What's new

The skid steer thread

299 is more bulldozer than some small dozers. Yours steel or rubber tracked?
Rubber

I will say that in loose material it does good. But you get into a hard push on some virgin ground and the whole boom section twists up and acts like a spring.
 
Maybe, bit it's a deere, which means you have the worst dealer network in existence.
Sadly, it wasn't always that way. I grew up in a JD dealership owned and operated by my Parents and Grandparents in the '80s and '90s; it was a decent sized one in Culpeper, Va. Deere pretty much crushed the small dealerships around 2000 to 2005 through a bunch of various actions (selling at big box stores, restructuring of Deere Credit and disallowing other finance systems, etc) and all you ended up left with are the bigger chains like the car dealerships operate where the dealers are involved in the financing investment, etc etc.

333 is a stellar heavy pusher, but I couldn't afford to fix one.
 
Sadly, it wasn't always that way. I grew up in a JD dealership owned and operated by my Parents and Grandparents in the '80s and '90s; it was a decent sized one in Culpeper, Va. Deere pretty much crushed the small dealerships around 2000 to 2005 through a bunch of various actions (selling at big box stores, restructuring of Deere Credit and disallowing other finance systems, etc) and all you ended up left with are the bigger chains like the car dealerships operate where the dealers are involved in the financing investment, etc etc.

333 is a stellar heavy pusher, but I couldn't afford to fix one.

I grew up just a few hours from where caterpillar was started, so cat was 90% of all equipment. When we moved up here I was surprised to see moat equipment was deere.

It was the same story here. There was a deere dealer right in this tiny town who took care of the farmers, loggers and dirt guys. Place is long gone, bit a lot of guys stayed deere loyal (including the company i work for) and now how to deal with a huge dealer thats 2 hours away and makes every repair as difficult and expensive as possible.
 
and all you ended up left with are the bigger chains like the car dealerships operate where the dealers are involved in the financing investment, etc etc.
And then they went to shit because no competition.
 
I grew up just a few hours from where caterpillar was started, so cat was 90% of all equipment. When we moved up here I was surprised to see moat equipment was deere.

It was the same story here. There was a deere dealer right in this tiny town who took care of the farmers, loggers and dirt guys. Place is long gone, bit a lot of guys stayed deere loyal (including the company i work for) and now how to deal with a huge dealer thats 2 hours away and makes every repair as difficult and expensive as possible.
We have both cat and deere in town. Starting to see alot of Doosan stuff on jobs. The few that I ran werent a bad machine
 
Any tips or tricks to getting old hydraulic hoses broke free?

Working on a Bobcat 743b. The large line going down to the left drive is shot. I've torqued on it pretty good, hit it with a hammer, and hit it with a hammer while torqueing on it... I sprayed it with PB blaster and it's sat for a couple days now, so i'll try all the above again.

This line is connected to a hard line with no "backup" nut and the last 6-10" of hard line is unsupported. I'm worried to put too much more pressure pulling against that hard line, so any tricks out there?

Since this line is trash, I'm considering cutting the hose out of the way to try using a normal socket and impact.

*see red circle.

Capture.PNG
 
Any tips or tricks to getting old hydraulic hoses broke free?

Working on a Bobcat 743b. The large line going down to the left drive is shot. I've torqued on it pretty good, hit it with a hammer, and hit it with a hammer while torqueing on it... I sprayed it with PB blaster and it's sat for a couple days now, so i'll try all the above again.

This line is connected to a hard line with no "backup" nut and the last 6-10" of hard line is unsupported. I'm worried to put too much more pressure pulling against that hard line, so any tricks out there?

Since this line is trash, I'm considering cutting the hose out of the way to try using a normal socket and impact.

*see red circle.

Capture.PNG

There's no hex on the end of the hardline to use a wrench on to support it?

That fitting looks weird, the nut on the hose looks like standard JIC hose end, but there has to be something on the end of the hardline to thread on to.

Better pics?

Maybe hold the hardline with vise-grips, or you could zip-disk/die grind the nut to destruction or until it loosen's. Just try not to light all the greasy goo on fire.

If you can see the other end of the hardline you could also eliminate it with a single longer hose.

If you do cut the hose off, you might be introducing a bunch of debris into the hydraulic oil.
 
There's no hex on the end of the hardline to use a wrench on to support it?

That fitting looks weird, the nut on the hose looks like standard JIC hose end, but there has to be something on the end of the hardline to thread on to.

Better pics?

Maybe hold the hardline with vise-grips, or you could zip-disk/die grind the nut to destruction or until it loosen's. Just try not to light all the greasy goo on fire.

If you can see the other end of the hardline you could also eliminate it with a single longer hose.

If you do cut the hose off, you might be introducing a bunch of debris into the hydraulic oil.

This for sure.
 
I grew up just a few hours from where caterpillar was started, so cat was 90% of all equipment. When we moved up here I was surprised to see moat equipment was deere.

It was the same story here. There was a deere dealer right in this tiny town who took care of the farmers, loggers and dirt guys. Place is long gone, bit a lot of guys stayed deere loyal (including the company i work for) and now how to deal with a huge dealer thats 2 hours away and makes every repair as difficult and expensive as possible.

We have to use Pape in Oregon.

The local "Deere" dealer had no idea what a skidder was and claimed the serial number wasn't valid.
Seriously how the fawk? Not like it's some obscure equipment.

Pape pulled it up in a few seconds and the guys actually know their shit.

I say "Deere" cause it's rare to even see Deere stuff other than yard tractors. They allegedly are a Peterbilt, Larue, Doosan and Bobcat dealer as well.
 
We have to use Pape in Oregon.

The local "Deere" dealer had no idea what a skidder was and claimed the serial number wasn't valid.
Seriously how the fawk? Not like it's some obscure equipment.

Pape pulled it up in a few seconds and the guys actually know their shit.

I say "Deere" cause it's rare to even see Deere stuff other than yard tractors. They allegedly are a Peterbilt, Larue, Doosan and Bobcat dealer as well.

What's funny was in CA valley tractor did the green equipment and Pape did construction. Forestry gets wierd since it's technically agriculture and painted green, but probably share way more parts to the construction stuff.

There is a Pape 30 mins from here, but they mostly just sell oversized lawn mowers and won't touch our loaders or dozer. :homer:
 
Any tips or tricks to getting old hydraulic hoses broke free?

Working on a Bobcat 743b. The large line going down to the left drive is shot. I've torqued on it pretty good, hit it with a hammer, and hit it with a hammer while torqueing on it... I sprayed it with PB blaster and it's sat for a couple days now, so i'll try all the above again.

This line is connected to a hard line with no "backup" nut and the last 6-10" of hard line is unsupported. I'm worried to put too much more pressure pulling against that hard line, so any tricks out there?

Since this line is trash, I'm considering cutting the hose out of the way to try using a normal socket and impact.

*see red circle.

Capture.PNG
That looks like the old metal line that has a crimped on hose. I would get a parts book and take a look. You may have to replace the whole assembly.

According to the parts book this may be the case. That joint will not come apart. You could pull the metal line and weld on a jic male end so you are able to replace just the rubber side.

Here’s a shitty picture of the hose I think it is.

IMG_8112.png


I refuse to own anything Bobcat. My local heavy equipment mechanic who works on everything says bobcats are by far the worst of all the skidsteers to fix. They are just stupid to work on. Just last week he was bitching because he could not reprogram a cam sensor through the main electrical system diagnostic plug. He had to buy a special adapter to hook to the engine computer plug:lmao:
 
Last edited:
That looks like the old metal line that has a crimped on hose. I would get a parts book and take a look. You may have to replace the whole assembly.

According to the parts book this may be the case. That joint will not come apart. You could pull the metal line and weld on a jic male end so you are able to replace just the rubber side.

Here’s a shitty picture of the hose I think it is.

IMG_8112.png


I refuse to own anything Bobcat. My local heavy equipment mechanic who works on everything says bobcats are by far the worst of all the skidsteers to fix. They are just stupid to work on. Just last week he was bitching because he could not reprogram a cam sensor through the main electrical system diagnostic plug. He had to buy a special adapter to hook to the engine computer plug:lmao:

I've worked on a few Case and Deere skid steers as well as Bobcats, they all had stuff that you pretty much needed 6ft triple jointed gorilla strength arms.

They are a joy to work on compared to Trackless M/Ts
 
That looks like the old metal line that has a crimped on hose. I would get a parts book and take a look. You may have to replace the whole assembly.

According to the parts book this may be the case. That joint will not come apart. You could pull the metal line and weld on a jic male end so you are able to replace just the rubber side.

Here’s a shitty picture of the hose I think it is.

IMG_8112.png


I refuse to own anything Bobcat. My local heavy equipment mechanic who works on everything says bobcats are by far the worst of all the skidsteers to fix. They are just stupid to work on. Just last week he was bitching because he could not reprogram a cam sensor through the main electrical system diagnostic plug. He had to buy a special adapter to hook to the engine computer plug:lmao:
You are correct. The hose is attached onto the hard line. I had suspected that was the case, but the hex threw me off.

The two in your screen shot are the two I'm going to replace (1 needs to be replaced and the other has to come off anyways).

I can attest to these things being a pain in the ass to work on. (the 30 years of mud and oil caked on sure doesn't help). I fought on and off with this thing over the weekend. I got the hose/line loose on both ends, but I have to remove (2) other lines to clear out enough space to remove the one I'm after.

Looks like both lines are available for purchase direct from Bobcat, so I guess I'm going that route.
 
I can attest to these things being a pain in the ass to work on. (the 30 years of mud and oil caked on sure doesn't help). I fought on and off with this thing over the weekend.
You pack that much awesome into a small package and it's gonna be tough to work on some parts, or lots of parts. Still 100% worth it.

Good job keeping at it and not tapping out getting someone else to do it!
 
Swapped out the two pain in the ass hard/flex lines that wrapped opposing direction around the pump and down to each drive. scooped 20 lbs of crap out from around the pump area and put it back together. Ran it and found another leak. This time coming from the left side drive return line. I got a new one made local and swapped it on.

What is the general consensus on hydraulic oil? I bought 5 gallons from a Napa when I went originally pick up the machine, but it's pretty much puked all that out. I asked the Napa guy for hydraulic oil compatible with a Bobcat skidsteer. He sold me "Gold Band Ag Hydraulic fluid" for sub $50. I asked for the same thing at a local parts place when getting the hose made and he quoted me something for $120/ 5 gallon. I don't know if this thing is done puking everywhere so, I don't want $20/gal hydro fluid.

recommendations?
 
Swapped out the two pain in the ass hard/flex lines that wrapped opposing direction around the pump and down to each drive. scooped 20 lbs of crap out from around the pump area and put it back together. Ran it and found another leak. This time coming from the left side drive return line. I got a new one made local and swapped it on.

What is the general consensus on hydraulic oil? I bought 5 gallons from a Napa when I went originally pick up the machine, but it's pretty much puked all that out. I asked the Napa guy for hydraulic oil compatible with a Bobcat skidsteer. He sold me "Gold Band Ag Hydraulic fluid" for sub $50. I asked for the same thing at a local parts place when getting the hose made and he quoted me something for $120/ 5 gallon. I don't know if this thing is done puking everywhere so, I don't want $20/gal hydro fluid.

recommendations?
I usually go with whatever Runnings carries that says it's compatible with Kubota SUDT, that will also (usually) be compatible with the Deere J20C standard and I figure it should be compatible with anything I'm running.

Aaron Z
 
Factory fill was 10w30 I believe. Aw32 probably would be fine.

"Gold Band Ag hydraulic oil" is the cheapest of the cheap, I wouldn't use that in anything I cared about.
 
Last edited:
Factory fill was 10w30 I believe. Aw32 probably would be fine.

"Gold Band Ag hydraulic oil" is the cheapest of the cheap, I wouldn't use that in anything I cared about.
Yeah, I read that afterwards. On the bright side, I think most of it already leaked out.
 
My Bobcat dealer does not carry hydraulic fluid for the older machine. Told me to buy 32 at the parts store.
 
I've spent plenty of time in Cat 262D machines(~7khrs), and a little time in Cat 226B(couple hundred) machines as well.


Heard some bad things about that model. Had a coworker sent out on a long term offsite job(Old aluminum smelter/foundry(Likely some members have their product in their garage as their primary customer was a GM Powertrain plant that shut down in the early 2000's) gut and refit as a datacenter.) This was just after the "teleskid" was introduced. The guy that dropped it off(rental), said there was no way they could break it...... Challange accepted, and it was returned with the boom badly twisted, after they had a machine drop through a potroom floor, and that machine "saved" them.
 
quick bump. I'm looking at new skid steer to replace a JD 320 and 326D at work. I've having some issue with a couple of the crew and their opinions on branded skid steer.

Dealer support is a pretty big aspect to me. CAT and JD have the best service in the area period. But all I hear from a couple of the guys is how crappy the JD are, no power, pain to work on, etc, etc. And how all their construction buddies hate JD. Apparently the new hotness is Kubota, cat's meow. Gold Standard.

For example we had a issue with the 326 derating and had a pile of gravel to move when it went into limp mode. Dealer came and picked it up and dropped off a "demo" tracked 325 to finish the gravel work while they fixed the 326D. they got the gravel pile moved and all I heard the next 2 days was how it didn't have any power, and all the same crap. I sorta jumped on the couple guys and said that I don't put much stock in what their construction buddies claim as they are harder then piss on anyone equipment and nothing is ever good enough cause they don't buy the equipment, they just use it. Also asked how a brand new machine that is similar range of lift capacity could have less power then our 12 year old 326D. He didn't have an answer.

Anyways the Kubota dealer is the same as the Bobcat which we have had piss poor past history with it. I keep mentioning that they will be very unhappy if we get a new machine and the dealer support sucks.


Anyways is there really that big of a difference between all these different skidsteers?
 
The construction company next door to me has 6 or 8 333 jds and I think 3 kubotas. There is always a jd in the shop and I only see a kubota when it is in for service. My svl95 has been flawless but I'm not beating on it every day.
 
quick bump. I'm looking at new skid steer to replace a JD 320 and 326D at work. I've having some issue with a couple of the crew and their opinions on branded skid steer.

Dealer support is a pretty big aspect to me. CAT and JD have the best service in the area period.

Anyways the Kubota dealer is the same as the Bobcat which we have had piss poor past history with it. I keep mentioning that they will be very unhappy if we get a new machine and the dealer support sucks.

Anyways is there really that big of a difference between all these different skidsteers?

Had some conversation with my dad along these lines the other night as I am starting to look for a replacement for my Mini Ex, have a friend who is looking for a skid and we are considering going with new machines based on how used pricing is around here these days. As his retirement gig, dad was selling Kubota and Wacker Nueson and just recently switched over to start selling Deere again (after we had a family run dealership in the '80s and '90s that also sold Massey, Agco, and a few other smaller lines and then he got into aviation for the past 20 years). He was saying that the more recent, but not brand new Kubota machines seem to have a good power and longevity between repairs, but when they do need work, there's a large disconnect between the service and support arm of Kubota and the sales and development side; especially if a new machine breaks and needs warranty work. He said it almost seems like the service side is teaching themselves how to work on the machines vs being involved at the origination of design and service level like Deere and CAT are known for. He said Bobcat had gotten their shit together for about 15 years and then when Doosan got involved, it became "Domestic Kubota" as in it is having similar issues with service. There has also been a streak of new machines with a litany of ToD issues that have to be fixed, like several hydraulic leaks, bolts that aren't tightened properly or missing all together from panels, and they even had a pair of Kubota skids come in and they were missing every other track roller and were told "we were short but still wanted to deliver the machine so you could sell it, they'll come in and you can install them".

Now on the flip, going back to selling Deere, he said its the opposite in that its like the service department is controlling the design and sales group. Side effect of the right to repair deal going sideways is that they will design it so that they still are the only ones to work on it... but when they do work on it, it will be quick and effective, but it may be often and expensive. He sells more in the Ag side of things but has a few construction and forestry customers that he talks with weekly as one company has about 25 skids and 15 excavators and seem to keep them only about 3 years before replacing with new again, not one single CAT in the fleet either due to company owner's personal rules. Overall the initial quality of the stuff Deere is delivering is nicer than Kubota but he did say it seems like lately there are a number of sensor and control issues that Deere is fighting. Evidently the Kubota skid has a better push power, but JD has better lifting and stability while carrying a load and also handles hi-flow type attachments better overall with less need for aftermarket cooling systems... from his experience with customers who have both brands.
 
Decent set is pretty cheap. I paid under $1500 even with AK shipping.

Use my forklift most of the time, but the skid steer goes way more places off road.
Does suck to not be able to use it to hold shit up, pretty well impossible to get out.
20230912_161221.jpg


Got this recently. 2017 with 200hrs, all the options. I'd like to find an rc controller for killdozer type stuff.

Came with a snow pusher. I need to get some forks for it.
 
I am starting to look for a replacement for my Mini Ex, have a friend who is looking for a skid and we are considering going with new machines based on how used pricing is around here these days.
Misread this as you were looking to replace your mini ex and skid and was going to ask for your assessment and price on this skid... Is the friend replacing something?
 
Misread this as you were looking to replace your mini ex and skid and was going to ask for your assessment and price on this skid... Is the friend replacing something?
I'm replacing mini and my friend is buying a skid. I need to slow down my brain when typing.
 
Top Back Refresh