[yardguy]

just looked at a bobcat MT-52, and was wondering which you all thought was better, that or the dingo? Or some other brand. Does the dingo also go for around 15000?

[Bamboo]

bobcat !
just think about it. Bobcat has been running hydraulics on macheines for well, long long time. Shure toro had been doing the hydrostatic thing for a while on mowers but not like bobcat.
Here 15 grand is about right but you add the tiller, trencher (with the bullet bits) and a must,the 4 in 1 bucket and bang 25 g's
ive seen the mt52 do some serious work, 25 g's? Im waiting for the used ones to start to show up and its been 5 years now and I havent seen not 1.
Thats allways the way to go to shop for equip the more used for sale the more people want to dump the peice of * on someone else.

[jwholden]

Toro has been building comapct track loaders before Bobcat even knew what they were. The toro is easier to service and has more comfortable hand controls. Who cares if the Bobcat has a diesel engine, you can swap out a gasser for $1500.

I liked the Bobcats higher dump height and power for brute digging/excavating. the Bobcat machine has a different plate than the toro and ditch witch machine, you have less options for attachments.

Depends what you need the machine for and what attachments you are thinking about. Take your time and don't listen to the salesmen, listen to people with the machines.

Good luck!

[Gardenhaus]

We have had our dingo for three years and joke about not being in the business if we didn't have the dingo. We have the four wheel drive model and it has been great. Only maintenance has been oil change and greasing.

We have the power head with 30", 15" & 6" augers. We also have the materials bucket and forks. We have used the machine to carry pallets with I think 30 pieces of sod through gates and into the a tight backyard. The 30 " auger goes right through our great Northeast PA soil......which is rock with a little dust in between the rocks. In three years the only hole it couldn't dig was the second hole we dug and we ended up winching the boulder out of the hole. The best we did was 27, 30" holes 28" deep in 2.5 hours with no cleanout required. Not bad for one guy and a machine.

We carry it in our 24' enclosed trailer and now only use our JD Skid steer when we need to move more than 20 tons of soil or rocks.


We use the forks and a pallet to move plants on the job, unload trees off of flat beds and the forks and a sling from AM Leonard to set the trees in the holes.....it has replaced 3 guys..

Attached is a pic moving plants on a job site.

[jwholden]

Gardenhaus,

The next time you use the sling from AM Leonard could you take a picture for me. I bought my Dingo in December and have close to 30 hours on it. I can't figure out why I waited so long!

[Gardenhaus]

I'm going through my folders right now trying to find those pics, when I find it I will post it.....dang digital cameras....now I have thousands of pics instead of hundreds

[Gardenhaus]

Sorry, couldn't find the sling and the toro, but here is the same sling and our JD. The sling has four hangers if you will, you place the two back ones, one on each fork and then you place the third one on the front of one fork......now the remaining hanger slips though a hole on the bottom of the sling and onto the other fork.

When you pull up to a tree to load you simply pull the forks past the ball, slide the last hanger through the hole and onto the fork. When you have placed the tree, you simply slide that hanger out and lift the whole sling out and rinse lather and repeat

It sure beats rolling the ball into the hole and minimizes damage to the ball and your back. And if you dug the hole too deep or too shallow, lift the ball out and adjust, no rocking and filling under the ball to get the right height and it sure beats the out of grunting a ball cart.

Same concept with the sling and the toro, you can just get into tighter spots. We have lifted up to 3" trees and 12/14' multi stem birch with the toro.

here are a few pics....

[Gardenhaus]

another pic

[Gardenhaus]

and the last from a unique level that we were talking about in the photo forum

[Gardenhaus]

I think I missed this one

[Gardenhaus]

and one of the best things about any auger as you can see in the one pic that the soil is piled neatly all around the hole, waiting to be filled in. In our rocky soil.....these pics were in fill toposil, one guy operates the dingo and the other sorts out the rocks brought to the surface, places them into a neat pile and when we are done planting, we switch to the materials bucket and go around and pick up the rocks...beats wheelbarrows and we dump the rocks up on our stake bed to be hauled from the site.....and if we have used the wheelbarrow for whatever reason we lift the wheelbarrow up on the stake body using the forks.....

I don't know if the dingo has just made us smarter or lazier

[Dale Wiley]

We run the Vermeer S 600 with bucket, forks, leveler, augers 30 and 12 inch, trencher, tiller and backhoe. Whole package was 31K. Worth EVERY penny.

We planted 8 trees in 2 locations at $ 105 per tree. Trees were paid for by the City. 3 men - 3 hours = 9 hours or $ 93.33 per man hour....thats what I am talking about....my 3 man crew billed almost
$ 2,300 that day

Our new 14K dump trailer makes us a lot of money too...

[AZTLANLC]

I can't comment about the toro cause I have never run one, but my MT52 is a beast I can not thank myself enough for buying this machine, we use for many things, I did this mulch job that required 120 yds of mulch, acces was pretty limited to the area and a long walk, normally it would have take about an hour and a half per yard per man, well it was 5 man and this machine and we finish the project in 7 hours.

I also love digging for my walks with this machine, planting, moving rocks, etc. I'm just happy with this machine.

[Nebraska]

No mention of it yet... But in May we purchased a Ramrod 1150.

Since the beginning of May we've put 60 hours on the machine and have saved at least 4x that amount in man hours.

I did have a track roller bearings burn out and called the company direct. Machine was still usable though yet UPS was at our door the next day delivering the new one plus some spares. I was impressed in how quick and efficiently they handled the issue.

I would recommend considering a Ramrod as well.

[Gardenhaus]

I think what is evident from all these posts is that mini skid steers are here to stay and a great addition to our industry reducing staffing needs and adding directly to our bottom line. I think the choice of one brand over another is a combination of if you like to buy red, green, white or yellow iron, availability and service.

Each has their good and bad and it may come down to what is offered in your area and which brand offers the best service.

We drive 30 miles....usually tied into other shopping trips to purchase our chain saws, blowers, and the like from one vendor because of the outstanding service. We have another vendor 3 miles up the road from us but they are rude and it takes three weeks to fix a chain saw, not three days......maybe I should be handing out the vendor policy that was posted in the forum last week