No Name Mini Skids?

[Kabir424]

Have any of you guys ever ran the Bobcat with the axles that articulated? The one they discontinued.

Wait, what? Was that a mini skid or full size skidsteer? Do you have a model number for that machine?

 

[SkwerI]

Wait, what? Was that a mini skid or full size skidsteer? Do you have a model number for that machine?

It was a full size Bobcat, I want to say it was a 300(something).

 

[Kaveman]

Have any of you guys ever ran the Bobcat with the axles that articulated? The one they discontinued. Maybe a moot point now since they’re no longer in production but seems like, to me anyway, they would have been a great fit for tree work. Easy on turf, large lifting capacity, high lift height, no end of attachments, and not nearly as tippy as a mini or articulated.

No, I was "not" arguing with my homie, Kyle.

What the heck you talking bout, Rodger? Articulated axles? But not an articulated loader? I wanna see this! Gotta be some interesting engineering going on there. Find us a model number so we can add it to our list of things we want but can't afford!

 

[treebilly]

Bobcat made a steering skid loader for a few years. It had four wheel steering instead of skidding. A300. Nice idea, but I think they were a nightmare repair wise.
I agree with the Kaveman on the getting work done and let someone else fix it to a point. I wish I could with most things. I do also agree with Kyle. With the interwebs, almost anyone with some mechanical ability can fix almost anything. Most times I’d rather not do the wrenching, but dealer mechanics tend to put a machine in line and get to it when they get to it. Doesn’t matter how much equipment is lined up outside, they still go home after their 8hours. Warranty work really irritates me. Having brand new equipment sit in a shop while the dealer and the manufacturer hash it out on who’s paying for it while in the meantime I got a useless piece of equipment doing nothing. I can’t count the number of things we just fix instead of getting them warranteed.

 

[SkwerI]

Bobcat made a steering skid loader for a few years. It had four wheel steering instead of skidding. A300. Nice idea, but I think they were a nightmare repair wise.
I agree with the Kaveman on the getting work done and let someone else fix it to a point. I wish I could with most things. I do also agree with Kyle. With the interwebs, almost anyone with some mechanical ability can fix almost anything. Most times I’d rather not do the wrenching, but dealer mechanics tend to put a machine in line and get to it when they get to it. Doesn’t matter how much equipment is lined up outside, they still go home after their 8hours. Warranty work really irritates me. Having brand new equipment sit in a shop while the dealer and the manufacturer hash it out on who’s paying for it while in the meantime I got a useless piece of equipment doing nothing. I can’t count the number of things we just fix instead of getting them warranteed.

A warranty is only as the word of the man (or company) standing behind it. Most are worthless because almost all salesmen are liars. I have had 2 warranty issues with my Avant and fixed both myself because dealing with Avant via my salesman was too much hassle.

 

[Kaveman]

A warranty is only as the word of the man (or company) standing behind it. Most are worthless because almost all salesmen are liars. I have had 2 warranty issues with my Avant and fixed both myself because dealing with Avant via my salesman was too much hassle.

We have a saying in my neck of the woods. It's not applicable to everyone, and not you, since the Avant is an Avant.

"SHOULDA BOUGHTA DEERE!"

for real though, that sucks, a company should be happy to stand behind their products.

 

[SkwerI]

We have a saying in my neck of the woods. It's not applicable to everyone, and not you, since the Avant is an Avant.

"SHOULDA BOUGHTA DEERE!"

for real though, that sucks, a company should be happy to stand behind their products.

The company was willing, but the independently owned dealership required I funnel everything through my salesman and he's a POS who takes 7-10 days to reply to anything. For a busted hose or leaking hydraulic cylinder it was more economical to fix it myself rather than wait on him.

 

[treebilly]

I won’t name the companies but basically same experiences. We had bearing go out on the cutter wheel of one of our stumpers with 98 hours on the machine. Manufacturer/ dealer told us two weeks if we wanted them warranted. Picked up the parts and replaced the same day on our dime. Known bearing issue and they won’t just give us the bearings. We’re on our sixth set with less than a thousand hours. Our mechanic jokes that the hour meter doesn’t read operating time but reads wrenching time. Another manufacturer kept telling us things were on the engine manufacturer and vise versa. Finally the last one just takes to long to fix anything. Unless it’s something major like a blown motor, blown pump, or a broken frame; we don’t bother waiting. One would think that with currently owning 12 pieces of equipment (cheapest at 54k and most expensive at 425k) they would be a bit better about it but they’re not. And bucket truck companies are worse. Had my truck in three times for the same issue that it had when it showed up brand new and each time it came back with out being fixed. Thankfully it’s not a safety issue. Just a minor OSHA violation that the upfitter doesn’t seem to care about.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Wait, what? Was that a mini skid or full size skidsteer? Do you have a model number for that machine?

No, I was "not" arguing with my homie, Kyle.

What the heck you talking bout, Rodger? Articulated axles? But not an articulated loader? I wanna see this! Gotta be some interesting engineering going on there. Find us a model number so we can add it to our list of things we want but can't afford!

Here it is, treebilly and Skwerl had the model # right, A300. And I’ve heard the same as him, reliability is sub-par and repairs are an absolute nightmare. I think it was one of the first casualties when Doosan bought them out. Never had the opportunity to run one, but looked to me to be ideal for tree work.

YouTube video here.
Bobcat A300 Demo by A&A Enterprises

 

[Tree09]

Funny story, i bought a 2017 f350 dually new in 2018. Not cheap obviously, but since it was sitting on the lot and the 2019s were coming out i got a deal on it since they wanted it gone. It was just one that the dealer bought thinking it would sell, so it had a bunch of crap i never would have paid for on it, such as the "chrome package." The chrome package on a lariat (mines a lariat) and above meant billet aluminum rims (the outer 4, the inner dually is still a steel one), with chrome plated valve stems. Now I'm no engineer, but when you put steel coated in chrome on aluminum and dunk it in salt and snow, it corrodes. So naturally a few months later the rims look like crap, but even worse the damn tires won't hold air. I was fortunately laid off at the time and didn't need my truck, so i look up online and read about it a bit, found a technical bulletin explaining how common this problem is, and even read on some forums how guys just swapped to the lower trim model non chrome plastic ones so at least the damn tire works, my desire to look cool comes wayyyyyyy down the list compared to "does my super expensive truck function, like trucks have successfully done for the past 100 years?"

So i take it in, hand them the bulletin so they didn't even have to look it up, and explained how i just wanted them to swap out to the plastic ones. This of course was impossible, and i just needed to leave the truck for them for a bit. I don't remember exactly how long i needed to, but if memory serves right it was days, if not a week. They had to run it up the ladder before they could do anything, and then finally they got around to swapping them out. All that, for 4 valve stems. God forbid they actually had to do anything serous, i would still be waiting. Yeah, dealer support means nothing to me at all, I'll do it all myself.

 

[Mick!]

The company was willing, but the independently owned dealership required I funnel everything through my salesman and he's a POS who takes 7-10 days to reply to anything. For a busted hose or leaking hydraulic cylinder it was more economical to fix it myself rather than wait on him.

it all depends I guess, my dealer is 5 miles away, does mostly tractor/agricultural machinery (Valtra which is also made in Finland)
Very attentive and fast for repairs and stuff, young workshop foreman often gets one of his technicians to do simple stuff while I wait.
Now before the Avants I had 3 Multiones, the dealer for those nearly did my head in, taking the machine for a month at a time and bringing it back unrepaired.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

All fixed. NOT.
our saw shops and most our vehicle mechanics are like that here. To repair the repair costs more than the repair. Hydraulic guys worth a damn are at least an hour away, and hit or miss.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Funny story, i bought a 2017 f350 dually new in 2018. Not cheap obviously, but since it was sitting on the lot and the 2019s were coming out i got a deal on it since they wanted it gone. It was just one that the dealer bought thinking it would sell, so it had a bunch of crap i never would have paid for on it, such as the "chrome package." The chrome package on a lariat (mines a lariat) and above meant billet aluminum rims (the outer 4, the inner dually is still a steel one), with chrome plated valve stems. Now I'm no engineer, but when you put steel coated in chrome on aluminum and dunk it in salt and snow, it corrodes. So naturally a few months later the rims look like crap, but even worse the damn tires won't hold air. I was fortunately laid off at the time and didn't need my truck, so i look up online and read about it a bit, found a technical bulletin explaining how common this problem is, and even read on some forums how guys just swapped to the lower trim model non chrome plastic ones so at least the damn tire works, my desire to look cool comes wayyyyyyy down the list compared to "does my super expensive truck function, like trucks have successfully done for the past 100 years?"

So i take it in, hand them the bulletin so they didn't even have to look it up, and explained how i just wanted them to swap out to the plastic ones. This of course was impossible, and i just needed to leave the truck for them for a bit. I don't remember exactly how long i needed to, but if memory serves right it was days, if not a week. They had to run it up the ladder before they could do anything, and then finally they got around to swapping them out. All that, for 4 valve stems. God forbid they actually had to do anything serous, i would still be waiting. Yeah, dealer support means nothing to me at all, I'll do it all myself.

Same sort of thing happened to me an F350, the tires kept losing air, turns out the the factory valve stems were having some sort of corrosion between the metal valve stem and aluminum rims, guess something like galvanic corrosion in boats. Got tired of dealing with and took it to Discount Tire when the dealer didn’t have a permanent fix. Whatever stems Discount used seems to have fixed the problem, 15-20k miles later and still holding pressure.

Back to the A300 Bobcat. YouTube served up a video in my suggestions, I’m guessing because I was searching that a couple of weeks ago to post that video here. The video was posted by Daniel Murphy, turns out he has one. Maybe he can give the low down on them, positives, negatives etc. Don’t know how to tag him though.

 

[Burnham]

Not going to work, I think. Banned.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Not going to work, I think. Banned.

Duly noted, thanks for the heads up.