# Bobcat 463/S70 for sidewalks and tricky drives



## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

I'm looking at purchasing a 463/S70 to do driveways and sidewalks with and was wondering what experiences people had with one.

I have several driveways that have areas that can't be reached with the truck and are a pain to clear when we get larger snow falls (see pic, I clear both of those and I highlighted the areas that are troublesome). I also have several drives that have little to no area to pile (with the truck) next to the drive and I usually have to push it down the street or around the corner and into and open spot in their yard which takes way too much time. Almost all of them have city sidewalks that need to be cleared that are between 4-5ft as well.

Also I'd like to find a plow or broom that when angled is close to the 3ft width of these machines for those tighter sidewalks I run across but can't seem to find anything of that size.


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

The way I used to do them is with a pull plow and a single stage Toro blower. Pull everything you can first then snow blow to where you can get to it to pull it. I usually had a helper and he was blowing everything I could not reach over to where I could get it while I was plowing. Pull to the street and push it into the front yard. You can do places like those 2 together( walks included ) in under 15 min depending on snow depth.

Yes, a skid steer can do it faster with say a 8-10' blade or bucket, but not a little one like you suggest, those are to slow IMO. I don't know how much sidewalk your doing but I doubt it's enough to warrant spending 5-10k on a used S70 or 463. Also, how many houses do you have?


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## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

WIPensFan;1839023 said:


> The way I used to do them is with a pull plow and a single stage Toro blower. Pull everything you can first then snow blow to where you can get to it to pull it. I usually had a helper and he was blowing everything I could not reach over to where I could get it while I was plowing. Pull to the street and push it into the front yard. You can do places like those 2 together( walks included ) in under 15 min depending on snow depth.
> 
> Yes, a skid steer can do it faster with say a 8-10' blade or bucket, but not a little one like you suggest, those are to slow IMO. I don't know how much sidewalk your doing but I doubt it's enough to warrant spending 5-10k on a used S70 or 463. Also, how many houses do you have?


I currently do basically what you do. I do it alone so it takes a little time to unload the blower and clear these areas. I'm not opposed to doing it this way, just looking for a better way (if there is one). I'm also looking for a way to stack taller piles/relocate piles on the properties. The smaller skid would work well for some of the summer projects I do that I usually use a dingo/mt52/ or s100 on.

I would love to have a larger skid but I limit myself on what sidewalks I can do. Currently I have 17 resi, 10 or 11 of which have 75ft+ of sidewalk and/or 200sqft+ of basically hand work areas.

I also sub on commercial that has about 2 acres of walking paths with lots of <54" openings to be cleared, typically with a shovel. There's already larger equipment there for the wider open areas and the lot.

With the exception of the commercial property all accounts are within about 2mi of each other, many are either next to each other or a house or two away.


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## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

I should also mention that by adding another piece of equipment it allows me to open up the possibility for an employee and adding more accounts and getting more billable hours out of the commercial property but that's for a different post.


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

My apologies, I didn't even look at your equipment list.


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## snocrete (Feb 28, 2009)

Some of the work, your describing for it, sounds like a blade would work good....but for the resi work you posted, I would much rather have a 3ft blower on the front of it than a blade.


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## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

WIPensFan;1839038 said:


> My apologies, I didn't even look at your equipment list.


No apologies needed.


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## wenzelosllc (Dec 7, 2009)

snocrete;1839046 said:


> Some of the work, your describing for it, sounds like a blade would work good....but for the resi work you posted, I would much rather have a 3ft blower on the front of it than a blade.


I actually want to have both and obviously a bucket. A V-blade would be nice for a pass down the walks and for push/pulling and stacking the drives. Blower would be great for walks and getting it out of some of the trapped areas and would allow me to spread the snow out more into the yards.

I just don't know what the weather will end up doing this year. There was quite a bit of snow by the end of the year. Not so much record snowfall just that it never ever melted. Just trying to give myself options.


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## Advantage (Nov 7, 2007)

I too, am looking for the same size machine. It is hard to find a good used one for a decent price. We have miles of commercial side walks scattered over town. I want to pick up two of these machines for the sidewalk crews to tow around. I think this will speed up the process. If you find a place to get a small plow like you're talking about, let me know.

Anyone have any experience with this size machine?


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## tread lightly services (Jan 8, 2012)

I have extensive time and experience with this model I have a s70 a 463 and a mt52 that all have 54" blades on them...these are the go-to bulletproof sidewalk machine! Nothing else in the class compares. Blades are quick, blower is unstoppable even it 3+ feet of snow and angle broom cleans right down to bare concrete on those 1-2 inch snowfalls.
Any more questions just fire away....


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## Buddhaman (Dec 17, 2005)

Does it mark up the sidewalks?


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## MIDTOWNPC (Feb 17, 2007)

I rented one for a few events and found the cab crampted controls a lot harder to use with feet and hand and speed was slow. 

It was a lot easier to use a kubota b3000 tractor with cab blade and rear blower. The speed was so much faster I could drive place to place around town. Price for machine was better and I didn’t need to tie up a pickup and trailer 

When you get up to a bobcat s175 then you get hand controls and a larger cab. You can make it narrower with snow tires and get two speed but a compact tractor like the kubota b3000 b2650 and higher will smoke it with ground speed. Also if you wanted to get real fancy with a tractor you could put a blower on the front, drop salter on the back with scraper blade under it. Back up and scrape out your garage doors, blow the snow driving forward and still be able to hold a coffee.


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