Master Trouble-Shooter Wraps Up More than Four Decades of Bobcat Service
Ed Larson
If Ed Larson hasn’t seen it all, he’s seen more than most. We’re talking about the development of the skidsteer loader and the impact it’s had in revolutionizing the way people work around the world.
Larson, who retired from Bobcat Company in March, 2004, spent the bulk of his career in the Bobcat Service Department in Gwinner, N.D. He began working for the company in 1958 when it was known as the Melroe Manufacturing Company. That was the year the company introduced its first three-wheeled, self-propelled loader. Two years later, the company rolled out the world’s first four-wheeldrive skid-steer loader.
The Bobcat Company has led the compact equipment industry ever since, setting the standard for innovative technology, reliable and rugged performance and long-lasting value. The company and its world-wide network of dealers are also recognized for service and support that’s second to none. That accomplishment holds special meaning for Larson.
“Strong service has always been a high priority for Bobcat Company,” he says. “Still, service by itself can’t lead to success. It takes the combined efforts of engineering, manufacturing, sales and service to produce and support the quality products that customers demand.”
Hitting the Road
Larson started as a welder on the night shift. He and a co-worker would go through 25 to 30 lb. of welding rods a night making 35-ft.-wide harrows. Six months later he joined the U.S. Navy, returning to the company after completing his tour of duty in 1962. Larson arrived back in Gwinner in time to see the company unveil the first white Bobcat® skid-steer loader—the 15.5 hp 440. That was also the first Bobcat loader he ever operated, using it to load chunks of concrete into a truck during a remodeling job at the factory. Before long he was welding buckets and other parts for the loader frame.
In 1965, Larson transferred to the company’s experimental engineering department where he helped develop new Bobcat products. “It was a fun job,” he recalls. “We did welding, torch work, drilling and machining, whatever it took.” There, he worked on the 500 pulpwood machine, and the 25 hp Bobcat M-600, introduced in 1967, and a much bigger prototype with a rated operating capacity of 2,000 lb. “It was forerunner of the 970,” he explains. “We only built one of them. The concept was better than the design. The 970 had to wait until we developed a hydrostatic drive.”
Ed Larson operates the M-400, the world's first four-wheel drive skid-steer loader.
In 1968, Larson hit the road with his truck and tools as one of the first Bobcat traveling service representatives. At that time, many Bobcat skid-steer loaders were used on farms, around livestock yards and at grain and fertilizer dealers. He often relied on his wits and ingenuity to do his job.
“Back then, every time we went out on a trouble-shooting assignment it was a new adventure,” Larson says. “I could call the engineers at the factory but we had no baseline of previous problems to help us. Often, when I was out in the field, it was up to me to figure out how to fix the problem.”
In the early 1970s, he traveled throughout Canada and the United States training Bobcat service technicians, later becoming one of the company’s first district service managers and covering eight states in the upper Great Plains and Midwest, plus Canada. He and his counterparts kept in touch with the factory on a daily basis, exchanging ideas and information to continually improve the quality of Bobcat products. Larson returned to Gwinner in 1979, as a service supervisor, eventually ending his career as product service manager for attachments.
Lasting Impressions
What has he liked best about his career? “Working with all the fantastic products that we’ve developed,” Larson replies.
Of the many loader product advances he has seen over the years, several stand out in his mind. One is replacing the clutch drive with a Ed Larson operates the M-400, the world’s first four-wheel drive skid-steer loader. hydrostatic transmission in the early 1970s. “Instead of using the force of your whole arm to control the machine, you could use your thumb and fingers,” he says. “Even though it was much smoother and easier to operate, people resisted it at first because it was so much more sensitive to your touch. But once operators caught on to it, clutch machines died a natural death.”
Larson also praises the first liquidcooled Kubota diesel engine introduced in the early 1980s. Putting this powerful, very dependable engine in the model 743 helped boost the popularity of all Bobcat loaders, he says. The 1980s also saw the introduction of robot welders at the Gwinner plant. “Now, instead of sweating in 90- and 100-degree weather while you worked on a bucket, you could stand off to the side in an air-conditioned building while the robots did the majority of the work and did it faster,” Larson says.
Larson describes the T300 compact track loader as “the most impressive loader that Bobcat builds today.” Still, his favorite is the 773T (now the S185) which he bought for work around his home. “It represents all the best of mid-size Bobcat loaders in terms of performance and the ability to use hydraulic and electrically-controlled attachments. And it provides the comfort of an enclosed, heated and air-conditioned cab and the convenience of the Power BobTach™ attachment mounting system.”
Larson hasn’t lost the skills that served him well at the start of his Bobcat career. “People still come to me at home to do welding jobs for them,” he says. Given his years of experience working to make great Bobcat equipment even better, that’s not at all surprising.