Looking to Tow a Bobcat 323 Excavator

I'm jealous but also don't have air bags so I would venture to guess you have done this a number of times.

 

You might want to check out that trailer...3500 pounds seems a bit steep for the trailer weight. Maybe like 2500. I have a 18 ft flatbed trailer that's all steel with a wood floor that weighs roughly 2250 and it gas tandem 7000k axels.

 

650 lb is what I know the tow package tongue weight to be. If you can load it yourself and the trailer is big enough, you may be able to load the excavator such that you reduce the tongue weight to within an acceptable range.

As far as Tundra's go I am ignorant. What kind of towing capacity are they rated at? I assumed they were still 1/2 ton pickups.

 

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You are right, the Tundra is still a half ton when it comes to towing. It would be a lot better and safer for him if he took the Tundra over the Taco though. I only risk it because I have to.

 

yep, if you balance the bobcat correctly, the tongue weight is not all that bad but it's a lot for the brakes to handle. My rental guys are OK with me towing this but they wont let me tow the big one.

 

With 5000 lb towing capacity, maybe down the hill.

 

I can tell you that many of these guys in rental places are biggots. I am in the same boat, previously I rented heavy equipement from Home Depot now they want full size only. Tacoma will pull that load no problems, but rental place won't let you take it out. I pulled several times when weight was almost 6500 lb and truck had no issues. It was actually amazing how well handled.

 

Just a quick update, I was able to tow a small John Deere 1026R and completed my rain gutter project. The Tacoma did just fine towing the tractor so I guess all the fuss was for nothing. Although, the tractor weighs only 1,500 lbs + 1,000 lbs for the two attachements while the trailer was about 2,000 lbs. In short, I was only towing about 4,500 lbs and not really close to the max 6,500 lb towing capacity. I got a photo uploaded which should give a better idea of what I eventually towed. My kids really enjoyed playing on it more than anything else.

 

cool !! it gives me the idea what I can tow.. Next year( spring) will going out west to my brother to pick up an old ford 1/2 ton, a 1971 classic.. might able to tow it back home.. I gotta check the weight of the ford. going to have a restoration project on the ford.

 

I think you will be fine assuming the total weight is below 6,500 lbs. I did tow about half the distance via highway at 55+ mph and had no issues. However, I towed in 4th gear and not 'D' which lowered my fuel mileage down to 16 mpg. I guess that's par for the course. The most important thing is to give yourself plenty of buffer space to vehicles in front of you and brake much earlier than normal.

 

How did that Deere work for you? I didn't know they made such a small backhoe. I shouldn't even call it a backhoe, as I think it is just one of their lawn tractors with a hoe and blade on it!

 

It worked great and was the perfect size for manuevring around the house. It only has a 12" bucket but that's all I really needed for my trench width. My main pipe was 4" PVC so I had a nice amount of wiggle room to either side of the pipe to move it about and glue all my connections. John Deere lists it as a subcompact tractor on their page: http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/products/equipment/tractors/sub_compact_utility_tractors/1_series/1026r_sub_compact/1026r_sub_compact.page It's an impressive little machine with a number of attachments. It's complete over kill for my average needs but someone with a few acres and a bit rural may be able to justify the expense of owning one. It also made more sense for my project than just the Bobcat 323 excavator. I used the John Deere front loader to move stone into the ditch, bury the ditch and remove any extra dirt to the back of my truck for disposal. It saved me a lot of work and would not have been an option with the Bobcat. I should note the rental price was the same for either piece equipment. There was also a Kubota there but it was too big for my needs. I also considered a ditch witch but the depth and width of the machine may not have been enough to get it done without manually shoveling. Anyhow, this is probably more than you wanted to know.