Bobcat T300 Makes Light Work of Heavy Pallets of Pavers and Blocks

Brian Crooks started his business while going to college.

When increasing demand for his concrete paver and block retaining wall installation services required a small, powerful machine to save time and labor, contractor Brian Crooks purchased a Bobcat® T300 compact track loader.

“We move a lot of pallets of pavers and blocks,” he says. “We needed a machine that would lift and transport them.” With its 81 hp turbo-charged diesel engine, 3,000-lb. rated operating capacity (rated at 35 percent of tipping load) and low 4.1 psi ground pressure, his choice was ideal.

“The T300 can easily lift a full pallet of blocks and the tracks allow us to work in mud and other soft ground conditions,” Crooks says. At the same time, the vertical lift path offers excellent reach for loading concrete and asphalt debris into trucks during driveway reconstruction jobs.

Since starting BC Pavers, Inc., seven years ago as a summer business while going to college, Crooks, Renton, Wash., has used a Bobcat loader. After renting various units, he bought a Bobcat 863 five years ago, which he continues to use. He reports it is still going strong after 3,500 hours of dependable service.

The T300 compact track loader owned by BC Pavers easily moves pallets of blocks while exerting low ground pressure.

The company’s projects range from the intricate—such as a 7,000 sq. ft. paver job in front of a university football stadium, which included a logo of the team’s mascot built with pieces of colored pavers as small as coins— to much larger jobs. In one project, the company installed about 350,000 sq. ft. of pavers to build a material storage yard.

It’s the kind of work that puts a premium on efficiently moving materials. That’s where the two Bobcat loaders pay off. On one recent project at a public park amphitheater, the pair of loaders did all the heavy work. That job involved installing about half-an-acre of pavers (about 250 pallets) to build access roads and pedestrian areas. It also included a series of retaining walls that were several feet high and totaled about 750 ft. in length (about 50 pallets of concrete blocks).

Crooks used the 863 to transport sand and rock and attached a sweeper to clean up around work and storage areas. The high-performance T300, equipped with pallet forks, brought in most of the pallets of blocks. The digging and grading work was done with a tooth bucket.

“It would have been difficult to do the job without our T300,” Crooks says. “It was a hilly, muddy site and the tracks provided the traction we needed to cut into slopes for building the paths and retaining walls.”