Tracks Increase Earning Power
Dave Grant
Since buying a Bobcat® compact track loader, excavating contractor Dave Grant is working longer than ever—and enjoying every extra dollar he’s making.
“I’ve added at least four or five weeks to each end of my work season,” says the owner of Grant Contracting, Whitby, Ont. “Instead of being shut down five months or more in the winter, I’m only losing about three months of work. Last year I worked right up to almost the end of December, and this year I was able to start the last week of March. Plus, during the rest of the season, I can keep working in soft ground conditions or pouring rain.”
Great versatility
Grant provides a variety of excavating services for homeowners and landscape, construction and utility contractors with his versatile Bobcat System—an S185 skid-steer loader, a T190 compact track loader and a 331 compact excavator. These machines have the speed and power he needs. And with enclosed heated and airconditioned cabs, they also have the comfort he wants while working in all kinds of weather.
Grant usually faces more rain than shine in early spring and late fall. That’s when he teams the 331 with his T190 compact track loader for trenching, digging footings and removing dirt for patios, driveways and garage pads.
Grant has outfitted his S185 and T190 loaders with the Bobcat Advanced Control System. It allows operators to instantly select either hand or foot controls for lift and tilt functions. “That way new operators can use the type of controls they prefer,” he says. “Also, it should improve resale value of the loaders.”
The S185 handles work on asphalt, including cleaning parking lots with a Bobcat sweeper attachment. It’s also the ideal size for clearing snow from small parking lots with the Bobcat snow blade.
The T190’s low ground pressure (just 5 psi) allows the machine to float across surfaces that would stop the S185. “I can drive right over sand or pea gravel,” Grant says. That feature has proved handy on playground projects where he has used the track loader to remove old sand and replace it with new, clean sand.
Other Bobcat attachments—an auger, smooth, tooth and grapple buckets and a set of pallet forks—add to the work-saving performance of the S185 and T190. The 331 excavator is used with an auger, three different Bobcat buckets, 13- and 24-in. trenching models and a 39-in grading bucket.
Size was an important consideration in selecting the 331. “It’s small enough for our jobs, which include limited access between houses and small commercial sites, yet it still offers the performance to meet our excavating needs,” Grant says.
In all he has owned seven different models of Bobcat loaders and excavators since buying his first machine eight years ago from Evergreen Farm and Garden, Ltd., Orono, Ont. “I’ve been more than happy with all the Bobcat products in terms of purchase price, productivity, reliability, serviceability and resale value,” he says. “I’ve also received strong support from my dealer. I’ve been totally satisfied from my first 753 to my current machines.”