Hello , new here , I’m looking at upgrading from a bobcat 435 long arm to a new e50 , does anyone here have or operate an e50 or e50 r2 , just seeing what everyone thinks of the machine . Spec wise it is a little bigger with lift and digging capacity than my 435 and is still a minimal tail swing. I want to stick with bobcat as I already have 4 buckets and not wanting to get all new buckets also.
I have a 435 that I bought new in '06. It's approaching 6,000 hours of professional use now. I demoed an E50 and an E45 a few years back. I was doing a house dig-out on a small lot in town. I got to use all (3) machines and I must admit that I preferred the 435. It felt to me like it had more digging power than the 45. It was similar to the 50 but I liked the 435 better due to the much better visibility and zero tail. I have owned a total of (4) Bobcats over my career ((1) '03 A220; (1) '06 A300; (1) '17 A770; (1) '06 435ZHS) and in my opinion the quality is going down hill. I was about to offer long winded diatribe about my experiences with each machine. Instead I will condense it to this. All of the Bobcats have had issues that I do not think one should put up with when spending the kind of money we do for them. The newest (the A770) is a total POS due to emissions, filters, etc. Doosan has NOT figured out how to play the game yet in the engine department. It is unfortunate because I really like the All-Wheel Steer platform that only Bobcat sells. As we know all equipment can have issues and will most likely break down at some point. That brings us to dealer service and support. In the areas of the US that I have lived Bobcat support has been of a much lesser standard than that of the yellow brands. I live in a small town in S/W CO (for over 20 years now) and am originally from SoCal. The dealership here is terrible (though better than the previous owner). I have found a dealership that has a good service department but that it is a 4 hour drive from me and I must go over (3) 10,000' passes to get there via the shortest route. Obviously not ideal but it's what I choose to do until the point at which I no longer own any Bobcats (which will someday come to pass). I've tried to go directly to Bobcat and they are not willing to offer any assistance to you directly. You must use the dealership. Maybe you have had a better support experience than I have. If so, great! But I would not let a few buckets keep me loyal to the Bobcat brand with the experience I have had with them. Sure, it might cost you a couple thousand bucks to replace with the X-change buckets (maybe less if you sell them privately) but I would gladly spend a few thousand to not have to deal with the white brand any more. Furthermore that money will be small in comparison to the loss you will take when you try to trade the slightly used E50 in on a yellow machine if you find that you have soured on it or the support you get from the dealer. There used to be a guy who posted regularly on here. He also has a YouTube channel called DirtNinja. He's a young guy and his dad bought an E50 when they first came out. Nobody could convince him that the E50 was the best thing since sliced bread. The E50 was best for lift, best for break-out, best for resale, could lift 10k# boulders with out even laboring the engine, etc., etc., etc..... I'm not sure if that says more about the person or the machine but something must have happened as he is now a full on Cat fanatic. I'm sorry if I have not painted the picture you may have hoped for but I have direct experience and would want to hear it if I was in your position. Of course, mine is not the only experienced opinion on this matter. I would bet that there are others who may have had better experiences than I have had with Bobcat. If I were to remove any sort of context or details of experience I would advise you to buy a machine that you know that you can get good support from regardless of whether, or not, your extra buckets will fit it.
I have not owned a BC anything, but I would not let 4 buckets dictate my next excavator. When you factor in trading those four buckets with the 435 and the extra money that would be worth, against the cost of new buckets, the actual price difference would not be enough to really matter considering the cost of the entire purchase. I would demo some options and decide if the BC is what you really want. If you ran some different machines and you really like the BC50 better, then at least you made an informed decision that wasn't based on saving a couple grand on buckets.
thanks for the input , what other brands do you guys run in the 5-6 ton range and what does everyone like or dislike. i want to stick with a minimal or zero tail swing machine and it will a cab machine with a/c, will also have thumb and some type of quick coupler. i have 2 deere dealers green and yellow within 30 minutes , a kobelco , yanmar ,bobcat , case ,and komatsu dealer within 45 minutes. cat is an hr away.
The only dealers local for me are Kubota, Deere and Bobcat. On my short list for a hoe was Bobcat and Kubota. I liked the Bobcat dealer and they are closer to me so that was my choice. I've put about 100 hours on my year old E42 and it's been very good - no regrets. Dealer support is good. All of the service items are easy access.
I would figure out who the best dealer in your area is, and I would start from there. That's the most important thing you're going to need with a piece of equipment, good dealer support, great dealer support would be even better. And while you're trying to decide, I would probably see if any of the dealers will bring you out a machine to demo, preferably get two different machines the same day so you can run them both during the day to get a good feel for each one…
Asking what brand is best will get you a plethora of opinions from folks you don't know anything about. That can make it a struggle to vet those opinions. Out of the ones you have mentioned above I have first-hand experience with six of them. In the size class you are asking about I have either owned or demo'd four of them (3 of which are covered in the thread I mentioned below). In my experience I usually get the best support from Cat. I would rank Deere and Komatsu second to that. Remember that this is my experience and it can vary greatly than what you may experience because you will have a different dealer than I will. I would vet out each dealer and talk to local professional excavators to get their recommendations. Trust and follow your gut feelings about the dealers. Talk is cheap and many salesman will talk themselves up to make a sale. Here is a link to a thread that I started that discusses the (3) machines I was choosing from. I had them all out on the same job at the same time. HeavyEquipmentForums I also demo'd the Deere 50G (same as, and built by, Hitachi), and the Volvo EC58, but I don't think that I discussed them much, if at all, in that thread. Hopefully you will find some valuable information within. I would agree that support is a huge consideration. If you are a professional it is more important than of you are a "hobbyist".
Getting a price on a Deere and a hitachi , both 50 and 60 size machines, Taking a liking to the 60g, bobcat e50 was more than the 60g , and I quoted it with 3 buckets for the Deere and none on the bobcat. I’m still waiting for Deere to give me a trade in quote on my machine and bobcat is offering better finance options. A lot to think about, still want to get some info on other brands.
I think any of the machines you listed are worth a test run. I think a lot of Takeuchi mini excavators (my personal choice), although you don't list that as an option. I think the Wacker Neuson ET65 is an outstanding machine as well if you have a WN near you. I think now days its hard to find a bad one, some machines do somethings better than others, comes down to what you need/ want out of an excavator and of course support is important.
I’ve got a 2017 e42 extendable arm - 280 hours. Mostly used for land clearing and property maintenance. For the most part, it’s been a reasonably trouble free machine. I’ve had a few minor issues, nothing major and all taken care of by my dealer. I’m considering upgrading to an e50. My thought is with an e50 standard arm I can match or come within inches of the reaches of my EA and gain substantially in lifting capacity and arm digging force. I like the minimal tail swing on the e50 too. I use a flail mower on mine quite a bit too. It seems the dual flange track and wider stance of the e50 should make working over the side more stable. I put the optional counterweight on my e42 which helps but makes the traditional tail swing even more pronounced when working in tight quarters. I’ve got a variety of buckets, frost ripper, and flail mower for mine. While I agree that shouldn’t be an overall deciding factor, switching brands and replacing or modifying all of those certainly weighs on my decision. If I was disappointed in Bobcat or in my dealer support, that would be one thing, but I’m not. I’ll be looking at other brands before making a decision. In my area, I’d probably consider Bobcat, CAT, or JD, strictly on dealer support.
Welcome to the Forums andy81! The OP's have given some very good advice. IMO a piece of equipment is only as good as the dealer. My choice is Cat first as my dealer goes above and beyond even though we are a small time outfit. Every brand makes a lemon however a good dealer can help turn it into lemonade. Personally I divorced Bobcat in '16 although we still have custody issues with my T250 yard machine when it needs parts. The T250 was a good machine with the normal problems however it was the dealer that's worthless. When I can order parts from a dealer in Atlanta nad have them shipped to Birmingham cheaper than I can buy local - that's a problem.
well i ended up signing papers on a new 60g long arm, thumb, cab , angle blade , tag hydraulic pin grabber and 3 new tag buckets , deere was cheaper with buckets and pin grabber than bobcat with no buckets , and gave me $11,000 more on trade and a better finance rate. letting me use my machine for a coupe weeks untill buckets come in. the only thing i feel like im giving up is im going from zero tail swing to 16" of tail swing but have more lift height and capacity, and the local deere dealer is pretty reputable, and 25 minutes away.
Give us an update after 50 hours or so.