ss4010
Silver Member
Hi,
Well after a marathon session of waiting, countless emails and telephone calls, my new machine was delivered just in time for Christmas. To condense the story, I signed the sales order on June 26th and the machine was delivered on Dec 23. There seemed to be some disparities with the local salesman who was "released" from employment during the process.
Essentially I had ordered a CT230 with "deluxe package" with loaded rears, FEL with 60" bucket, cutting edge, PHD with at 15" auger.
Delivered was a CT230 "standard package" (changed with the model year), 1 set of rear remotes installed, FEL with a 68" bucket. front brush guard and three other boxes of stuff.
Upon opening the boxes, it was revealed that the mid-PTO kit and the second set of rear remotes were not installed.
A quick inspection found some rusted metal on the frame (where the paint had been knocked off). The bucket seemed to be much stouter than the one I remembered in the dealership. I wondering if that is a change for the new model year. It's branded as Bobcat on the metal stamping.
The CA forks were purchased from Everything Attachments, and I was quite impressed with their light weight and quality.
After a few hours of playing around it was discovered that the FEL hydraulic lines can get caught up in the right front wheel. It appears that there may be a captivating device missing allowing the hoses to swing free just forward of the quick connects along the bottom frame rail. I installed a bungee cord there as a temporary measure. I was hoping that someone might me able to comment on how the hydraulic lines are run on their machine.
An hour or so was spent running the Goosen Chipper shredder I bought used. Man that thing is a beast. Its scary powerful. I don't want to be caught holding a stick when that thing sucks it in. For the shredding bit I will be using a pitch fork to toss the sticks into the hopper.
The front end loader was tested to the limit. Using wet pressure treated 2x12 12's, 36 is too much. I backed it off to 24 and traveled with the load on the up hill side. I must say that with the rears loaded, the machine is well matched with the 7TL FEL. At the loader max lift weight, I could not get the back wheels to come off of the ground unless they were going uphill slightly. As you can see the bags of portland cement (15 #93 pound bags) plus 50# of nails and 210 pounds for the forks, the FEL lives up to its rated lift capacity (1655# of load in picture). Of course how the load is stacked plays into the lift capacity. It would not pick up the same load further out on the forks. The roll back force does not seem to be as good as the lift capacity. IE It could lift the load but not roll it back. I must say that I have no plans to routinely haul this much load.
A call to the dealership and they promised that once the rest of my accessories arrive they will send someone out to deliver them, install the mid PTO and the rear remote kit and give me a couple of cans of the grey/black spray paint and a spare key.
How has everyone insured their machines? I'm told by (State Farm) my insurance agent that they will not sell a policy for it since I'm not actually using it for "farming" or a business.
Has anyone installed a winch (like what you would see on a Jeep) to the frame of their machine? I have some very steep hills in the yard and some places to get to that I know the tractor should not go unassisted. I happen to have a 17500lb 12V receiver mounted winch I was considering using to assist up some steep 30-45 degree hills. I was thinking of putting a square tube receiver under the front frame member just below the hood. I don't think the FEL could handle pulling the tractor along so I ruled out mounting it to the FEL bucket or forks.
Steve
Well after a marathon session of waiting, countless emails and telephone calls, my new machine was delivered just in time for Christmas. To condense the story, I signed the sales order on June 26th and the machine was delivered on Dec 23. There seemed to be some disparities with the local salesman who was "released" from employment during the process.
Essentially I had ordered a CT230 with "deluxe package" with loaded rears, FEL with 60" bucket, cutting edge, PHD with at 15" auger.
Delivered was a CT230 "standard package" (changed with the model year), 1 set of rear remotes installed, FEL with a 68" bucket. front brush guard and three other boxes of stuff.
Upon opening the boxes, it was revealed that the mid-PTO kit and the second set of rear remotes were not installed.
A quick inspection found some rusted metal on the frame (where the paint had been knocked off). The bucket seemed to be much stouter than the one I remembered in the dealership. I wondering if that is a change for the new model year. It's branded as Bobcat on the metal stamping.
The CA forks were purchased from Everything Attachments, and I was quite impressed with their light weight and quality.
After a few hours of playing around it was discovered that the FEL hydraulic lines can get caught up in the right front wheel. It appears that there may be a captivating device missing allowing the hoses to swing free just forward of the quick connects along the bottom frame rail. I installed a bungee cord there as a temporary measure. I was hoping that someone might me able to comment on how the hydraulic lines are run on their machine.
An hour or so was spent running the Goosen Chipper shredder I bought used. Man that thing is a beast. Its scary powerful. I don't want to be caught holding a stick when that thing sucks it in. For the shredding bit I will be using a pitch fork to toss the sticks into the hopper.
The front end loader was tested to the limit. Using wet pressure treated 2x12 12's, 36 is too much. I backed it off to 24 and traveled with the load on the up hill side. I must say that with the rears loaded, the machine is well matched with the 7TL FEL. At the loader max lift weight, I could not get the back wheels to come off of the ground unless they were going uphill slightly. As you can see the bags of portland cement (15 #93 pound bags) plus 50# of nails and 210 pounds for the forks, the FEL lives up to its rated lift capacity (1655# of load in picture). Of course how the load is stacked plays into the lift capacity. It would not pick up the same load further out on the forks. The roll back force does not seem to be as good as the lift capacity. IE It could lift the load but not roll it back. I must say that I have no plans to routinely haul this much load.
A call to the dealership and they promised that once the rest of my accessories arrive they will send someone out to deliver them, install the mid PTO and the rear remote kit and give me a couple of cans of the grey/black spray paint and a spare key.
How has everyone insured their machines? I'm told by (State Farm) my insurance agent that they will not sell a policy for it since I'm not actually using it for "farming" or a business.
Has anyone installed a winch (like what you would see on a Jeep) to the frame of their machine? I have some very steep hills in the yard and some places to get to that I know the tractor should not go unassisted. I happen to have a 17500lb 12V receiver mounted winch I was considering using to assist up some steep 30-45 degree hills. I was thinking of putting a square tube receiver under the front frame member just below the hood. I don't think the FEL could handle pulling the tractor along so I ruled out mounting it to the FEL bucket or forks.
Steve
