Bobcat T750 for $24k???

[Courage]

Hey guys, I'm supposed to go look at and buy a 2016 Bobcat T750 tomorrow. The lowest he'll go on it is $24k. It's owned by a civil contracting company. They are the original owners. He said in the last 6 months they've replaced the injectors, injection pump, injection lines, and the tracks, and had the dpf baked out. The cab door got busted, so they took it off and threw it out. It has 3,626.9 hours on it.

I showed it to my diesel mechanic buddy, and he said he'd be pretty nervous to buy a machine with that high of hours that takes DEF. He also said that the tracks look pretty worn to be only 6 months old with seldom use since then. If the the guy is fibbing on the tracks, that makes me wonder what else is inaccurate... Also, the seat rubber is cracked up. I'm just curious for some more opinions, and any thing I should look out for when I go to look at it.

I'm looking for a machine to use for driveway maintenance, pushing snow, my landscaping business, and also to add forestry mulching to my business offerings. Think this machine would work well for those things?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!
Courage

 

[Courage]

 

[KSSS]

It looks like its in pretty good shape for the hours. Tracks are about done. I don't think that is a great choice for a mulcher. A 770 would be a better machine for that. My concern would be the finals. I would like to see the final drive oil drained and replaced and see what it looks like before you decide. If those finals are going bad you will spend many thousands more.

 

[HarleyHappy]

Tracks are not 6 months old, unless they drove it to Sturgis and back.
The door thing bugs me, especially if you plan on doing anything with mulching or snow removal.
Sounds like they had or have a fuel issue and if they are lying about the tracks, no real way to trust them on anything else.
Once someone lies to me, that’s it.

 

[Simon C]

Tracks are not 6 months old, unless they drove it to Sturgis and back.
The door thing bugs me, especially if you plan on doing anything with mulching or snow removal.
Sounds like they had or have a fuel issue and if they are lying about the tracks, no real way to trust them on anything else.
Once someone lies to me, that’s it.

Want to see the receipt for the fuel system repair. And it will not be great for pushing snow. And yes the finals will break you if bad oil is in there. Offer to pay for new oil if they allow to dump. That cost will be like toilet paper in comparison to finals junked.
Those engines are dealer only repairs with their computer software stuff. Nige won't be there to help like he has helped so many others. Hard to get repair info from Bobcat is my experience.
Simon C

 

[Courage]

Thanks so much for all of your help, guys! I've decided to pass on it. Like HarleyHappy said, I don't do business with liars, and he told me over the phone that it had new tracks put on 6 months ago and that the machine had had very little use in those 6 months.
What makes you say if would not be a good machine for moving snow? Just wanting to learn what to look out for in the future...

 

[KSSS]

Tracks work fine as long you can keep yourself on asphalt or gravel. Once you have ice build up, it stops a track machine from pushing. You can put studs in the CTL tracks as some do which helps on ice. A wheeled machine with chains or winter tires works the best for all conditions in my experience. ASV style undercarriage works better than a CTL in snow, but with that comes drawbacks in other areas. As always you have to weigh what is most important to you. If mulching is something your serious about, I would find a higher hp machine (which if newer will require DEF) but will make you much more productive than the 750 is for mulching.

 

[BC Placer gold]

Good decision I think...

Tracks on slopes, with snow at or around 0c will turn your machine into a bowling ball as it slides down the hill! If you don't have steep hills or live in an area with cold dry snow then tracks are pretty good for pushing & especially piling snow.

I really wanted to 'like' our recently acquired ASV RC50 for plowing snow but any slight turn on our ground and it will break traction and start sliding, snow is now 'glazed' up and tracks just spin out. All depends on your particular conditions. I did however take this same ASV into the bush last March and it drove over 3' of wet spring snowpack..almost like a snowmobile.

But plowing snow is just one aspect of use, so you really need to look at your overall needs. The Deere 270 mentioned below is next to useless in any kind of mud (even fully chained up)

I will be back to using our Deere 270 wheeled machine for plowing (just personal acreage use). Tires were bald when we bought it 10 or so years ago...heavy duty square link chains on rear tires and it climbs our 15% driveway no problem.

 

[Simon C]

Have a Deere 332g with studs on rear tires, pushes quite well. With chains they become very strong on ice or snow.
Simon C

 

[Simon C]

It pushes this set up full, with equivalent 3-4 buckets full in one pass.
Simon C

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

I plow my 200 yard driveway with my ASV SR80, and am pretty happy with it, for a tracked machine. Just got a watch yourself on sidehills, as things can, quite literally, go sideways fast. Pushing in a straight line is no problem. Uphill pushing and steering can get tougher once the snow ices/glazes over, but otherwise I'm happy with the job it does.

 

[BC Placer gold]

I plow my 200 yard driveway with my ASV SR80, and am pretty happy with it, for a tracked machine. Just got a watch yourself on sidehills, as things can, quite literally, go sideways fast. Pushing in a straight line is no problem. Uphill pushing and steering can get tougher once the snow ices/glazes over, but otherwise I'm happy with the job it does.

Yes, our situation is probably fairly extreme regarding grade....wet/packing snow. Once a machine has passed over the snow it will be slippery enough to be treacherous on foot (water film on hardpack).

Last winter I did use the ASV to push out piles of snow over a drop-off. It easily pushed out onto the snow pile without sinking or getting stuck.

The rubber tire machine with chains also allows safe extraction of stuck vehicles, tractors etc.

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

Yes, our situation is probably fairly extreme regarding grade....wet/packing snow. Once a machine has passed over the snow it will be slippery enough to be treacherous on foot (water film on hardpack).

Last winter I did use the ASV to push out piles of snow over a drop-off. It easily pushed out onto the snow pile without sinking or getting stuck.

The rubber tire machine with chains also allows safe extraction of stuck vehicles, tractors etc.

I've got wet snow here too, and a round bar cutting edge on my plow that tends to "polish" the snow. But the SR80 stays pretty well planted, at least until you try to steer with a loaded plow.. It's almost 3000 lbs heavier than an RC50, which I expect helps.

Not being able to pull stuff out is a definite downside. I need to buy a winch.

 

[KSSS]

The ASV tracks have kevlar and not steel cables in the tracks like a CTL Combined with the independent suspension they conform to the snow like a snowmobile track does. So the ASV track is impressive in the snow. When the driveway gets glazed with ice you still have the same issues as a CTL for the most part but for a track machine, pretty hard to beat the ASV in snow.

 

[BC Placer gold]

The ASV tracks have kevlar and not steel cables in the tracks like a CTL Combined with the independent suspension they conform to the snow like a snowmobile track does. So the ASV track is impressive in the snow. When the driveway gets glazed with ice you still have the same issues as a CTL for the most part but for a track machine, pretty hard to beat the ASV in snow.

Right, our tracks have a few chunks out exposing the kevlar.

Opening up some access road last March...that little asv did pretty good, definitely lacking some horsepower though...

 

[Wedig]

If you're talking about pushing snow on asphalt parking lots, with the help of salt you will be totally fine, I'm an on call skidsteer operator for pushing snow, and I use a small 249D Cat. Does fine, but like I said I have help with salt trucks.

 

[Courage]

Merry Christmas, y'all! Thanks for all the wisdom you've shared. I'm thinking my best bet is to put the mulching off for a while. It seems like a good side hustle, but that it comes with many costly repairs. Thinking I should put it off till I have a bit more money in reserve.

Because of that change of plan, im more just getting a machine to do work around our property and to work on dirt roads and do soil prep, plus plowing snow. We have a VERY steep driveway! I think a wheeled machine will probably be my best bet all things considered.

I'm considering two different wheeled machines at a the moment. I'll ask these questions in the wheeled skid steer section too, but it seems that a lot of you have experience with them here too, so thought I'd see if anyone has any experience...
Both are $12k, both have roughly 3k hours, both look very clean for their age. 2003 Bobcat S300 vs Case 90XT? Any thoughts?

 

[Wedig]

Don't know anything about case, so I'd have to go with Bobcat, although no experience with wheeled machine. Just know I bought one with 3000 hrs and around 3500 I had to replace the engine, which is a Kubota, I personally like the Kubota, but a local mechanic said he works on Kubota more than any other engine.???

 

[Courage]

That's surprising that he says he hased to work on kubotas that most! Ive always heard good things about their engines...

 

[Wedig]

Me too, let's see what other guys have to say about it.