Looking at a new Bobcat 335 with thumb. Any opinions on this machine? This would be my first mini-ex. I have many hours in skids and rented Bobcat 331's a number of times. Machine would be used for cleaning out ponds, ditches, stumping, and planting trees.
Yellow, Buying in this economy? Brave man..
Now is the time to buy.. exspecially if you have the work and the cash for it
Yellow i would get a demo on one.. Bobcat also just released there new specials there giving up to a $5,000 rebate on mini excavators
My opinion of the machine is they are slow. Slow boom, slow stick, slow bucket, slow tracks. They also have lower breakout than comparable machines. In that size, I would highly recommend a Kubota 090. Fast machine, awesome breakout, and much better operators station. They have a great lift capacity, dozing force, and are easy to maintain. Sorry, but I think Bobcat has lost alot of it's luster in recent years.
I'll have to disagree, Kubota mini ex's don't have that great of a tractive force. As far as everything else about the Kubota, I am not sure, I havent personally ran one. But I do disagree with what you said about the 335, we run one all the time.. And Yellow, you know my opinion the 335..
Kubota's are pretty fast providing you get a -3 model e.g KX080-3
I have a 1996 bobcat 337. gets the job done! here lately I developed a problem with the house not wanting to move and the blade wont go up or down. Started after it leaked all the fluid out from a blown hose. Fixed hose and filled with fluid. Still nothing. Anybody else had that problem?
yep I had the exact same problem on a 334 those 2 are on the same circuit on my 334 and the gear pump was shot so $2000 later its all good again
Is there two gear pumps? Why would the other functions work??
we have a bobcat 430 and its a great machine once you get the bugs worked out. a while back I ran a brand new kubota the same size (don't remember the model) for about 20 hours or so and the boom and stick may have been SLIGHTLY faster, i ended up HATING the track controls as i drive with my feet and use the boom to move the UC around and over ditches. every time you wanted to do anything at the same time as the tracks, the tracks slowed WAY down. so all in all if you can just sit still all the time and not move go with a kubota. if you want to multitask bobcat all the way.
How long ago was that? - The '-3' Kubota's haven't been out that long and as far as i'm aware you can certainly multitask with these models, I know the older -2 models and earlier were known for being pretty slow.
about a month and i half or so, the machine had 70 hours on it. don't get me wrong you can move the tracks and the boom at the same time but neither are going to do so as fast as the bobcat will.
Cool, didn't realise that!!
I run a bobcat x331. 97 with 6000 hours. Does multi task very well. Now looking at a new Hyundai 35 Z-7A. Anyone care to give opinions on how it compares to the Bobcat and other minis?