We have a large dairy operation and are always in the market for new skid steers. Local CAT rep stopped out with some info the other day, and kind of surprised me. You never see a CAT skid steer on a dairy around here and I think its for the reason he stated, nobody ever goes out and trys selling them to farmers, and farmers are led to believe they are very expensive. I was. Around here its all New holland, Case, Bobcat, Gehl and some John Deere on farms, but cant say ive seen a CAT on one yet. Current skid steers are 2001 LS170 NH (9700hrs) 2004 LS170 (2900hrs) 2005 LS170 (5100hrs) 5575 Jd, 675 JD. We could always use another, or newer. And the later new hollands have been absolutely terrible from what ive seen in the area. Not sure about the brand new series. The Bobcats are nice, but the visibility is kind of a turn off. Gehl and deere arent much of an option, service wise. Which leaves us with Case New Holland and CAT. From the way the salesman talked the Cat was comparably priced. I do like the fact that the CAT dealership will be running 3 shifts and has their main parts warehouse 20 minutes from our location. So I guess what I am looking for is personal experiences from people. It has to have a radial boom, and from the specs im seeing on cats website, the NH and Bobcat both reach 5" further forward, but I may not be seeing the correct specs. We should be demoing one here soon. any other opinions would be great thank you.
if i was you, i would get the cat, but i would think a demo would answer this question. its true you never see a farmer who has one. how are you going to manage the pattern change between all your operators and all your machines? im surprised you want a radial lift on a dairy farm. why is that? al your other ones are vertical lift.
I had my boom names mixed up. The pattern change will.be the hardest since everybody is used to foot controls.
Demo one of the new CASE or NH machines and tell us how they compare. I would like to hear some feedback on them.
We are subbed out to a large utility co. Majority of skids they have are 185's and 773's. Not my favorite skidsteer but they do hold up well to the beating they take. Get passed around different crews, load tri-axles, carry hot top, backfill trench, sweep the road, etc. I was impressed the day I watched a guy pick a 5x10 road plate of the side hook and carry it down the road with a 185. We had a 226B cat with about 1400hrs and a bobcat 185 with over 2500hrs and beat up good working together. Spec wise I dont know how they compare, operator wise. The cat would run circles around the bobcat but the cat couldnt even come close to breakout and lifting power.
So from what im seeing it looks like you get the radial lift on the smaller ones and the vertical lift on the 242b and 252b. So this means we would be needing the bigger 242b skid steer. 20 more hp than our New hollands and rated 450lbs higher. But I am curious about Cats ratings. Our new hollands are rated at 1700 but will pick over 2000 all day long. Local farmer bought an s185 Bobcat and says that is all it will pick is 1850lbs, the L170 new hollands walk circles around it for how much they can lift. I guess what Im looking for is from personal experience is the Cats rated lifting load , lower than its actual lifting load. I understand they also offer a counterweight. another question, can you switch from Pilot to Case style controls or is it something they dealer has to program? I think i as well as others would come to like the pilots better. But the learning curve for the other employees i feel would be too much and I can see booms going through roofs when they try backing up. I feel the case controls would be a better option if there is not a quick way to switch them like the Bobcats and New hollands. Really need to get one out here and run it for awhile.
from how i understand it, all skid steers have a rated operating capacity of half their tipping load. i believe if you have a 2000 lb rated skid steer, if you attach 4000 lbs of weight to the bucket pins, it will lift it. that being said, when you are lifting something that is say 2000 lbs, a lot depends on how far the weight is from the bucket pins. because the weight acts as a lever on your loader the further it is away, you might be reaching your 4000 pound tipping load only carrying 1000 pounds. im not sure if the 4000 pound number comes at the bucket pins, but that is kinda the way they rate tractor 3 pt hitches, so i'm kinda assuming its the same way with the skid steer. the b series cats you cant change patter with a switch. it requires a dealer installed kit. im not sure if the c series has a switch you can flip, but i would think you could have it changed to the way you want. i have a hand foot machine right now, and i dont know if you ever drove a pilot machine with case pattern, but im pretty sure all your operators would hate it. the iso pattern is a lot easier to drive for a beginner on the new pattern. do you operate the skid steer much? because if i had a bunch of operators running my machines and they were happy in them just the way they are, i wouldn't mess with it. sometimes ignorance is bliss. there is more cost associated with pilot and eh controls. i dont know why cat doesnt make a competitive machine with vertical lift in a smaller size.
I dont know the exact numbers on weights but understand the physics of it. I just know that the L170 will lift more out int he field than the S185. I guess we would just have to get the CAT out here to see but since it sounds like well be stuck with a 242 then it will pick more than we will need anyways. As for the controls. I will not be the primary operator. But will operate it when needed. I would blove to stick with foot controls but CAT doesnt offer that, so its ISO or Case Pattern. I could see why pilot sticks would such with case pattern.
Got about 10 hours on the demo 242b. Like a lot of things about it , hate some others. Visibility is tge main issue, when compared to our new Holland, its very bad. But better than a bobcat I think. Getting in and out of the cab isn't as nice either and the booms cross brace is so tall that if you have it in the air at all you can't open the door versus the nh where you can at least have it in the air a bit. Love the pilot controls with the ISO pattern. Like how compact it is and like how fast it is Serviceability is decent, nothing to brag about. I hate how the wipers doesn't wipe the top of the window. Overall a very nice machine and very reasonably priced. I think its going to come down to nh or cat for us. Gotta talk to some people on reliability first though.
i dare you to try out a new jcb. after using one, i just laugh at all other skid steers. after reading what you just wrote, and am confident you would too. visibility is in a class by itself and would put new holland to shame. entry and exit easily and safely with boom anywhere. easy service and maintenence excellent wiper/washer sweet pilot controls reasonable price
I've heard good things and like the side entry , parts and service are what worry me, who is the local jcb construction dealer in Madison area? I know ritchies sells the ag side and probably does some ski steer stuff, our experience with them has been great on our claas .
ritchies is who you would go through. i believe they deal both in ag and construction equipment, but mainly ag. jcb has a 3 year sturctural warranty, 2 year bumper to bumper. parts are guaranteed within 48 hours. im sure ritchies would stock parts. if worst came to worst you could get a loaner (probably) case skid steer from ritchies if you were down. rithchie can service it for you they service lots of case skids (and increasingly more jcb).
I know how good ritchies is to deal with and the jcbs service ability was impresive at the farm show.
might be worth trying one. are they reasonably priced?. ritchies spee dees most of our parts to us bit that's because most of them are in Cobb. is there a certain location with more jcb stuff that you know of? barneveld looks to have a lot on their lot. is the parts guarantee ritchies or jcb?. is their boom vertical type lift or not ?
jcb is pricing them a little cheaper than bobcat. it seems that barneveld has the most jcb, other locations are getting more all the time. parts guarantee is jcb. 48 hours or its free. vertical lift. if you tried one out they would probably bring you a 260. large frame 2600 lb lift. the only thing you wont like too much is the door handle, they are redesigning it for 2012. some of the new volvo skid steers are jcbs. im sure there is a volvo dealer in madison. they are not going to start making the small frame machines till fall.
Barneveld is closer to us. I like the parts guarantee as long as it applies to every single part. 48hrs for a lot of parts is slow, but for larger less stocked items it is fast. Door handle appears to be the same as the fastrac but mounted side ways. Aring equipment is the local Volvo Dealer. Great experience with them as well. Own an L60E.
ah its the inside door handle that is the problem. its set up a lot like a newer tractor where you cant shut the door conveniently while sitting in the seat. you have to lean forward a lot to reach it. just doesnt seem convenient for a skid steer. interesting factoid: 2011 is the last year for the pilot controls (like the cat you had). next year they will be electric. debatable weather that is good or bad. do you have a fastrac?
Revisiting this thread as we are now serious about purchasing within the next month as we can't keep enough slid steers operable at one time. We do not have to buy new and wouldn't mind a good used one. Like the idea of a cab with heat and a/c but there's too many times we need to get in and out with the boom up a little. With the cat, the boom had to be all the way down. Don't know how the bobcats or the new Holland l200s are though. Right now its probably going to be between a 242b cat, s205 bobcat, or l218 or 220 new Holland. But could still entertain jcb,Deere and case. Parts and service wise. New Holland, 3 locations, 15 min, 20min, 30min. All are okay on parts but still don't stock very much. I do have a really good relationship with the mechanic at the one dealer and hes talked me through any repair on our new hollands . Cat is 30min to fabco, don't know how good their parte stocking is but I like that they have a huge infrastructure. Bobcat is 15 min to the big regional dealer, 20 min to the jd dealer that handles them and 30 to the next closest. The big deere dealer is 20 min. Case parts are 15 min and 30 min All of the places are open for paets 7-5 some are oprn saturdays. One new Holland dealer has the best hpura, 7-7 weekdays 7-4 Saturday, that's the one we currently deal with. Also what's the difference between series 1,2,3 b series cats. Thanks.
We also run a dairy. If you are having good luck with your New Hollands I would stick with them, if not then you have to look at something else. We priced a cat 5 years ago and it was considerably more than the mustang we purchased. We have had good success with them, but we have a good dealer, even though he is 3 hours away. A relationship with a dealer who will talk you through any problems is worth a lot in my book. We also own a cat dozer and while their service is good, you definately pay for it. If you are still debating on a fully loaded cab, I don't think you would ever regret having it. Loading manure and feed is pleasant no matter what the weather. I would be interested to hear differences in prices when you get to dealing.
good to see we are getting some more dairy blood around. and a mustang owner! what sweet rides... AND i agree with your statement that "loading manure and feed is always pleasant no matter what the weather."