The Bobcat 753 is a skid-steer loader of the 700 series made by Bobcat Company, an American manufacturer of farm and construction equipment based in West Fargo, North Dakota. It is one of the generation of loaders that spread the Bobcat name across farms and small building sites.
Bobcat 753 at a glance
| Maker | Bobcat Company |
|---|---|
| Type | skid-steer loader |
| Series | 700 |
| Headquarters | West Fargo, North Dakota |
| Brand founder | Melroe Manufacturing, Gwinner, North Dakota |
| First four-wheel loader | Melroe M400, 1960 |
| Bobcat name | since 1962 |
| Owner | Doosan Group since 2007 |
| Source | English Wikipedia, Bobcat Company |
Model-specific specifications are not covered by the available source, the English Wikipedia article on Bobcat Company; the page is based on that single source.
History of the Bobcat 753
From a welding shop
Louis and Cyril Keller ran Keller Welding and Repair near Rothsay, Minnesota, when in 1956 the turkey farmer Eddie Velo asked them for a loader small enough to work inside a pole barn and light enough for its upper floor. The three-wheeled machine was delivered on 4 February 1957; the brothers patented a clutch-based transmission in 1958 and that system became the basis of the Melroe M60 loader.
The M400 and the Bobcat name
Melroe Manufacturing, based in Gwinner, North Dakota, exhibited the loader at the 1958 Minnesota State Fair and introduced the four-wheeled M400 Skid-Steer Loader in 1960. In 1962 the Bobcat trade name was applied to the 440 loader, chosen by Les Melroe and the advertising agent Lynn Bickett. The first advertising described the machine as “tough, quick, and agile”, and the 753 follows the same design idea.
Who owns the brand
Melroe was bought by Clark Equipment Company in 1969 and by Ingersoll Rand in 1995. In July 2007 the construction equipment group, Clark included, was sold to the Doosan Group of South Korea for US$4.9 billion. Bobcat’s European headquarters moved from Waterloo, Belgium, to the Czech Republic in 2017.
Design and features
- Skid-steer chassis: a compact four-wheel machine that steers without a steering axle, following the M400 of 1960.
- Farm and construction use: Bobcat equipment is sold for both kinds of work.
- Reliable transmission line: the clutch design patented in 1958 replaced the first belt drive and stayed in the family’s ancestry.
- Easy to transport: the compact size that made the brand famous is the point of every 700-series model.
Bobcat 753 versions
- Bobcat 751: the preceding number in the series.
- Bobcat 763 and 773: larger 700-series loaders.
- Bobcat 843: the first of the 800-series machines in this listing.
The Bobcat 751 and the Bobcat 773 sit on either side of it; more models are in the Bobcat collection.
Video: Bobcat 753 at work
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Bobcat Company, English Wikipedia: company history, product range, ownership
