463 Delivers Big Performance on Small Landscaping Jobs

Trey Pfeilsticker

High-production landscaping in limited access spaces calls for special equipment. It needs to be small and nimble enough to fit the site and big and versatile enough to handle the work quickly and efficiently. Just ask Trey Pfeilsticker, owner and general manager of Rain Dance, Chandler, Ariz., one of the state’s largest commercial and residential landscape contractors.

His 10 three-person crews, which are at times spread over a 50-mile radius in the Phoenix area, can landscape a dozen or more homes a day, and that includes installing irrigation systems. They do it all with the help of their Bobcat® 463 skid-steer loaders and Bobcat bucket and trencher attachments.

“The 463 is the best skid-steer loader out there for its size,” says Pfeilsticker. “It fits through 3-ft.-wide gates to get into backyards without having to tear down a wall or fence. It has the hydraulic power to easily handle trenching jobs. We use the Bobcat LT 102 trencher, with its 2-ft. digging depth, to dig irrigation trenches and to loosen soil for handdigging shrub and tree planting holes. It eliminates the labor required to operate a jackhammer with a clay spade or a walk-behind trencher. Plus, it costs only a fourth the price of a walk-behind trencher.”

Many landscape contractors in his area rely solely on hand tools, says Pfeilsticker. “The 463 loaders cut our direct labor costs in half.” He says he is very satisfied with the hard-working loaders, which were purchased from Bingham Equipment, Mesa, Ariz. “We’ll continue to buy them because they’re reliable and they save us a lot of labor.”