Equipment Changes to Keep up with Changing Needs of Resort

Owners Replace Labor with Versatile Bobcat Machines and Attachments

Dramatic changes began at the Timberlane Resort in northern Minnesota shortly after Lee, Cathy and Katie Zaczkowski purchased the property two decades ago.

The Zaczkowskis eliminated about half of the resort’s two- and three-bedroom cabanas, replacing them with three- and four-bedroom villas. The new owners also built tennis, basketball and volleyball courts and added beach equipment such as paddle boats, kayaks and water slides.

During the same period, the equipment used to shape and maintain the Park Rapids, Minn., property also evolved. Zaczkowski purchased a Bobcat® 843 skid-steer loader in the mid-1990s. During the first few years of owning the resort, general maintenance tasks were always subcontracted. But after using the 843, Zaczkowski found that he could accomplish more with the machine than he ever imagined.

“There wasn’t anything that the skid-steer loader couldn’t do,” he says.

After owning the 843 for about four years, Zaczkowski purchased a Bobcat 763. To maximize the machines’ versatility, he began investing in attachments. “I kept buying attachments,” he says. At one time, Zaczkowski had a dozen attachments, including a bucket, snowblower, stump grinder, Brushcat™ rotary cutter, grader, soil conditioner, landplane, angle blade, spreader, tree spade, sprayer and mower.

“I’d use it around the resort for clearing driveways and roadways. It was a machine that you couldn’t work hard enough.”

Then Zaczkowski expanded the resort with a championship golf course that was constructed with the help of Bobcat machines and attachments. To help build the golf course, Zaczkowski used the 763 with a grapple attachment to remove debris, wood and branches. A soil conditioner attachment was used throughout the entire construction process to smooth the fairways and roughs.

“I used the 763 myself for the odds and ends, such as picking up debris with the grapple where the contractors were grooming and digging up stumps,” says Zaczkowski. “And when I didn’t need it, the contractor used it for planing the fairways with the soil conditioner. We just worked together that way.”

Once the golf course was complete and opened for business in 2004, Zaczkowski made another compact equipment switch. Because of the course's sensitive turf, he wanted a machine that had all-wheel steering capabilities and still utilize some of the attachments he used with his Bobcat loaders. So he traded in the 763 for a Toolcat 5600 utility machine from Bobcat of Bemidji.

To better get around the golf course and further prevent turf damage, Zaczkowski equipped the 5600 with turf tires, minimizing any surface repairs when working on golf courses. "I'm able to go anyplace out there now, on the greens or wherever it may be," Zaczkowski says. Zaczkowski doesn't know how he'd maintain the grounds without the 5600. "The 5600 takes the place of manual labor."

Read about the all new D-series Toolcat 5600 utility work machine at My Toolcat 5600.