Well here I set with my 2011 S750 bobcat with around 600 hours on it and I must have one or both my drive motors leaking oil in the chain case and it seems to be getting worse adding and removing more oil. Know it appears the front seal on the AC compressor is leaking feron. The price of corn is still crap but I am sick of this machine and it is time to sent it down the road. So what to replace it with that won't break the bank. I need at least the same engine HP and high flow. I run a tree saw and it takes a lot of power. Need a machine that has good cooling on the hyd system when running hyd flow for a few hours at a time. I like the roll up door on the Kubota but how are the machines holding up? I work a lot alone and need to get in and out of the cab sometimes to hook a chain with the boom up a little.
i'd contact your local dealer and see what they have to say about the leaking gearboxes... depending on how many hours are on the machine, you might be in for a surprise....
I can understand your frustration with Bobcat after owning them for 20 years. However like crew chief said ask your dealer about it if you haven't already. Bought a Cat 279D last year and I've been very happy with it. Still have a Bobcat T250 that's paid for and supports a pipe crew and have no plans to get rid of it. The 279D has the hand/foot controls like a Bobcat and I'd rather run it any day than the T250.
Well I will ask the dealer and or Bobcat themselves but I already know the answer. Machine is out of warranty. This is the same machine the battery blew up and took the wiring harness and fuel tank out when it had two hundred hours on it a few years ago. Dealer and Bobcat wouldn't help then with discounted parts or anything. Know it has 600 hours one owner one operator hours on it and I have these issues. I don't see them stepping up to the plate this time. If the corn prices would have been better the machine wouldn't still be on the place.
The only skid steers I am familiar with are Cat. Pretty solid machine IMO. I wouldn't be scared of one. The new ones on the large end of the spectrum have a DEF tank though. We haven't really put enough hours on ours to judge the long term reliability of the tier 4 emissions though.
The tier 4 emissions are a big concern. We up dated a fair amount of our farm equipment when tier four was on its way. I usually don't give up on equipment as I have always fix any piece of equipment. I have owned a few skid loaders over the years and by far this one has been the biggest problem. This is the first time we have used hyd's to this extent. Normally in the past the biggest load on the aux hyd's were post hole digger. The tree saw I am running on this skid loader makes a lot of heat and uses a lot of power. You spent around $50,000 grand for a machine you plan on more than 600 hours of running with out all these problems. When I bought the machine the sale man said running the saw would be no problem that Bobcat has one the best high flow. I does run the saw fine but know the motors are leaking oil in the chain case. Was the saw too much heat or does Bobcat have bad motors?