Around here, “Bobcat” is what people call a skid loader no matter what’s on the decal — and for good reason, because more Bobcats work Iowa jobsites and farmyards than any other loader. That popularity has a downside: when yours breaks during snow season or harvest, the local dealer’s service desk is quoting the same wait to everyone else’s machine too. Ames Hydraulics does Bobcat skid steer repair as an independent shop in Ames, Iowa. We’re not a dealership and we’re not affiliated with Bobcat Company — we’re the shop that gets your machine back to work while the service queue is still returning calls.
When the Bob-Tach Won’t Hold an Attachment
The Bob-Tach is Bobcat’s quick-attach system: two lever-driven wedges (hydraulic cylinders do the pushing on a Power Bob-Tach) drop through holes in the attachment’s mounting frame and lock the bucket to the machine. It’s a great system when it’s tight — and a genuinely dangerous one when it’s worn. Owners describe the same progression over and over: the bucket starts to rock, then an attachment pops loose under load. The usual culprits are wedges with rounded-off tips, weak or broken springs that let the wedge ride up instead of staying seated, bent handles, and mounting-frame holes that have wallowed out after years of engagement.
Bob-Tach repair is bread-and-butter work for us. We replace worn wedges, springs, and handles, and when the real problem is the attachment side — holes and edges worn oversize on the mounting frame — we build the worn areas back up with weld and dress them to fit tight again in our welding and fabrication shop. We check both halves of the connection, machine and attachment, because a new wedge in a wallowed-out hole is still a loose bucket. If your attachments don’t lock up snug, park the machine and call — a dropped bucket with a load in the air is not the way to find out how bad the wear was.
Lift Arm Pins, Bushings, and the Clunk You’ve Been Ignoring
A Bobcat’s lift arms pivot on pins and bushings that see thousands of load cycles a season. When they wear, you hear it before you see it — a clunk every time the arms change direction, a bucket edge you can wiggle by hand, a machine that feels sloppy at grade. Left alone, loose pins hammer the bores themselves out of round, and a cheap bushing job becomes a bore repair. We press out worn pins and bushings, fit new ones, and repair worn bores so the arms pivot tight again. It’s the difference between a loader that grades like it did new and one that bounces its way across a pad. Pins and bushings are the unglamorous half of Bobcat skid steer repair, but they’re what makes the machine feel tight again.
The Hydraulic Complaints Bobcat Owners Bring Us
The pattern in bobcat hydraulic repair is consistent across S-series, T-series, and the older lettered and numbered machines. Lift gets weak or slow — often worse once the oil warms up and thins out enough to slip past worn pump and cylinder internals. Arms drift down with a loaded bucket held high. Auxiliary flow goes soft, so the auger or breaker that used to bury itself now stalls. Controls get jerky or unresponsive. Underneath nearly all of it: bypassing seals, scored rods, tired pumps, and fluid that’s carried dirt through the system for too many hours.
Our approach to Bobcat skid steer repair is to diagnose the circuit, not just swap the part that’s wet. Cylinders get honed, resealed, and pressure tested before they go back on (see our hydraulic cylinder repair service). Pumps and valves get evaluated honestly — rebuilt when it makes sense, replaced when it doesn’t. And we finish with clean fluid and filters, because sending a rebuilt cylinder back out into contaminated oil is how a repair becomes a rerun. That’s the standard on every Bobcat skid steer repair here, whether the machine is three years old or thirty.
An Independent Shop With Its Own Standard
Being independent doesn’t mean cutting corners — it means answering to you instead of a corporate service schedule. Every Bobcat skid steer repair here gets a straight price before the work starts, an honest read on what has life left, and cylinders that are pressure tested before reinstall. We work on the whole Bobcat family that shows up in Central Iowa: wheeled S-series machines, T-series compact track loaders, and the older 700- and 800-series units that refuse to die. And because our main floor is a full skid steer repair and hydraulic operation, the Case, Cat, or New Holland loader parked next to your Bobcat is welcome on the same rack.
Get Your Bobcat Back to Work
If the machine can travel, haul it to Ames Hydraulics at 210 Freel Dr, Ames, IA 50010, Monday through Friday, 7AM–5PM. If it can’t — or your trailer is busy earning — we offer free pickup and delivery within 60 miles of Ames. Text photos of the problem to 515-292-2599 and we can usually put a price on the bobcat repair before the machine leaves your yard.
A loose Bob-Tach, a clunking lift arm, a bucket that drifts — none of it gets better on its own, and all of it is routine work here. Call or text 515-292-2599 and let’s get your Bobcat skid steer repair scheduled this week, not whenever a service desk gets around to it.
Written by Josiah Ragsdale
Owner, Ames Hydraulics — Ames, Iowa
Josiah owns and operates Ames Hydraulics. He has worked on hydraulic and heavy equipment since he was 18, and every hydraulic cylinder his shop rebuilds is pressure tested before it ships back to the customer. More about Josiah →
Got something broken? Call or text 515-292-2599