sometimes it seems that people on this website do a lot of talking about their machines, i was wondering if people put enough hours on their machines and use them hard enough to be credible in what they are saying. we run our bobcat machines about 1000 hours a year and run them somewhere between 7,000-10,000 hours before we trade them. we have very good luck with bobcat currently we have an s185. they hardly get any maintainence; we grease it about every 100 to 150 hours, change the oil about every 500 hours, rarely change any other fluids, never let it warm up before using it and start it unaided right down to -15 degrees F. basically we are very hard on our bobcats, pay little attention to them, and have very few problems with them. we run every day in all conditions, a lot of sand, manure past the axles, we even use it as a jackhammer sometimes. is this anything like any other people here use their skids? so the one problem i have with our bobcat is that when you spend 1000 hours a year in it, the standard hand and foot controls get old. i would like to switch to the iso pattern but am not sure which way to go or if its even a good idea. i would like to get a bobcat with joystick contols, but i highly doubt they will last 10,000 hours without problems like our current controls do. so it seems that deer, cat, and nh are all running electro hydraulic controls on their new skids. this has me interested in case cuz they still have the takeuchi style pilot fully hydraulic (no electronics) control system which should be more reliable and trouble free. is there anyone who has operated all of these skids who has any input on the controls? it seems that people with their iso controls think they have the same amount of control as people with standard skid controls like bobcat. are my expectations too high as to what i expect out of a control system? because with a pilot system you are going to have the lag time because you have the separate oil lines and valving for the pilots. so it seems like it would be an impossibility for a pilot machine to keep up to me with mechanical controls. i have seen a number of people brag up their pilots, but as soon as i see them operate their skid i just laugh cuz i could run circles around them. then there is the electronic controls, if they designed these controls to be hyper responsive i could see them being able to keep up to manual controls maybe, but it seems that most manufacturers tame them a little so inexperienced operators can run them easier. well basically, i am willing to sacrifice a little machine control for the easier drivability, but people who claim they can keep up to a manually controlled machine bother me, i just don't think most people expect what i do. well it would be nice to hear what people think about what i just wrote.
Are you on a Dairy? That is a lot of hours. This year I'll have 500 hours between three skids total. I know that isn't a lot but each skid does different things for me and work is a fraction of what it was currently. I have a Case 440 with regular Case controls(H control/servo), ASV RC30 with Cat style pilots and a Mustang MTL 16 with Cat style pilots. I personally prefer the Case and am comfortable with them most. I feel there is a lot of control and do a fair amount of fork work with it. The ASV controls are some what sluggish to me and aren't hard but take some effort. The Mustang controls seem very responsive with very little effort almost too little. Another contractor that runs ASV's did not like the Mustang controls as they felt it was too jumpy to them.
I am not an expert by any means but I get to run most makes of equipment. I agree some of the hand controls do seem to lag. I prefer the manual controls because they are ultra reliable and can be fixed in the field with wire and tape to get it home. I too abuse my own machines. I dont change fluids as it calls for; I dont change the oil until it gets dirty; and my air filters are used take outs from customer services. Most of the repairs we have for customers are electrical. A fair amount of problems with the all electric hand controls. The pilots seem to be very reliable but a repair gets expensive quick. I run my personal units to the 4000hr ballpark and then trade because I cant get any trade-in on a 7-10000hr machine. And like you said at a 1000hrs a year a 10 year old machine looks pretty rough after 10 seasons of snow, salt and manure. I guess it boils down to this it will cost more for convience and I would rather spend that extra money on my leisure time.