Week 3 Winners
Joe Baltich
Northwind Lodge
Ely, Minn.
Bobcat Unleashed Me
“Our Bobcat® S175 has cleared brush using a rotary cutter and grapple for white pine restoration and fire abatement. It’s lifted and taken down trees in tricky locations in areas where we could not get a full-size pickup. I've dug around cabins with our Bobcat 709 backhoe for remodeling and construction work in otherwise impossible situations. We've cleaned up scrap work from several re-roofing jobs at the resort. We built a swing set at our lodge’s beach area after leveling the site. Every year, we pull out and put in four 40-plus-foot docks. We completely removed an entire fish-cleaning house by ripping it out of the ground with a grapple, loading it on the Bobcat trailer and hauling it away. I buried 200 feet of electrical entrance cable in a remote location while keeping the S175 on a five-foot-wide path. I ditched and buried 300 feet of waterline. I moved 40 yards of loam next to our store and installed 45 feet of 12-inch culvert.
“I installed a drain tile system around my septic tank and completely solved a massive problem with spring runoff that the original contractor neglected entirely. We've moved literally tons of trees and brush a long distance to a burning area. We tear out stumps, level dirt and fix the road every time it washes out. We cut brush on 12 miles of ski and hiking trails. We built a gravel dike and scraped out a ditch in a massive flood emergency. We’ve leveled pads for building locations. We’ve plowed lots of snow with our plow attachment. We’ve moved piles of snow with the bucket when it piled up too high to move on the lodge grounds. These are only some of the jobs this Bobcat machine has performed.
“My dad, Joe Sr., and I did all this and much more with the same Bobcat machine since I bought it in September 2002. We have done so much work that could not have been performed by hand that even my wife admits that the Bobcat S175 was a really good investment! I figure this machine has easily paid for itself in reliability and convenience. Being self-employed, I don’t have time to spend on the phone calling around to find somebody with the equipment to get a job done. We go out, get it done and then get back to our business. It’s our most reliable piece of equipment and it was money well spent.
“When I can do the work of ten men by myself without breaking a sweat by using our Bobcat S175, I consider that ‘unleashing my potential.’ The family resort business just got a little bit easier, thanks to this excellent piece of equipment.”
Justin Yost
Four Seasons Plumbing
Osage Beach, Mo.
Bobcat Unleashed Me
“Bobcat has unleashed a whole new way for our plumbing company to get more jobs, do them quicker, use less manpower and bring in a higher profit. As a plumbing company in Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., we do many water and sewer installations, replacements, and repairs, along with new underground construction for water and sewers. Around here, the terrain is very steep, rocky and unforgiving. Many jobs are bid outrageously, because other contractors either are not willing to put their machines in those situations or believe that they must be done strictly by hand. When we replaced our conventional plumber’s tractor and backhoe loader with more efficient and more capable Bobcat® mini excavators, there was no job that we couldn’t take on.
“We recently purchased a Bobcat 425 compact excavator with a long arm. In the three months that we have owned it, we have put more hours on it than on our five-year-old Bobcat B300 backhoe loader. The backhoe isn’t a bad machine, but the compact excavator is better for tight jobs or severe terrain. As we kept taking on more jobs, the need for the compact excavator kept growing. Now that we have one, we use it much more than expected. Before the purchase, we had to rent mini excavators many times. We have a history with Bobcat equipment dating back to the early 1980s, and strongly believe in your products.
“In the rental world, you don't always get what you ask for. This led us to try out all sorts of different brands. We had many complaints about every one we tried except the Bobcat machines. That’s why I requested information about your excavators from Bobcat’s Web site. Before I knew it, I was dealing with the best, most knowledgeable salesman I have ever met. He made the purchase a hassle-free, pleasant experience. With your unbeatable product, and the best sales and service crew, I would never even think about buying another brand! Thank you for being there.”
Terry Reed
Four Seasons Construction
Whitehall, Mont.
Bobcat Unleashed Me
“I worked rotating 12-hour shifts at a gold mine for more than eight years and learned a great deal about different kinds of construction machinery, but the one machine that was the most versatile was also the one that was the most abused and neglected. That machine was a Bobcat® 863 skid-steer loader. This rugged little animal of a machine worked in some of the most extreme conditions you could possibly imagine.
“ … After six years, working hundreds of hours of overtime away from my family on cleanup detail, the excitement was beginning to wear off. I no longer looked at my job the way I did when I first started. The fear of being laid off was at the front of my mind. During a long coffee break with a friend I call ‘the Cowboy,’ I expressed my concern about the future of my family should I happen to lose my employment with the mine. The Cowboy said to me, ‘Quit your stinking whining and go out and buy a Bobcat machine. You can come clean up my horse corrals. I’ll be your first customer.’ After lots of discussion with family, friends and co-workers, I decided to take the Cowboy’s advice.
“I drove to the closest Bobcat dealer, Kamp Implement of Belgrade, Mont., and purchased a brand new 2002 Bobcat 773. The finance rate through Bobcat was extremely good and my payments were very affordable. I drove off the lot that day a new man with a new plan. The spark of a dream was ignited. I would start my own little side business and stop working all the long, unappreciated overtime hours I had been working for the past six years. I had high hopes that I would be able to take some time off to watch my kids play in a ball game or two. I was excited!
“ … April 30, 2003 was the last day I worked at that mine. I gave the company eight good years of hard work and it gave me the skills to start my own business. For that, I shall always be grateful, but without that tough little four-wheeled Bobcat machine and its amazing abilities, I probably would have never realized the dream of independent business ownership. I still own my first Bobcat 773 and can’t imagine doing business without it.”
Andrew Weilbacher
Weilbacher Landscaping, LLC
Belleville, Ill.
Bobcat Unleashed Me
“In 2003, I was one of the first in the area to purchase a Bobcat® T250 from Bobcat of St. Louis. Many contractors in the area began to notice how perfectly we were able to grade one- to two-acre home site lots. They soon began to call on us to do the ‘whole package’ for them. This included backfilling, downspout trenching, retaining wall installation, finish grading, seeding, strawing, and straw blowing.
“We own a variety of Bobcat attachments, including a backhoe, sweeper, auger, power-rake, snow blade, straw crimper and forks. These attachments limit the number of people we have to employ. One of my favorite jobs with the T250 is installing ‘big-rolled sod.’ The sod farm is able to cut the sod for us in a 3-foot roll. It is amazing how much sod three guys can lay in one day with the Bobcat sod-laying attachment!
“In 2006, I bought a mint-condition Bobcat 873 from buddies over at Bobcat of St. Louis. This machine is the ‘CEO’ of our landscape materials yard, which opened that same year. We carry a wide selection of landscaping products, such as boulders and mulch, which we load with the Bobcat 873.
“2007 is the year our revenues exploded. A contractor gave me a call regarding the installation of some large boulders as a retaining wall along a walk-out basement at a house he was remodeling. I contacted the owner that day and mentioned the idea of a waterfall coming out of the boulders. Needless to say, she loved the idea! Jerry Mueller, my rep from Bobcat of St. Louis, brought me a Bobcat 328 mini excavator with a hydraulic thumb to demo on the job. Let’s just say I fell in love with the machine. I went in two days later and bought the machine. The job turned out amazing, after just three short weeks of work. We took four semi loads of 3,000-pound boulders, and turned them into a $50,000, five-foot-tall waterfall — and it was my very first job! One month later, we built another $45,000 water feature at an exclusive subdivision … Bobcat equipment has definitely unleashed me from the competition and makes me look forward to work every day!”
Andrew Myers
Darland Concrete Construction Co.
Hanna City, Ill.
Bobcat Unleashed Me
“As a third-generation contractor, my father was a product of the old school. We tore out concrete driveways by hand using a pick, pry bar and 20-pound sledgehammer. We would throw concrete in the truck. When it was full, my uncle left to dump the concrete while I continued to bust up the driveway. It took six to eight hours to tear out a typical driveway.