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Message: <blockquote data-quote="500K_773" data-source="post: 650" data-attributes="member: 33">Troy,Welcome to the forum.  I'm sure you'll find others here with better service interval knowledge than me.  I like to buy new and usually sell before to many hours or miles are accumulated on any of my vehicles or equipment.  When I first started looking at Bobcat skid steers, the smaller ones were powered by the Kubota engines, while the larger ones had the Duetz engines.  I was told that I could expect somewhere around 3000-4000 hours on the Kubota before needing much service, whereas the Duetz would get more like 4000-6000 hours.  The only downside is that the Duetz rebuild was a lot more expensive.  The size machines you are looking at have the Kubota engines, although nowadays, even the larger Bobcat machines now have a Kubota engine also.The amount of hours before service depends greatly upon the routine maintenance performed.  I find that if I follow the recommended service intervals my machines run longer than some with questionable service records.  Could be just luck of the draw with the builds, but I usually don't have major mechanical problems.Since you are buying used, you may not have access to the complete maintenance records of a piece of machinery.  Private parties and rental centers MAY not have performed the maintenance as required and are selling the machine before they have any major problems.  I know my local Bobcat dealer performs excellent maintenance and repairs on their rental fleet.  I would have no qualms buying a used piece of equipment from their fleet.  With any piece of rental equipment, you are probably buying a machine that was used very hard or maybe even abused.  Some people don't take care of rental equipment like it was their own.  Some of the operators may be homeowners who never ran a piece of equipment before and abused it unknowingly.  Since rental hours are off the engine hour meter, the engine may have not been idled down to cool engine components and the turbo (if equipped) and may have shortened the life of the machine.If you find a good enough price on a high hour machine which allows you to allot money toward major repairs, go for it.  Who knows, you may get a bargin on a machine and get years of use out of it before sinking any money into it.  Then again, you may end up putting in a new engine or hydraulic pump next week<img src="https://www.skidsteerforum.com/DesktopModules/AdverForums/ImageGallery/emotion-3.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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