Bobcat 853. Am I sad?

[Stereo]

I've mentioned the purchase of said vehicle on a few forums and people seem to think I'm some kind of redneck.

 

I'm very excited as we tried it out and pulled a 60ft fallen Alder tree clean out of a boggy spinney like it was a twig.

 

Is it just me?

[Frankie Lawrence]

I love the look of bobcats what attachments you got for it?

Edited January 9, 2011 by Frankie Lawrence
original post gave impression i owened one!

[Andy Collins]

We hire in a bobcat whenever the job warrants, especially doing hedgerows, woodland work etc it saves so much backbreaking work and is so nimble. It does have its limitations, as ideally it better suited on hard level ground, and we did bottom it out a couple of times on the last job in the mud, but it winched out easily.

[Treegeek]

I think that there under rated have used one we had it in on a large take down to shift rings was the nuts we also used it to help clean up shoveling huge amounts of airisings what part of the trailer park are you from then redneck ??

[gensetsteve]

Had a bobcat 751 for 11 years. The only thing thats broke in all that time is a fuel solinoid. Got most of the toys for it. Would clean my teeth with it at night if I could get it through the back door. One of the best bits of kit in my yard

[ad15]

who cares what they're like to work with,, they look like SOOO much fun,, i want one,,

[RobRainford]

I know a guy who does mainly lime spreading. He has a bobcat with tracks on. He's got a few toys including a stumpgrinder for it. Great on site clearance jobs for moving logs. Awkward to get used to the controls ie bucket is controlled by your feet but it's great fun!

[gensetsteve]

the first few minutes terrifying you either stall through lack of revs or too much and your looking at the sky. Once your used to it a very fast tool.

[Stereo]

We have a 641 (I think, the number is rubbed off) at the mo which is a lot smaller than the 873 (not 853) we are getting. Currently have bucket and a grab but this one is coming with pallet forks. I also like the look of the mini digger attachment. Plus a nice splitter is available. There are hundreds of attachments for it, amazing variety which I only found out about the other day.

 

The controls do take a while to get used to. The golden rule is generally when things start getting away from you or it starts jumping about, don't try to correct, just let go of everything.

 

Our 641 must have shifted thousands of tons of earth over the years. But it's not man enough to drag trees about and struggles with heavy work. We have a picture of 'our' 873 holding a smaller bobcat about 12 feet in the air on pallet forks!

[John Russell]

Here's my 641 which I've had for about 9 years. 60inch bucket with digging teeth. Here we were knocking through between one part of the building and another so instead of carrying all the rubble (stone and lime mortar) down the stairs, we just opend the window and tipped it into the Bobcat's bucket.

 

It's really fast for moving and lifting sand, gravel, logs, ballast. Not so good for digging -- there's a limit to the amount of pushing force before the wheels spin. It's useless on soft ground -- if there's nothing in the bucket then the rear's very heavy and the front's very light and if you have a bucket full of heavy stone the rear end will almost come off the ground, then the front wheels sink in. In summer though, when the ground is hard, it's really quick for moving loose stuff around and loading a trailer.

 

It's old and knackered, air-cooled -- so very noisy -- and the brakes are useless, but in use you don't need brakes except for parking (hence the wood under the wheels). It starts on the button, good tyres and bucket and all the joints are well greased. I keep it in a shed.

 

I'll be selling it probably sometime this year as I now have a new 2.5 tonne Kubota digger and trailer for the tractor so I'm not really in need of it any more.