TRACKS ON BOBCAT

Be careful guys, those loggering tracks you can get for the bobcat are not as tough as they look!!! Check out the pics I just put up on my site, it has to do with a bobcat loader, a JD 4 CuYd Loader, and a Creek. I'll leave it at that!! Lanelle was going to bribe me with those pics anyway, so I'll go ahead and get laughed at on my own!!
Hope you enjoy them!!

 

Who,me? My halo must need polishing. Bet it took a while to get that Bobcat clean, too.

 

Lanelle, I wouldn't know, that what we have new troops for!!! They're fresh out of bootcamp and for months all they've been doing is spit shining everything in site, they do a hell of a job!!!

 

That is very incouraging guido... especially since i have exactly 7 days!!! wonder what they will have me doing... test circuts with my wet fingers!!!!

 

Speaking of tracks.... Since winter is coming and the ground will be muddy again I have been considering buying tracks for my case 1845c. What are the pros and cons of rubber and metal. What should I look for in buying a pair of tracks. Any other insight would be helpful. I am in the south so snow removal is not a factor.

 

Tracks
either you love them or hate them. We use both, rubber when dealing with places that are very soft and might have to run on pavement or steel when doing excavating.
Rubber Pros : non-damaging
good floating
soft on turf
Rubber cons : pain in the A** to get on
pain when you throw one (you will)
pain to store
steel pros : long wearing
great for working in light muddy condition
easy to store
easy to put on
steel cons : can really tear up the ground
it will ruin drives and sidewalk
heavy
still can get punctures from nails

all in all we use tracks in the spring and fall to keep equipment running but when summer comes back to regluar tires.

 

Hello,

My sub-contractor uses a bobcat 864 trackloader, which is the dedicacted, track only version bobcat and swears by the machine.

Its been on a few of my jobs and I am very impressed with its abilities. Seems to be a smooth runner, on both asphault and ground.

He used his smaller, tired version once also on a job, and the damage between the two was substantially diff't when it came to driving across lawns. The tracked version definitily tread much lighter, didn't tear up as much.

Also, he said that the unit by ASV, the other tracked only skidsteer, is another nice machine to run. They are pretty big, but are/have come out with a smaller version that looks real nice.

Another nice thing is the 864 track is capable of being a decent little bulldozer. He also has the 6 way dozer attachment and with the extra traction, can can get a large proportion of grading done that the tire/tire track machines don't do as well. I think you get more power because when you add tracks to the bobcat tired version, you have to shut off the front end tire hydraulics (at least I think you do), and lose that power, only running the rear. Also, because of the track system on the 864, weight is distributed evenly across the entire bottom track surface, while the tired verson the weight is pretty much still sitting on those 4 tires only.

steveair

[Edited by steveair on 09-11-2000 at 11:39 PM]

 

864 is great for landscaping applications but is way to slow for doing high production work I have a 90xt with steel tracks two speed ride control and servo controled hydralics and it is amazing I am pretty sure it will run circles around any thing else on the market,and I tested JD(biggest piece of junk out there)bobcat 863 and 873 and a cat the last three were pretty good and less money but I was willing to pat for the best and at the time it was the only thing with factory cab w/air.As for the steel track they are grousres and when it get muddy they are great and not really to bad to put on 2 guys about 20 min.They do help not picking up nails but not fool proof and if you get a low tire the tracks will dismount your tire in a hurry.