John Canfield
Senior Member
My F-250 Powerstroke (with the very good 7.3L engine) is almost 20 years old and lots of little things were starting to go south. The wife has been after me to buy a new truck so I after a few hours of research and test drives, I was all set to order a crew cab long box F350 SRW with the 6.7L diesel. Long story short that deal fell through, I got my F250 all fixed up and I decided to keep the truck and spend what would have been truck money (about $63k) on a mini-ex for our small ranch.
We only have three local equipment dealers in our nearest small city - Deere, Kubota and Bobcat. I was very interested in the Yanmar but the closest dealer was over 100 miles away. Cat - 85 miles away (I really liked the 305.)
So I was checking all of the usual equipment sites for a machine under (way under) 2,000 hours and the few I found in the 4.5 to 5 ton range that I would consider were around $45k to $55k. Our local Bobcat dealer installed a W.R.Long grapple on my Deere 4720 cab tractor and did a good job so I thought I would check them out for a hoe.
I played a little on an E32 (no 42s or 45s on the lot) and went in his office while he priced out an E42. I was very surprised to find that a basically equipped E42 with a thumb, cab, 12" class 4 trench bucket and a 24" class 4 grade bucket and after discounts (cash price) was about $55k out the door. We have a Texas ag exemption so we don't pay sales tax on certain stuff for the ranch like equipment.
Then I started thinking how nice it would be to have the hydro X-Change so I called back and ordered that. Then I changed the bucket order from a 24" grade bucket to a tooth bucket, added a 48" grade bucket, a ripper and added the 500 pound counterweight. We're now about $60,620 out the door.
The build date will be Feb 18 for the E42s - and I was pleased to find the unit is built in North Dakota. I was also very pleased to find that even though this is a Tier 4 diesel, there is no regen or DEF required - well done Bobcat (and it has a turbo.)
Now I wait...
We only have three local equipment dealers in our nearest small city - Deere, Kubota and Bobcat. I was very interested in the Yanmar but the closest dealer was over 100 miles away. Cat - 85 miles away (I really liked the 305.)
So I was checking all of the usual equipment sites for a machine under (way under) 2,000 hours and the few I found in the 4.5 to 5 ton range that I would consider were around $45k to $55k. Our local Bobcat dealer installed a W.R.Long grapple on my Deere 4720 cab tractor and did a good job so I thought I would check them out for a hoe.
I played a little on an E32 (no 42s or 45s on the lot) and went in his office while he priced out an E42. I was very surprised to find that a basically equipped E42 with a thumb, cab, 12" class 4 trench bucket and a 24" class 4 grade bucket and after discounts (cash price) was about $55k out the door. We have a Texas ag exemption so we don't pay sales tax on certain stuff for the ranch like equipment.
Then I started thinking how nice it would be to have the hydro X-Change so I called back and ordered that. Then I changed the bucket order from a 24" grade bucket to a tooth bucket, added a 48" grade bucket, a ripper and added the 500 pound counterweight. We're now about $60,620 out the door.
The build date will be Feb 18 for the E42s - and I was pleased to find the unit is built in North Dakota. I was also very pleased to find that even though this is a Tier 4 diesel, there is no regen or DEF required - well done Bobcat (and it has a turbo.)
Now I wait...