First Bobcat S70

[TheCatLady]

Hi All,

This week I finally received my brand new bobcat s70 to assist with my rental property management. I have never owned a skid steer. I have rented a bobcat MT100 a couple times with the stump grinding attachment and the concrete breaker attachment.

After driving the new S70 with an empty bucket attached - I found the S70 super buckie when trying to turn. I got the wider tires from factory and I was keeping the bucket low to the ground. Are there any newbie operator tips people have? or it just experience based and will get better with seat time? I look a bit silly getting bronco'ed by my own bobcat

I also purchased the bobcat SB150 snowblower for this winter's snow removal - I'm surprised there are no side skid shoes (only the back ones) - have people added their own? or some aftermarket ones?
Do people generally keep the snowblower in float when blowing snow off asphalt driveways?

best regards,

TheCatLady

 

[brdgbldr]

As for the bucking, you should get better over time. For now, slow down your lever movement. You can also back the throttle down.

 

[Jerry01314]

I agree,slow down Girl.

 

[Squish]

I am less than 20 hours in the saddle of a teardown-refurb 463 (I believe the precursor to the S70).
The little buggies really can bounce you around. I agree that you should throttle back to say 50% and really figure out how to smooth out the controls.
What I did was just set myself to a patch of ground and just moved dirt around for a few hours (be sure to wear ear protection). As well, I spent a few hours moving piles of snow around the property. It just comes with time, and you can start easing up the power. I think of it this way: If you're familiar with driving in winter or on ice, when the tires start to slip, you don't slam on the brakes or you'll spin out. You just feather the brakes and steer out of it...same sort of thing with the loader, just coax it to do what you want to do. Again, I've never driven a loader before, but it came fairly quickly as the controls became familiar/automatic.

I found they really aren't good on snow/ice on anything more than an 8 degree slope. I bought good chains for the rear tires, but even with the wide tires, these can really struggle on hills. Flat property is no problem at all, they get around fine, but hills....

Oh, and remember to back up steep slopes. That phat counterweight really wants to tip it. I found that a loaded bucket helps if you need to drive up forward.

I see the date on the post, so you likely have got this figured out by now. They're such fantastic little machines.