Let's hear them.
My wife has one for her horse barn....she loves it for that....it also cleans snow very well with blower....only big down fall is loader does not lift high enough to unload round bales from truck....but moves them great once unloaded.
Older ones(up through D series I think) had issues with drive motors. 10 years ago it was enough to scare me away from them, but I don't see any new threads from the usual suspects. My high school had one and it got used every day.
Plenty of info over at tractorbynet. What sticks in my mind is the steering is computer controlled, there can be issues there, not sure if you can "talk" to it without Bobcat software. I never considered one, to damn heavy for off road use in marginal conitions and the narrow boom would be subject to twisting in my use. Ed
Has to be more of you than have ran them lol.
They were pretty popular when they first came out, but quickly seemed to lose favor. I wanted one just for around the yard, but when I looked into them 5 years or so ago, they seemed like they were pretty expensive to keep running. I read about a lot failures and problems. I have not seen a newer one around in quite a while. Great idea if they work. Not sure what iteration they are on, but I would assume that BC has cleaned them up by now.
Just to satisfy my curious nature- what would you be using it for? Snowblower for the driveway? Looks a little heavy for use as a "gator" side by side, I'd think mud would make it disappear. Wouldn't really be heavy duty enough for back filling trench after tiling would it? That sounds like a ideal place for one- mostly on pavement or good ground. Need a loader once and a while, and could haul a little dirt around, or bags of quick crete, landscaping mulch. Golf courses, university/ hospital campus, maintence/ groundskeeping. Just doesn't look heavy enough for serious work. (I had to look up what one looked like)
Unimog a Better choice, can at least drive it to town!!
Guy I work with, his mom struggles to get in and out of a regular skid loader, and isn't interested in a side entry. Hobby farm, a few miniature horses, needs to push a little snow, and probably drive around like a UTV.
It should be good for something like that. They are comfortable inside. Your BC dealer should be able to steer you right. I have a good friend that works in the Bismarck factory I went to school with in North Dakota. He is an engineer in destructive testing. I can ask him specifically about a Toolcat if your serious. PM and let me know.
I had one, older series, non-turbo model. for what you are saying you are going to use it for, im sure it would be fine. Super nice to drive with AWS. The non-tubo was defiantly on the under powered side, I think almost all of them are turbo. Have a tenancy to rot out under the doors/floor boards. Mine (being the older side) had leaf springs in the back and was a little rough. The loader arm was not designed to dig out a basement. All of that being said, it was a treat around the property. Enclosed cab, super easy to use, super easy to see out of. Nice tight turns, I do miss it a bit.
I bought one in 2015-16. After one drive motor (front ) replacement twice in 30 hours, they swapped me for another new machine. Honestly , i think the mechanic was just **** poor after other experiences with him. So after lots of street sweeping , brush hogging and light boxblading the rear axle cv joints snapped , 150 hours. Never felt it ! Just notice some clicking noises and barely a loss of power. Store said it was covered and there was a tech bulliten on it , umm okay. So... later on, it tried to burn itself down due to a faulty block heater , yes on fire ! Turns out there was a recall but no one told me. Repaired that. After that , i still love it and use it. Yes i would buy another.
The town that I am associated with has one. Work well for light applications but as said before they are quite prone to rusting issues especially the floor and they are a royal pain to work on.