753 stiff control levers

[Welder Dave]

I was running a 1997 Bobcat 753 and the steering levers seemed fairly stiff. I thought the levers in my skid steer were a little stiff but these were worse. They worked properly but if I had to run it full time I think I'd get carpel tunnel syndrome. Are they normally fairly stiff to operate?

 

[Simon C]

I was running a 1997 Bobcat 753 and the steering levers seemed fairly stiff. I thought the levers in my skid steer were a little stiff but these were worse. They worked properly but if I had to run it full time I think I'd get carpel tunnel syndrome. Are they normally fairly stiff to operate?

Ran some years ago, don't recall the levers being that stiff, maybe I was stronger in the day.
Simon C

 

[willie59]

Well, yeah, if it has standard controls then you're pushing against a centering spring that's trying to push the levers back to neutral. Pretty much the same on any skiddy with standard controls as opposed to joystick controls, and Bobcat may rate at the top of the stiff level. Tracking a standard control Bobcat for a good distance I would lodge my left and right knee against the drive levers just to relieve my arms for a spell.

 

[Welder Dave]

I've ran a 743 that wasn't nearly as stiff. My Thomas T133 is a little stiff but it actually helps control spinning the tires. It's like the levers get harder to push when digging when you have good traction. Kind of like load sensing. The control levers are also curved so your hands are tilted in a more natural position. I'm surprised more machines don't have curved or angled steering levers. Later models like mine have almost effortless controls but you can't really control tire spin because of it. Even the hand grips on the 753 were completely worn out which I think the stiffness contributes to. I thought about holding onto the ball shape with the aux. buttons which might have been less fatiguing. I'll hold the left lever with my knee too when traveling. I think on Bobcats if you push the levers fully forward you only have to hold one of them to keep going in a straight line which is a nice feature. It didn't seem that fast though. I also didn't like the placement of the heater. It was too big and my left leg/knee would hit it. The lift pedal also seemed a little wonky to use but could just be I wasn't used to it. Overall I'm kind of glad I didn't buy a 753. Just seemed like if you ran it a lot your hands and wrists would get really fatigued. Your legs too from the pedals like any hand foot machine but the steering levers were noticeably stiff. A 743B was another option at the time but the Bobcat salesman was too busy knocking the competition instead of telling what features were better about Bobcat machines. I've heard there were a lot of issues with the early BICS systems on Bobcats too. The Case dealer was kind of the same. JD were rebadged New Hollands at the time and Cat didn't have skid steers. Mustang maybe but a very poor dealer. I like that I have no electronics to go bad. I've had to replace the wheel motors and fix the chain adjusters a couple times but production wise I could run with a 743 or 753 and maybe even out produce them. My skid steer has about 4500 hours and is as productive as when it was new so I can't really complain. I've done some pretty heavy work with it too. A lot of people knock Thomas skid steers but they're well built and use good components. They were really, really stupid trying to get into the US market. Putting a bunch of them in auctions when nobody knew much about them was a recipe for disaster, especially when they changed the name to Protough. Who the hell anywhere knows who Protough is?? They might as well have been Chinese skid steers which I think a lot of people thought. People who bought them got fantastic deals! They were pretty good sellers in Canada and had a good dealer network. They also sold in many countries getting a Canada export award. They made skid steers for Ford and some for Scat Trak but not all Scat Tracks and I think for Koehring too. Most people that knock them haven't used them much if at all. The T133 and later models with basically the same frame were the best sellers. Pretty sure over 10,000 T133's were sold so guessing maybe 15000 or so of a similar size. Were direct competition to the 743 but had more HP, more break out force, more hyd. flow and a much bigger hyd. reservoir and a little better balanced. You could drive up a little steeper angle with an empty bucket. Some things could have been better but overall not a bad machine. Fairly easy to work on too. It's a shame that McCain foods who owned Thomas didn't think they brought in enough revenue and sold off Thomas and production went to China. There were 1 or 2 other owners after that. The McCain brothers were fighting at the time too which didn't help. Maybe that's where the stupid auction plan in the US came from?? The models that were made in Canada were really competitive machines, especially the later ones. Maybe not quite as high tech. but very well built and reliable. They kind of suffered the same fate as Champion graders although Volvo stupidly killed the graders. Good machines but idiots running the show. A couple former Thomas employee's started up a parts business for Thomas skid steers and even completely refurbished a few loaders. They also built smaller stand on loaders that were purchased by Ariens who is a huge company. All the manuals for Thomas are online for free which is fantastic.

 

[willie59]

The 743 had Vickers pumps, totally different drive linkage setup than the 53 series, which is when they started using the Danfoss pumps and redesigned drive linkage.

 

[Bumpsteer]

Shaft bearings on my 743 are greaseable, raise cab for the left, right is outside the frame.

Ed

 

[Welder Dave]

There is a cross shaft on mine that is greaseable. It doesn't need greasing that often and I forgot about it. My right lever got stiff and jerky and I wasn't sure what was wrong. After I took the seat out and lifted the pump cover up I looked at the linkage and remembered the shaft. A couple pumps of grease and all was well. Seat comes out easy with just one hair pin to remove and another hair pin to lift the pump cover up. I grease the double u-joint every time I change the oil and usually the cross shaft at the same time. I don't want to have to replace the double u-joint and have heard if the levers get erratic (on Bobcats anyway) it's a sign the u-joints are either dry or worn out.

 

[MG84]

It's been 20 years or so, but I used to run Bobcat machines a fair bit. 753/763, 853, S130/S160 and so on. I believe they were pretty good machines back then, I wouldn't buy anything made by Bobcat since then however. IMO they have gone down in both design and quality since the early 2000's.

As to the controls, they were stiffer than others as I recall. Another thing I noticed is the drive controls seems to be linked together with some sort of resistance. I.E. you could be driving along with both controls forward, let go of one, and it would still more or less keep it's position and track straight(for a short time). Kind of handy, but that may have also lead to some of the increased resistance. I personally like the Case all hand controls the best of any from the 80s-90s. Simple and easy to use.