---i found 5 cases of where the T 190 bobcat boom arm breaks / rips completely off of the machine by searching the internet for a few minutes. the part of the arm that holds the end bushing with the intact pin in it remains on the machine. --my local bobcat dealer had not heard of this happening before to a T 190. there is also a great thread on this website showing detailed photos of the repair that (willie59 a member on this site) did in knoxville tenn. ---what i want to do is get as many people that have witnessed, and or experienced this boom arm failure together, their photos of the damage, their location in the world, usa, etc, and get bobcat to recognize this as a poor design, not welded as well as it could be, not using the strongest possible metal, thick enough steel etc, not the best design, etc, --bobcat needs to fix this problem, more of these failures are bound to occur as these machines age. --people should also inspect their T 190 boom arms for cracks and repair them before boom failure occurs. it usually cracks at the top first. --bobcat should make a window into the inside of the boom arm and add more web, welds etc, if they do not use a solid design. or add a solid band and weld it around the end of the arm to make it stronger -- for example a solid cast steel end piece could hold the end bushing and then this piece could be welded into /onto the arm end. the weak place could then be inspected and repaired easily away from the hole/pocket the end bushing is in now. --do you know of an incident where a bobcat T 190 boom /arm has broken at the end bushing. ?? the bobcat i saw with the damage was used for tree work. it was well used but not abused. --this is a serious potential problem. if a boom failure occurs when a load is lifted, property damage and death is possible. --i have heard the 873 also had this problem, and resulted in a recall of the boom
I've seen this on the one T190 that I did the repair, but I've always wondered if it's a more wide spread problem. One the unit I worked on it was pretty obvious the welds we poorly done for the connection to the pin boss. My dealer said the same thing "we've never heard of this happening".
T190 machines are going to be replaced by the m series in a few months, the machines are completely different . So in a way bobcat has/will be correcting the problem.
That's all well and good, but is little comfort to someone who already owns a T190 and the boom snaps because of poor welds.
Is it all just tree contractors that are breaking these booms up in that pin area? Mostly the grading/dirt guys seem to crack the pin down by the quick coupler. I know Bobcat changed the boom design from a welded in sleeve to a big beefy cast pin boss on later models (at the bottom by the quick coupler.) My S185 cracked bad down by the quick coupler last year, but it was run hard and I wasn't surprised it cracked after 6000 hours. We welded it up and added some thick hardox 450 bracing/plates, now it's good as new. I checked the upper pin bosses on both my T190 and my S185 and they both look fine and we run both these machines pretty hard sometimes.
i think you are making a bigger deal out of this than what it is. i have seen boom failures on every other local brand as well. where i come from stuff breaks and you fix it, not that big a deal. i'm sure that machine has seen its share of abuse, looks like they would have been better off with a radial design. i have no idea but i would guess bobcat has well over 150,000 machines out there with this boom design, you are gonna have some failures.
Bobcat has a machine like this with a radial boom design, its called a T-180. Bobcat has struggled with boom strength for years with their radial lifts and the 873 machines were infamous for it. Personally I think alot of that has to do with not allowing the loader arms to rest against the frame of the machine on many machines. Some of that has been corrected over the years but many models still dont allow the loader arms to rest against the frame The vertical lift design is light on this machine. If used in lighter duty applications you may never have a problem, however in heavier lift applications you have a much greater chance of having issues. The lift design is the same on this as it is on the S185 however that machine is much lighter and so you physically cant push it as hard. The CTL version has a lot of track supplied counterweight, much easier to over lift the design.
a lot of this is true. i think if you use your head when your buying and look at the designs you would be able to come to a conclusion on what machine is right for you. i feel the t190 is not a digging machine. it is a machine that was designed to get you around in adverse ground conditions. not to use your tracks for more digging force in dry dirt. i know i always cringe when i am doing stuff in the bobcat concerned the boom is going to break in half. gimme a pile a trees or a demo project and i would imagine i could break a boom on most any machine that had a few hours on it. as far as boom strength alone, it seems like terex has a strong one just by looking at it.
i havent seen a broken t190 boom yet.... the older 873's did have some issues with boom cracking, bobcat had a gusset plate kit that was added to the early booms. later booms fixed the problem. but theres always someone that can break an anvil with a rubber mallet :beatsme
Juding from comments like these you make (and have made) i have come to the conclusion that you must be a horrible operator, and have no idea how a machine should be properly run...
You have to beat the living crap out of the newer machines to have that kind of failure. If you were going after cracked bobtachs, I kinda could see that. I have four or five customers who break those. The one midframe I have had cracking was a S175 in a papermill. It spins it day bouncing off of concrete walls. In 4000 hours, the bobtach is replace monthly. Three sets of boom arms. The chaincase was also replace after they snapped a rear axle off, cleanly. Otherwise I have a tree guy who's boom arms on a A300 are badly tweaked, but not cracked.
that is the funny thing about it; all our machines seem to hold up forever even with my usage, yet other farmers and the paper mill guy for example are the ones who have the probelms. i think the difference is i know what i am doing and the other people just must be idiots to have the trouble they do . i know where the line is with all my machines and like to push it but generally do not cross it. i use my machines hard but usually don't "abuse" them unless there are lots of factors at play that just require it (which has happened a lot with the bobcat). but its true that with 9000 hrs on the bobcat, i really dont know how it still does what i ask of it without snapping the boom or breaking the cylinders, i wouldnt be concerned if it was new. if you were running it and saw all the flexing going on you would be concerned too. but its also true that if things are allowed to flex, the tend not to break. as far as the iso controls not having the control of the manual ones, they just dont thats the only way to put it. show me someone doing this with iso controls and i will reconsider... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iltdAN-4MOA