Produce Report: Bobcat and Doosan Heavy Up:
P RODUCT REPORT
by Tom Jackson
Bobcat and Doosan heavy up
High-reach skid steers, a slew of new excavators and a pair of wheel loaders are coming to a dealer near you.
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ecession or no, the engineers at Bobcat and its parent company South Korea-based Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment have been hard at work developing a broad range of new machines – much of it setting new records in size and capacity. At a press event in Atlanta, Bobcat unveiled a new skid steer and tracked loader (their biggest yet), four new compact excavators, beefier utility vehicles and a handful of technology upgrades that will cover much of its full line of earthmovers. In addition, Doosan showed a trio of excavators and two new wheel loaders. Doosan bought Bobcat from Ingersoll Rand back in 2007 and Moxy articulated trucks in 2008, however
the companies are maintaining separate brands and distribution channels. There may be long-term opportunities for both Bobcat and Doosan dealers to take on additional heavy or compact equipment lines, says Laura Ness Owens, Bobcat public relations manager, but only where local market conditions are favorable. Bobcat loaders: One-hundred and forty-four inches. That’s the height to the bucket hinge pin of Bobcat’s two newest and biggest loaders, the S850 skid steer and the T870 compact track loader, enough to load over tandem axle trucks with sideboards and other tall obstacles. The S850 offers a 92-horsepower T870