Bobcat M500

One piece of machinery that is necessary for the expanded composting operation I have in mind is a loader of some sort. I recently found an old Bobcat skidsteer loader for sale in Michigan for a very good price. Everything worked out for buying it, including making arrangements to have it hauled here – I wasn’t interested in driving nearly 700 miles to get it myself, and the haul fee wasn’t too much more than it would have cost me in time, gas, food, and lodging.

My shipper called last evening to let me know that he had it on his trailer and was heading my way. I drove over to Somerset, Kentucky, this morning to meet him and transfer the machine to my trailer. We had no problems, thankfully. The Bobcat started fine and drove onto my trailer without any problems. I chained it down securely and headed home. There is an old manure bucket that came with the loader, but it is in need of some repairs.

When I bought it, the seller was unsure which model it was. Someone had painted it in the past, including painting “Bobcat 610” on the side, but he couldn’t find a serial number tag. I looked for information online about the model based upon the seller’s ad which said it had a 2-cylinder Wisconsin engine. I could find no Bobcat models that ever had such an engine. The 610 had a 4-cylinder Bobcat.

Well, after getting it home this morning, I discovered that it has a 2-cylinder Kohler engine. Based upon this discovery and a little more searching, I determined that it is a Bobcat M500.

The loader works. It does need tuned up a bit – it’s been sitting the last few years. I think it will work out alright for what I need. If not, I do believe that I could sell it and get all my money back out of it since it is a working skidsteer.

I hope to put it to work soon loading some compost that needs spread on the fields.