# CASE 435 advice~



## Meatplow (Oct 2, 2009)

Hi everyone,

First off, Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it! 

I'm quite new to the Skid Steer scene but my landscaping needs are going to require me to end up making a purchase in the near future. I am a total novice and I could get use to anything, but I do have a problem because I am not mechanically inclined. I'm a Realtor who had a landscaping business since I was in high school but I never had schooling on mechanics. 

I have been seeking info for days and days. I did a lot of research and I wanted some feed back.

My father has CASE equipment and we never have any problems with it. Minor, but everything runs into minor things. We have a Case 888 excavator, and a 580 Super M or E. Great stuff, really built excellent.

I'm looking into skid steers and I want to get one of those Case 435's or something around there. I don't know if I should look at a Bobcat equilivent, or a Cat equal. I could care less about seat bouncing, looks, productivity, and ride. I am looking for something that is built to last and have as few problems as possible. I will be putting attachments on it; snow blower, plow, auger for fences, maybe a stump grinder. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. At first, I thought Bobcat was the top of the line, but after reading, it seems like they are 5 or 6 out of 10... Thanks everyone and enjoy the day.

Meatplow


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## buckwheat_la (Oct 11, 2009)

Case is a solid unit, easy to work on, and very solidly built. my 1840 is running 5600 hrs, my 40xt is into 2600 hrs. the worst thing i have had to do is a pump, other then that, any money i put into it is all pretty minor.


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## DGODGR (Nov 30, 2008)

The Case 580E (if that's what your dad has), and the 888 are pretty old machines. If the 580 is an M series that would be several series newer than the E. Case has gone through a lot of changes since the E series. They are not even American owned anymore. Mind you, I'm not knocking Case. I still think that they make a good product. I'm simply pointing out that the company, and the products it has produced, have evolved so much that comparing the reliability of a 580E and what they are making today is a bit of a stretch. Even Buckwheats comparison with the 1840 (made about the same time frame as the 580E), and the 40XT (the series preceding the 400 series) will not be as useful as comments from someone who has a 400 series skid steer. I have no experience with their skid steers since the 70XT but I have a lot of HE experience over many years. My humble opinion is this:
All of the major manufacturers make reasonably good machines, and you will have pretty good odds of getting a reliable, well performing machine. All MFRs will have some "made on Monday" machines. I tend to lean towards Caterpillar machines, myself, because of my personal experience with the brands that I have owned, and/or operated. I have not owned any skid steers other than Bobcat. My preference for Cat comes from the excellent performance, and reliability of the (3) that I have owned, (2) of which I still own (and one of those has over 12,000 hours on it so far). I have had, what I think, is an unreasonable amount of trouble from my (2) Bobcat machines, and have had much less than stellar support from my Bobcat dealer. Many on this, or any other, site may have had a much more positive experience with Bobcat or any other brand, including Case. I'm sure you've heard the term "Opinions are like a$$holes....everybody has one". You will hear the lot of opinions, and they are probably all accurate ones. By giving you a little bit of background I've gone the long way 'round to my point. Case is one of the major manufacturers, and as I said before, you have good odds of getting a good machine. The other MFRs that you mentioned also make good machines and I would look at them so that you have good comparisons in performance, availability, dealer support, and price. Otherwise you will be making an uninformed choice. At the very least you will begin a relationship with those other dealers and that can come in handy down the road. Dealer support (including parts availability) is a huge factor, especially down the road, and is a another factor in my tendency to buy Cat (I can elaborate if you request me to). This may be the most important for you (if you are not mechanically inclined) as you will need to trust that they know what they are doing when you are paying them to work on your machine. Lastly, I recommend that you research residual values for the machines you are considering. Historically Cat will have the highest resale value (though my Bobcat dealer says that Bobcat is highest on compact equipment-I have not found this to be true).


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## fargosnowpro (Dec 4, 2010)

I like to think I'm an equal opportunity equipment operator, definatly not brand loyal I guess you could say. Like DGODGR said, opinions are like ********...

The Cat C series machines look amazing on paper, I've only had lot demo's and one night in a B-2 machine so I don't have much useful input on them other than they are the source of my wet drems and am hoping for 2 297C's next year :yow!:

We currently run 2 Case compact track machines, 420CT3 and 440CT3. Power to weight on the 420 is less than ideal while the 440 has the largest motor Case offers in a skid in the smallest platform, excellent power to weight. When we were deciding between wheeled and track we had a 440CT3 and a 430-3 machine, I felt there was a great deal of fatigue with the 430 controls, the short throw electronic controls on the 440CT3 are a dream to run for extended periods of time, I also tend to think feel they are a lot more accurate. Power management on either of their machines is great, the Cat power management system always felt a little 'weird' and I have no better way of describing it other than that.

Maintance wise I can't really comment, we lease the machines and they are on a service plan, other than greasing and a couple little hydro leaks in extreme temps we've had no issues in 2 years and 1200 hours (per machine). As far as why we would want to switch, especially in light of the new Case machines coming out, is we lost our strong dealer support. Don't get me wrong, our dealer takes care of us, but nothing like it was. Our local Cat dealership has been more than helpful in getting us rentals on short notice and allowing us to demo the machines we are looking at. The other reason for a Cat is the higher level of operator comfort, much more visibility than any other machine, tons of room in the operator cab, suspension seats that are almost 'too' comfortable and I can't forget heater vents that are actually close to your feet! (which might not seem like a big deal to most but when the wind is whipping with -50 windchills, you'll apprecate them)

I would highly suggest and consider the track machines if you plan on doing dirt in the warm months. I personally think you can get a much better finish with a track machine, grading is a lot easier with one and driving in rough terrain is much easier on the operator. It's widely said tracks are awful on snow but I think the people that say that are too used to a wheeled machine to bother figuring out how to run a track machine on snow. We picked our track machines because of how well they worked in the snow! (go figure) And we have a few unique areas that wheeled machines would never be able to work. One instance is an account that is boarded by drainage ditches on 3 sides, with our wheeled loader the pile can only get so far down before it starts spilling into the lot, with the track machines we are able to take the pile all the way down into the ditch and continue to fill the ditch in with snow through out the season. Tracks are also very handy to push your snow up over curbs and into grass areas that you wouldn't normally be able to put a snow pile.

It really depends on your usage, budget and what you personally like. Overall I'm very pleased with the Case, having run all the major brands I can safely say it's my favorite thus far.


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