Bobcat Repair in Story City, Iowa | Ames Hydraulics

Bobcat Repair — Serving Story City, Iowa

We rebuild the hydraulic and drive-side systems on Bobcat skid steers, compact excavators, and toolcats. Our shop is 12 miles north of Story City on I-35, close enough that Story City fleets and farms haul equipment in for cylinder work, structural welding, and full hydraulic rebuilds every week. We are the bobcat repair shop that Story City-area customers use when they need the job done right the first time — not run through a dealer service writer.

Story City area we serve for bobcat repair: small-town ag, hog operations, and grain elevators. Story City sits right on I-35 and drops down into Roland/McCallsburg farm country; a lot of our small-farm and grain-hauler work comes from north of Ames. If your equipment is down and needs bobcat repair, drop it off, we quote, we fix it.

Bobcat Work We Do Every Week

Bobcat is the most common skid steer we see in central Iowa, and the failure list is fairly narrow: loader-arm and bucket-tilt cylinder rod seals, hydraulic pump leaks and pressure loss, drive-motor internal wear that leaves the machine crabbing or lopsided, and quick-attach and lift-arm cracking from years of feedlot and construction abuse. We rebuild the cylinders on our bench, source Bobcat-spec pumps and drive motors when replacement is the right call, and we do structural welding on the frame and lift arms in-house.

Our shop covers the S-Series (S70 through S850), the T-Series compact track loaders (T450 through T870), the E-Series compact excavators, and the Toolcat 5600/5610 utility work machine. We know the pattern failures on each series and we don’t guess — if the machine is in the shop, it comes out fixed and pressure-tested.

What We Do In-House

• Loader-arm, tilt, and boom cylinder rebuilds — rod polish, seal kit, honed if needed, pressure tested
• Drive-motor rebuild or replacement — final drive and travel motor work on tracked machines
• Hydraulic pump testing, seal replacement, and full replacement
• Auxiliary hydraulic and quick-attach system repair — high-flow and standard flow
• Structural welding — cracked lift arms, mount plates, frame stress cracks, quick-attach face plates
• Hose fabrication and routing — replace crimped or leaking assemblies with the correct fitting sizes

Independent Scope — Where We Refer

We are not a Bobcat dealer. We do not run the Bobcat diagnostic laptop, we do not do warranty work, and we do not chase electronic-drive-by-wire faults on the newer machines. If the machine is under warranty or the fault is buried in the ECU, Bobcat of Ames is the right stop and we’ll tell you that. For hydraulic and structural work — which is most of what breaks — an independent shop like ours is faster and less expensive.

Turnaround And Cost

Typical single-cylinder rebuild is a few days from drop-off to ready. A machine dropped off for hydraulic and drive-motor rebuild is usually a week to ten days depending on parts. Cylinder rebuilds start around $350 for smaller rams; full drive-motor rebuilds run $1,800 and up depending on failure and parts. We quote before we start work — no surprise invoices.

Bobcat Repair For Story City And The Surrounding Area

The Story City area service base for bobcat repair is small-town ag, hog operations, and grain elevators. Story City sits right on I-35 and drops down into Roland/McCallsburg farm country; a lot of our small-farm and grain-hauler work comes from north of Ames. We are set up specifically for the equipment those industries actually run: hydraulic systems that see hard cycle loads, structural steel and aluminum that flexes and cracks, and drive components that wear from long hours in Iowa dust and salt. Getting the machine from Story City to our Ames bay is a short drive, and we can quote pickup or delivery for larger units.

Every bobcat repair story city job we take gets a quote before we start work, a pressure test on anything hydraulic, and a call before we do extra work if we find something during tear-down. That is how we have kept Story City-area repeat customers for years.

Why Story City Customers Come To Us For Bobcat Repair

Three reasons: we are independent (no dealer markup or upsell), we do the work in-house (cylinders don’t get shipped somewhere), and we quote before we start (no surprise invoices). For bobcat repair specifically, that means the machine comes back running, on time, at the number we quoted — not two weeks late for double the price. Story City operators appreciate that because equipment downtime kills a working week.

Getting To Our Shop From Story City

From Story City, we are 12 miles north on I-35. Most customers who haul their own machine can be at our shop and back in under two hours. For larger units — semi trailers, telehandlers, aerial lifts — we can coordinate pickup or work with a local hauler you use. Call 515-292-2599 before you show up so we can have a bay ready for your bobcat repair job.

Independent, Honest, In-House

We are an independent hydraulic and heavy-equipment repair shop, not a dealer for any brand. We quote before we start work, we don’t tack on parts you don’t need, and if a job is beyond our scope we tell you where to go instead of taking your money. That approach has kept Story City-area customers coming back for bobcat repair year after year.

Preventive Service For Story City Fleets

Beyond one-off bobcat repair jobs, we set up preventive maintenance for Story City-area fleets that run multiple units. That means annual DOT inspections scheduled ahead of time, seasonal hydraulic-fluid changes before hard-use season, and cylinder rod inspection before rod pitting turns into a full rebuild. A little PM is a lot cheaper than emergency downtime.

Downtime And Scheduling For Story City

Downtime is what kills a working operation. When you call about bobcat repair, we tell you honestly what our backlog looks like this week. If a job is critical we work around it, and if we can’t get to it fast we tell you where else to try in the Story City/central Iowa area. We do not overbook and lie about it.

Cost And Pricing

Every bobcat repair job gets a quote before we start work. Small welding repair might be a couple hundred dollars; a full hydraulic system overhaul or trailer rebuild runs several thousand. We do not surprise-invoice — the number we quote is the number you pay unless we find something during the tear-down, in which case we call you before doing extra work. For Story City-area customers we can also arrange freight pickup and drop-off on larger units.

Contact — Story City Customers

For bobcat repair in Story City, Iowa, call or text 515-292-2599, or drop the machine off at our Ames shop. We are open Monday through Friday. Emergency and after-hours work by arrangement. We look forward to helping Story City-area fleets, farms, and operators keep equipment running.