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]