Skid-steer or "Bobcat"

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:19:49 GMT, Gunner calmly ranted:

My buddy Terry (did he ever contact you?) sold his manual electric forklift (electric pull-toy) just before I left LoCal. It was rated 1-Ton.

You need your own 5T forklift or a heavy-duty boom truck, dude. ;)

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My 610 would tip sideways, backwards and forwards, depending on what you were doing. Whatever you do: never, never operate one of these things around water more than an inch deep. I slid down the side of a small farm pond into a few feet of water. Only way out of the roll cage was through the front. I am a fairly good sized guy and I thought I might not make it out. I have had many close calls during my lifetime but that is the scariest one. I still have nightmares about that one. DL

bummer..nope..never contacted me.

Ayup. Something with rough ground tires

Gunner

"In my humble opinion, the petty carping levied against Bush by the Democrats proves again, it is better to have your eye plucked out by an eagle than to be nibbled to death by ducks." - Norman Liebmann

I own an M610 Bobcat (Clark/Melroe) that was made about 1970. I have owned it 10 years and put about 300 hours on it. It is a terrific hobby machine but is about as safe as a 50 year old farm tractor, there is no way you'd find one on a job site in today's lawyered-world.

When I bought it, it looked like it it had rolled end-over-end down a hill and was ready for the scrap yard, but it worked great. 10 years later it looks the same and still works great. Last week it moved

60,000 lbs of rock in an afternoon. I have put a total of about 100 hours into repairs and maintenance.

The motor is the later Wisconsin VH4D air-cooled V4, 30 HP, 100 cu inch, and yes it has the tapered shaft.

This M610 will lift 2000 lbs up tight against the boom, or 1000 lbs centered on the forks with a fork attachment. It is tip-limited. Mine has extra weight plates on the back that make it "twitchy" without an attachment.

There is no way anyone could own one of these and pay someone to work on it. You could buy a new machine before you'd get anywhere. Yes it's a pain to work with, there is stuff you have to hang upside down to reach but you don't have to mess with it often. Bobcat (now part of IR) still sells most of the parts. Anything big is expensive but the seal kits and other small stuff is reasonable.

The Wisconsin engine parts are expensive, I have heard about $3000 to rebuild a good core. No idea if that is accurate.

Considering how much of the case width the variable speed drive takes up, it'd be a challenge to fit a different motor and drive in there but who knows.

The motor sits in about the right 3/4 of the case, with the tapered crankshaft sticking out the left end. The fixed half of a variable sheave keys directly to the crank taper. The other half of the sheave is pushed toward the motor by convoluted rotating hydraulic cylinder with a swivel fitting. Pressurize the cylinder to move the halves together to increase speed. Drain it to reduce. The other sheave on the driveshaft is spring-loaded and takes up the slack.

The driveshaft feeds the forward and reverse clutches in the gearcases on each side of the machine. There is some reduction in the gearcases. The driveshaft rpm range is, wild guess, from about 300 rpm at the lowest speed to 3000 rpm at highest speed.

There is also a small hydraulic pump on the motor, on the VH4D driven by the timing gear. It puts out about 11 gpm at 2000 psi. That is only a small fraction of th engine output, most of which goes into the wheel drives for pushing into a pile. Working the machine uses the full 30 HP output. With good tires it is easy to stall the machine.

If you can see the chain drive under the cover plates, there's a good reason, i.e. the clutches are shot. More $$$.

It may be worth something as a free parts machine, but my guess is you could buy a good working machine for less than it'd cost to make a working machine out of this one.

Bob

I PROMISE to send you a birthday card and Christmas card

What if he out lives you?

Shawn

I would leave instructions to continue sending him the cards. Provided there was any money left.

Steve

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 03:08:14 GMT, Gunner calmly ranted:

I'll check back. He's still overloaded.

Advertise in Cliffslist for "4-WD Forklift with Knobbies". ;)

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 01:39:16 -0400, "Shawn" calmly ranted:

Dead people aren't often held to their promises.

Look around at all those towable Wiggins forklifts with pneumatic tires, perfect for a dirt floor. They have to be available on the "well used equipment" market, especially since a lot of the places that used to tow them around behind their delivery trucks every day (Building Materials, Sod Farms, Nurseries) have gone to the lightweight "piggyback" forklifts.

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They don't take much weight in forklift mode, no ballast.

T>