Company Prospers with Versatile Bobcat Equipment

For nearly 35 years, Bobcat compact equipment has helped McGee Brothers expand its construction business from its beginning in the brick and mortar industry to grading, excavating and site preparation applications.

Today, the Monroe, N.C., company, which has about 1,400 employees, owns more than 75 pieces of Bobcat compact equipment, including skid-steer and compact track loaders, compact excavators and attachments.

"We've had a lot of growth in the last 35-plus years," says Doc McGee, son of McGee Brothers founder Sam McGee. "We started out laying brick, and as that grew some of our customers wanted us to dig their footings. Then, the same customers came back to us and said, 'It looks like you do a good job digging footings and foundations, we need you to do some concrete work,' so we've gotten into that business, too."

Doc McGee got an early taste of compact equipment on a Bobcat M-610 loader. Through the years since that first loader, the company operated the 700 Series machines, and then temporarily switched to another brand of skid-steer loader before returning to the Bobcat brand. McGee says they experimented with another loader brand simply because the supplier offered a long wheelbase machine with a vertical lift path and Bobcat did not have anything similar at the time. Shortly thereafter, Bobcat introduced its own long wheelbase machine, and McGee was back to operating Bobcat loaders again.

Today, McGee Brothers runs the newest line of Bobcat loaders — the K-Series. The company purchased some of the first K-Series machines in the area from Bobcat of Monroe and could not be happier with their performance.

"We have noticed a lot less vibration in the K-Series than we did with the previous machines," McGee says. "When we took delivery, we noticed immediately when we carried brick that they vibrated less and kept the brick pallets intact."

Bobcat attachments, such as four-in-one combination buckets and hydraulic pallet forks, have enabled McGee and his many crews to maximize the versatility of the loaders.

"We've switched in the last two years to Bobcat hydraulic pallet forks for our masonry operators," McGee says. "The operator never gets out of his seat. If he picks up bricks and the forks need to be eight inches apart, he pushes a button and moves them together. The Bobcat hydraulic pallet forks are one of the best tools that we have because they save the operator the time used getting off the machine."

Downsizing Equipment

McGee's crews previously used rubber-tire backhoe loaders to dig footings but recently switched to Bobcat compact excavators for their size advantages and attachment offerings.

"The lots are getting tighter and tighter, so we're going with compact excavators," McGee says. "We started with 331s, phased those out for 334s, and now we're running a 430 and 435s in quite a few applications." The Bobcat 430 and 435 excavators feature Zero House Swing (ZHS), making them an ideal solution for projects in tight quarters, and for digging and placing spoil without repositioning the machine.

"The Zero House Swing is an important feature in our business," says McGee. "You don't have to worry about the tail of the machine. You won't swing the machine and beat up the excavator's house or the building you're working next to."

McGee says he likes the Bobcat 430 and 435 units better because they aren't as heavy as a traditional backhoe loader, and the excavators work a lot faster. He says he can pull them with the same trailer as his loaders, which saves him money in transportation costs.

McGee purchases Bobcat compact excavators with trenching buckets and the long arm option for the extra foot of dig depth. "A lot of people say, 'What's another 12 or 14 inches going to do for you?' but if you've never run a machine you won't understand it." He says sometimes you simply need another 12 inches of reach to finish an area.

Getting around the jobsite with the Bobcat FastTrack drive system is a real timesaver, says McGee. "The FastTrack option makes it so you can get around a jobsite quicker and easier. I have one myself with my name on it. It is my personal machine."

Bobcat equipment has certainly enabled McGee Brothers to become a premier contractor in North Carolina. The machines' versatility, durability and compact size give Doc McGee and his operators the tools they need to succeed. "You buy a piece of equipment to take the work out of the job. It makes the job easier."