Pushing, plowing, sweeping and blowing snow

Badger state capital calls on versatile Bobcat equipment for snow removal

Snow removal specialists Nate and Mike Amble.

When Mike and Nate Amble, Fitchburg, Wis., signed a five-year contract with the State of Wisconsin to provide snow removal services in Madison, the father and son team knew it was time to expand their company’s Bobcat® equipment lineup.

In December 2007, the Ambles purchased seven new Bobcat power units and attachments. They acquired an S330, two S250s, an S185, a 463, a Toolcat™ 5600 utility work machine, a 2300 utility vehicle, and multiple snow-removal attachments — a diverse group of versatile equipment to remove snow and ice in the state capital.

Madison’s downtown is much like other cities across North America, with little empty space to stack tall piles of snow during the winter. All of the city’s snow has to be cleared from parking lots, streets, and sidewalks, before it’s loaded into trucks and hauled away.

“Every square foot of space means something to someone,” says Mike Amble, owner of Madison Commercial Landscapes.

Shortly after a snowfall, crews go to work, clearing the areas with their compact, yet resourceful, Bobcat machines and attachments. Bobcat loaders work hand-in-hand to complement larger wheel loaders and plow trucks, clearing snow from tight quarters where the larger equipment won’t fit. Angle brooms sweep light, fluffy snow, while skid-steer loaders with largecapacity snow buckets fill empty dump beds.

“The Bobcat equipment works well in the nooks and crannies where we can’t get in with anything bigger,” Mike says. “One example is when we clear snow from a second-floor balcony on a state building downtown with the Bobcat 463,” Mike says. “It scoots around on the second floor and dumps bucket loads to the main level below.”

Without the Bobcat skid-steer loaders with enclosed cabs and heat, Mike and Nate would be on the balcony with shovels, battling the outdoor elements and dumping the snow by hand.

Toolcat 5600 proves invaluable in snow removal applications

Always open to looking at new equipment and better ways of clearing snow, the Ambles stumbled upon the Toolcat 5600 at Bobcat of Madison. It wasn’t long before they realized how valuable the machine was for snow removal tasks.

“We’ve found a lot of uses for our Toolcat 5600, such as spreading salt and sand from the cargo bed, sweeping light snow with an angle broom, clearing walkways with a snow blade, or moving piles of heavy snow with a Bobcat snowblower attachment,” Mike says. “The all-wheel steering feature is nice. It has a great turning radius that lets us get in and out of places easily.

“The City of Madison quizzed us about our 5600 after some employees watched us one night. After we spoke to one employee, we saw four of them in the city on snow removal projects.”

According to Mike Amble, the city replaced their previous snow-removal machines with less expensive, more versatile Toolcat 5600s and attachments.

2300 utility vehicle added to snow removal jobsites

Similar to purchasing the Toolcat 5600, the Ambles are always open to new ideas. That’s why the family bought a 2300 utility vehicle with RapidLink™ attachment system and snow blade to remove snow from sidewalks.

“We bought the 2300 to move people around and to do some light plowing,” Mike says. “It’s an agile machine that addressed an issue we had with accessing some places where our other equipment wouldn’t reach.”

The Ambles’ 2300 has a cab enclosure with heat and even a radio for long hours of snow plowing.

“We’ll inevitably find other applications for it during our landscaping season,” Mike says.

If you’d like to read more about snow removal products available from Bobcat, visit www.bobcat.com/snow.