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Fall 2004

Bobcat Precision Equipment Pays Off on Critical Grading Jobs



grader attachment


When grading to tight tolerances for landscaping, concrete flatwork or other precision applications, you don’t have to sacrifice speed for accuracy. Not when you equip a Bobcat® box blade or grader attachment with the Trimble laser control system.

It features a tripod-mounted transmitter, which sends out a rotating laser beam, and a receiver attached to a mast on the attachment. The blade automatically moves up or down to keep the base material within 1⁄4-in. of grade.

This precision grading system saves:

  • Time, by allowing you to work faster.
  • Labor, by eliminating the need for a survey crew to check grade.
  • Money.
In the case of a concrete job, those savings can be substantial, especially in light of recent shortages of cement, a key component of concrete. In some areas of the U.S. prices are up as much as 5 to 10 percent, and this past July the national average price of cement reached $84 a ton.

Consider the extra concrete required if a 300 x 300-ft. base course is just 1⁄ 2-in. below grade. That amounts to an additional 3,750 cu. ft. or 139 cu. yd. of concrete. At $75 per cu. yd. that represents an additional concrete cost of $10,425 for the project. Two jobs like that would more than pay for a box blade attachment and laser system.

The attachments can be used for grading parking lots, malls, sports fields, landscapes and driveways as well as airport runways, ditches, swales and crowned or banked roads.

You can choose from two easy-touse laser models. When equipped with a single-slope system, the Bobcat box blade is ideal for fine grading material in one plane with grades from one percent to 25 percent. A dual slope laser system converts a Bobcat loader and grader attachment unit into a precision instrument for grading in two planes at once on grades from one-half percent to 25 percent.

When operated at the recommended travel speed of 3 to 4 mph, the laser-equipped Bobcat units are capable of precision grading a 325 x 325 ft. (105,625 sq. ft.) site in about 12 hours.