Bobcat Advantage - Bobcat Company

Posted: 01/01/2016

More Hydraulic Power

No matter what kind of projects you tackle with your compact excavator, you need to consider hydraulic horsepower. It’s the single best predictor of performance. That’s because hydraulic horsepower directly affects your travel speed, backfill speed, and digging cycles. Bobcat® excavators are designed to deliver maximum hydraulic flow while working under pressure. Caterpillar®, John Deere®, and Kubota® try to keep up, but their hydraulic systems can’t deliver. Watch the test to see for yourself.

Hydraulic Power Overview

Hydraulic horsepower affects how much power your machine delivers to a task. It’s the single best predictor of performance in any working situation. Whether you’re traveling, backfilling, or digging, hydraulic flow directly impacts your work. If your excavator doesn’t provide enough of it, your productivity will suffer.

Watch the Full Test

To find out which brand of compact (mini) excavator can deliver the most hydraulic horsepower, we hooked up each machine to a computerized flow meter. It measures peak flow rates in an excavator’s hydraulic system. Which brand delivered the most hydraulic horsepower? Watch the test results to find out.

Bobcat vs. Other Brands

Test Results

Using a flow meter, each compact (mini) excavator was tested to find the maximum hydraulic horsepower. Bobcat delivered the highest reading, with 17.1 hp of hydraulic flow. Caterpillar®, John Deere®, and Kubota® attempt to deliver the same performance, but each comes up short. In fact, John Deere measured an underwhelming 42 percent less hydraulic flow. That’s the kind of difference that will impact your workflow every day. Only Bobcat delivers the industry’s best hydraulic performance.

Powerful Hydraulics

Bobcat compact excavators deliver more hydraulic horsepower than other brands of the same size. More power means more performance under load. This performance advantage is easily measured in increased slew torque, faster cycle times and maximum auxiliary hydraulic performance. The end result is more work per hour in the toughest conditions and increased attachment performance.

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Predictable Controls

Bobcat compact excavators deliver the house, boom, arm and bucket control you expect in the most challenging work environments. It’s the confidence in these precise movements that determines whether you complete the job using your machine, or with two workers and a pair of shovels. This predictable control is delivered through exclusive control valve systems and torque-limiting piston pumps that match force with demand.

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How We Test Equipment

When you’re shopping for a new machine, it’s easy to compare specs. After all, that’s the best way to compare machines, right? Not quite. With specs, you’re only getting part of the story. They don’t measure real performance on your jobsite and that’s what matters most. It’s the reason we put top brands through the paces with fair, accurate, and repeatable tests. Watch to see how we developed the tests.