ARP
04-21-2008, 10:35 PM
Hi all, great forum here- I’ve been hanging around for a few years learning from the excellent experience represented here. I’m finishing up my second to last semester of school and am trying to get into the precision grading and environmental contracting market. To get my feet wet in the excavation business and get going on my own this summer, I am connecting with landscapers and excavation contractors in my area looking for work that involves knowledge of heavy equipment. Quick background: I have worked for several years (summers, and a month every winter, and occasional school breaks), for a large earthmoving contractor as an assistant site supervisor, operator, and GPS layout technician.
The business plan I have laid out has me starting out doing small jobs with skidsteers and renting larger equipment as needed while I start and eventually moving into a 3000 ROC skidsteer with the VTS package. As part of my pre-business homework, I have been talking with my local Bobcat, Cat, and Deere dealers about various financial programs as well as trying to get a feel for the new machines on the market. Having spent a summer on a Bobcat 863 and a Cat 236, and then most recently running a NH 190 for a brief period of time, I have enough experience with different control patterns to develop my preference for the joystick/pilot control pattern on a skidsteer and have such have started testing out Cat’s, Deere’s, and Bobcat’s controls.
I took a brief trip to my local Deere dealer today and got to play around in the yard with a new 325 skid with the E/H controls for about 15 minutes and developed a few thoughts about the controls and the machine.
Please take my thoughts with a grain of salt as I have yet to try any of the competitor’s machines and have yet to really run the machine in a production setting.
Controllability:
At first glance, I did not find any delay in the controls. The controls produced a very fast response from the hydraulic system. Cycle functions were very fast with a very slight reduction in speed when multi-tasking (Raise boom, curl bucket, etc.) One thing I noticed while I was adjusting to the controls was the speed with which the bucket would curl back and “pop” material in the air when charging a dirt pile. When trying to control a slow, forward grading pass of the rutted, dirt lot I was in I found the controls very responsive to the slightest touch in the controls. I actually found the controls a little too “responsive” when trying to adjust the angle of the cutting edge and asked the dealer if there was a way to adjust the sensitivity of the controls. (I’m currently awaiting his response, as he did not know at the time.) A nice feature I liked, not sure if the other competitor’s offer it, but there was a trigger button on the right joystick that when depressed, controlled the float functions of the loader, rather than having to push the joystick all the way forward to a detent position.
Overall, I found the new controls to be very comfortable to operate and responsive to the operator’s touch. I remember reading that some people were concerned about the size of the pylons that the controls rested on and what that meant in a reduction in space in an already relatively small cab. On that thought, though the E/H controls do take up a little extra space, I did not find that they unnecessarily cramped the cab. Keep in mind that I am 5’9” and weigh 160 lbs. A larger 6’+, 200lb+ plus operator might find the overall feel of the cab to be much different, but I do not think that would be due to the controls being there, but rather to the nature of the physical size of the cab. The biggest complaint I would have about the controls would be the sensitivity of the system and whether or not you can adjust it like you can like the new Cat AMIC system.
I am setting up demos for a Cat 262C and a Bobcat T300/T190 with E/H controls for a large multiday project at my parent’s house and I will post my thoughts on those as I try them out.
The business plan I have laid out has me starting out doing small jobs with skidsteers and renting larger equipment as needed while I start and eventually moving into a 3000 ROC skidsteer with the VTS package. As part of my pre-business homework, I have been talking with my local Bobcat, Cat, and Deere dealers about various financial programs as well as trying to get a feel for the new machines on the market. Having spent a summer on a Bobcat 863 and a Cat 236, and then most recently running a NH 190 for a brief period of time, I have enough experience with different control patterns to develop my preference for the joystick/pilot control pattern on a skidsteer and have such have started testing out Cat’s, Deere’s, and Bobcat’s controls.
I took a brief trip to my local Deere dealer today and got to play around in the yard with a new 325 skid with the E/H controls for about 15 minutes and developed a few thoughts about the controls and the machine.
Please take my thoughts with a grain of salt as I have yet to try any of the competitor’s machines and have yet to really run the machine in a production setting.
Controllability:
At first glance, I did not find any delay in the controls. The controls produced a very fast response from the hydraulic system. Cycle functions were very fast with a very slight reduction in speed when multi-tasking (Raise boom, curl bucket, etc.) One thing I noticed while I was adjusting to the controls was the speed with which the bucket would curl back and “pop” material in the air when charging a dirt pile. When trying to control a slow, forward grading pass of the rutted, dirt lot I was in I found the controls very responsive to the slightest touch in the controls. I actually found the controls a little too “responsive” when trying to adjust the angle of the cutting edge and asked the dealer if there was a way to adjust the sensitivity of the controls. (I’m currently awaiting his response, as he did not know at the time.) A nice feature I liked, not sure if the other competitor’s offer it, but there was a trigger button on the right joystick that when depressed, controlled the float functions of the loader, rather than having to push the joystick all the way forward to a detent position.
Overall, I found the new controls to be very comfortable to operate and responsive to the operator’s touch. I remember reading that some people were concerned about the size of the pylons that the controls rested on and what that meant in a reduction in space in an already relatively small cab. On that thought, though the E/H controls do take up a little extra space, I did not find that they unnecessarily cramped the cab. Keep in mind that I am 5’9” and weigh 160 lbs. A larger 6’+, 200lb+ plus operator might find the overall feel of the cab to be much different, but I do not think that would be due to the controls being there, but rather to the nature of the physical size of the cab. The biggest complaint I would have about the controls would be the sensitivity of the system and whether or not you can adjust it like you can like the new Cat AMIC system.
I am setting up demos for a Cat 262C and a Bobcat T300/T190 with E/H controls for a large multiday project at my parent’s house and I will post my thoughts on those as I try them out.