Super Power and Flotation Keeps T300 Busy on New Home Sites
Mike Hauser
Ten years ago Mike Hauser, Fairview Heights, Ill., had an excellent reason for going into business for himself—he wanted to be his own boss.
He also had a good reason for relying on Bobcat® compact equipment almost from the start—he was an experienced Bobcat loader operator. As a result, he knew the value of this rugged, dependable equipment from first-hand experience.
The first Bobcat loader at Mike’s Grading and Excavating was an 853; over the years the company moved up to higher performance machines. His current machine is a powerful T300 compact track loader, purchased from Bobcat of St. Louis. He keeps the T300 and his tandem dump truck busy at new home sites doing a variety of jobs, including digging crawl spaces and foundations, backfilling, final grading and cleanup work.
“I can do just about every site preparation job you can imagine with my loader,” he says. “It enables me to do all the work by myself.”
Hauser serves about 20 home builders on a regular basis. “When I’m busy, I’m really busy,” he says. “I average about 1,200 hours a year on my loader.”
He and his Bobcat equipment share some of the same qualities.
Hauser and his Bobcat equipment get high marks on job performance, and are both known for their dependability. “My customers know they can count on me and my Bobcat equipment to do the job that needs to be done,” he says. And they’re both versatile in meeting customer needs. “There aren’t many jobs that I can’t do with my T300.”
With a 3,000-lb. rated operating capacity, a 126-in. lift height and 34-in. reach, the vertical lift path machine can dump heavy loads into the center of his dump truck. “I haul a lot of dirt,” he says. “My T300 really stands out when loading the truck.”
The tracks, which provide a low 4.1 psi ground pressure, also let him keep working in soft or muddy conditions. “A lot of the areas I work in have a pretty high water table,” he explains. “The flotation is especially important when digging basement foundations.”
Hauser equipped his T300 with an enclosed heated and air conditioned cab and sound option. He also has the Power Bob-Tach™ attachment mounting system. “That’s a great feature,” he says. “It makes changing attachments fast and easy.”
After a decade of being on his own, Hauser is pleased the way things have worked out. “I have a good group of customers and good business relationships,” he notes. That, plus his Bobcat compact equipment, adds up to a great formula for success.