Ownership report on a 2020 Bobcat S650 off lucas-motors.com

saw the big 323 thread going and figured id add a skid steer data point since i went the same route for a different reason. im a super on a grading crew in mid missouri and i did not buy this one chasing a deal, i bought it because i needed a specific tool. we had too many days where the crew was waiting on a rented machine to do final grade, backfill, and cleanup around the big excavators, and renting a skid steer by the month was bleeding us.

so i went looking for a clean S650 with the config i actually wanted, not whatever the rental counter had on the lot. found a 2020 on lucas-motors.com in october. 1,500 hours, SJC joystick controls which my operators prefer, two speed, high flow aux so i can run a cold planer and a mulcher, enclosed cab with heat and air, power bob-tach. it came with a 72 inch bucket and a set of pallet forks. the price was a few grand under the comparable ones at the dealers but honestly the config and the hours are what sold me, the savings were a bonus.

same playbook as the 323 guys. pulled the hours and the service records off the serial, had a local shop near the machine do an inspection, they checked the chaincases and final drive chains for stretch, the lift and tilt cylinders for drift, the loader pivot pins and the bob-tach wedges for wear, and scanned for codes. clean machine. the only thing flagged was the OEM tires were down to about 30 percent and one cab door seal was torn. i bid it, won it, and they arranged transport on a hotshot trailer to our yard. been putting it to work ever since and adding attachments as the jobs call for them.

for land clearing a skid steer with high flow and a good mulcher head is hard to beat as a first machine, and it floats on a smaller trailer than an excavator so its easier to move between jobs. the S650 will run a lighter drum mulcher on high flow, but if mulching is going to be the bread and butter id honestly look one size up at the S66 or a T66 track machine, the tracks keep you working in soft ground where the wheeled machine is parked. a drum head wants every bit of flow and weight you can give it.

on buying the attachment, id spec it to the machine, not buy whatever is bundled. match the mulcher's flow and pressure rating to your skid steer's high flow output or you will starve it and cook it, like priyanka said about the cooler. lucas has attachments come through on their own lots, so you can absolutely pick one up there, just confirm the coupler and the hydraulic fittings match. i bought my 72 bucket and forks with the machine and then sourced an auger and a grapple off separate lots later as the jobs paid for them.

do the same homework you were going to do on the excavator, serial and records, an inspection, real photos. a used skid steer is a smaller check to be wrong on but the process is the same.

UPDATE a winter of grading and cleanup later, the S650 has turned into the most used machine on the crew, which was the whole point. it has paid for the monthly rental we were burning and then some, and having it sit in our yard ready to go instead of waiting on a rental drop has saved us days on every job.

attachment report since this is a report thread. the 72 bucket and forks it came with do most of the daily grade and material handling. i added an auger for footing and sign work, a root grapple that has been worth its weight on the clearing jobs, and an angle broom for final cleanup on the commercial lots, which the GCs love seeing. sourced the grapple and broom off separate lucas lots and both matched the coupler fine. did the chaincase oil and a full service at 1,800 hours, swapped that torn door seal and put a fresh set of tires on it since the originals were toast.

honest takeaway, buying for the config and the hours first and letting the deal be a bonus was the right way to think about it. devin went and bid on a track machine for his mulching, good for him. this wheeled one has been exactly the tool we needed. would buy iron through lucas-motors.com again without hesitating.