All-Wheel Steer Loader Saves Turf and Tires
The A300 owned by Woodland Water Gardens tackles many jobs, including loading trucks.
Transporting boulders and stone slabs requires a machine with the power to lift and carry the load and the finesse to maneuver quickly and easily without damaging lawns. That’s why Woodland Water Gardens, Columbia City, Ind., chose a Bobcat® A300 allwheel steer loader to save time and labor on its projects.
The company, owned by Gary and Barbara Wechsler and their son, Cory, designs and builds residential and commercial water features. At one time they used a small loader backhoe to move stone. However, as the company started moving into larger projects requiring larger stones, they needed a bigger machine with plenty of strength and stamina. The A300, purchased from
Bobcat of Fort Wayne, does all that and more.
The machine has been used to build a 10-ft.-high, 25-ft.-wide waterfall that
moves 30,000 gal. of water an hour as well as a 140-ft.-long stream that tumbles down 6 ft. of elevation change. Some projects require installing as
much as 60 tons of individual boulders and stone-filled wire cages.
The A300, equipped with an enclosed, heated and air conditioned cab, gives the landscape contractors the power and lifting ability to easily handle the
stones. Plus, it offers a choice of turf-friendly all-wheel steering or
space-saving skidsteering. All the operator has to do is simply select the steering mode that works best with the panel-mounted rocker switch.
“We work on a lot of high-end projects where we need all-wheel steer to minimize damage and repairs to lawns when carrying stones to the project sites,” says Cory. “It also saves a lot of wear on the tires when turning on pavement or rock. If I’m working in dirt or around the shop and need to get in and out of tight spaces, then I select the skidsteer mode. You use the right joystick to control the lift arms and tilt and the left joystick to turn and to travel forward or in reverse The machine’s handling is great.”
The vertical lift path loader also gives Cory the lift height and reach the needs to load dirt and stone into tri-axle dump trucks.
He uses the A300 with a Bobcat smooth utility bucket for digging and loading work and with pallet forks to lift and carry large, individual
rocks or pallets of smaller stone bound in wire cages and rolls of rubber
lining material. In the winter, the loader handles commercial snow removal jobs and clears areas around the company’s shop.
The standard two-speed transmission, with a high-range top speed of 12 mph, saves valuable time on long haul jobs. They include transporting pallets of supplies from trucks up the long driveway to the nursery and moving materials around large commercial projects.
The Power Bob-Tach™ attachment system is another important feature, Cory notes. It allows him to change standard attachments by flipping a switch without leaving the cab. “It’s awesome,” he says. “It’s so much more convenient than climbing in and out of the cab to lock and unlock pins that secure the attachments. I don’t think I’ll ever operate a loader without it.”
An All-Purpose Loader
In addition to the smooth efficiency of all-wheel steer and the agility of skid-steer, the Bobcat® A300 provides Woodland Water Gardens the erformance to make fast, easy work of a wide range of jobs—from constructing a temporary waterfall at a home show display to creating a mountain stream in a residential landscape.
Powered by an 81 hp, turbo-charged diesel engine, the A300 has a 3,000-lb. rated operating capacity. The vertical lift path machine, with a lift height of 126.4 in., a reach of 34 in. and excellent visibility is also ideal for loading dump trucks.
The A300 combines all this strength with low-speed inching function for precise control of machine travel without sacrificing torque. The inching function is adjustable so you can slow the machine speed down while maintaining full hydraulic power for operating hydraulic attachments.