i wanted to add my tuppence worth, nick i had no idea you had racked up so many hours on machines!! im in my 6th year working on small plant and ive tried pretty much all of the industry leading machines, i would firmly put the takeuchi at the top of my list, with the kubota following closely, (kubota please put the widening tracks on as standard kit!!!) then the volvo and hanix. way at the bottom is the small JCB's they are horrible machines indeed.

incidentally ive found the kubota the most reliabale and have a mid 90's kh36 and it has a colossal amount of hours on it and while very loose in the pins now it just works and works, costs next to nothing to keep and earns us good money as a stand in machine if one in the fleet fails on us.

that said, any new machines would have to be the takeuchi despite CBL having the monopoly in the south UK (not the best dealership in my view)

nick, any view on the hitachi and bobcats?

Yeh been on the plant for more years then I care to remember !!

As for the Hitachi's I have always rated them and I currently own a Zaxis 30 which is an excellent little machine. I have recently fitted a flail mower to it which is proving to be very useful indeed

Had a few days on an A Plant Bobcat some years ago now and thought it was ok but it was a brand new one not sure how they perform after they have racked up a few hours ?