was sanded down but not painted. The bare metal had a thin coat of rust, so I sanded it, cleaned it, and painted it with some primer. I called the dealer and asked about this. He apologied for the bare spot and explained that they often find rust on some machines as they sometimes sit out in the rain at the seaport where thay are unloaded from containers. My dealer looks for and reapirs any rust as part of their setting up process and the crew must have missed a spot on the grill guard.

In coastal area rust happens quickly. After looking at your pictures it seems no different than my tractor, only the dealer was more on the ball of customer satisfaction.