clintm
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:iagreeWhy is hand and foot controls a superior way to control a skid steer?
:iagreeWhy is hand and foot controls a superior way to control a skid steer?
this is a demonstration of why bobcat controls are a superior way to control your machine. i would love to see someone do this with a t bar or joystick. the good part starts at 5:00
this is a demonstration of why bobcat controls are a superior way to control your machine. i would love to see someone do this with a t bar or joystick. the good part starts at 5:00
i would say the precision and control is there with the eh. but the precision and control coupled with speed is not really there. if i wanna move a half inch backward, while trying to take the rotor out of the combine, with mechanical i can do it in a split second. if i wanna move a half inch with eh it may take me a few seconds.
i scoop up lots of liquid manure against a flat wall; the eh is not the best fit for this application because you have to be quick else nothing will end up in your bucket. and i don't want to touch the wall with the bucket so as to wear the wall out. i can make it work at an acceptable level though.
so are you saying if i fire up my pilot machine in -30 F and take off instantly like i have always done with the bobcat it is going to work right? cuz I'm not going to wait around for 20 minutes for the machine to warm up. i have never let the bobcats warm up in cold weather and have never had a problem.
Our mechanical machines were not happy in the cold. The EH machines are worse in cold, the pilot machines are better though. Ours usually don't sit shut down in the cold for too long. The smaller 226B3 with pilots never sits off for more than two hours and when it is shut down its in a warmish barn. The 262D with EH gets parked in shop over night when it gets really cold out. If we left it outside it only takes a of warming up to be responsive but it's just nicer on everything to keep it a bit warmer. Our other pilot machine (242B3) sits out of the wind but in a cold shed and never has issues either. Our Volvo wheel loader uses pilot controls as well and never even hesitates until it gets below 0*.
Our old NH mechanical machines would freewheel a lot in the cold and the genteel would obviously be very stiff.
I would say you can be much more precise with pilot controls than mechanical controls and I would bet you could do the same stunts as the guys were doing in the videos above. The pilot controls are very precise and responsive with decent operator feel. EH controls on the other hand are a different story. Our older C series Cat was pretty poor but the D series EH has gotten a lot better. I know KSSS has said that CNH has gotten their EH refined as well. I know Bobcats EH were pretty poor but maybe they have gotten them working better by now.
Maybe Bobcat guys just love their foot controls because even without them you still don't get a nice flat floor thanks to the center chain case.
Pilot controls are still my favorite, but the comfort of the EH sticks being mounted with the seat and being able to adjust them for different operators helps offset the minor annoyances in response from time to time.