Lifelong Operator Pat McConnell Brings Bobcat Equipment to Concrete Design of KC
Published: April 9, 2025
Table of Contents 
Pat McConnell grew up operating a T300, T770, and a 341 excavator for his dad’s construction company. Today, he handles the day-to-day operations for Concrete Design of KC. Owned by Ron and Vickie Pfannenstiel, Concrete Design of KC is a concrete company based in Gladstone, MO that has close to 100 employees. All of their flatwork crews operate Bobcat loaders and excavators.
Pat says he’ll always be a fan of Bobcat. “I’ve tried everything,” he said. “I’ve had every salesman come try and get me in their machines. I’ve ran every single other piece of equipment out there. I just don’t find anything that has the fluid motion, the controls through the machine, the visibility out of the cab, and the comfort that Bobcat has.”
As of today, Pat and his team operate an MT100, eight T64s, a T650, a T76, a T76 Platinum, and an E60.
“I have a lot of 64s because of the price,” he said, “but the biggest thing for me is the weight of the machine. My guys are running around with a loader, two bundles of rebar, and an auger. They’re pretty loaded every day, and the 64s do great. I like the T66, but I think that extra horsepower wraps it out a little quicker, and it can be kind of hard on the drive belts. So, for horsepower, I’ve got the T76. It displaces the horsepower well, and it picks up as much weight as a T770. I’ve used my 76 to pick up slabs of concrete that you definitely wouldn’t expect that machine to pick up. Like, pick up a five-by-fourteen-foot slab of concrete and set it in a dump truck, no problem.”
Through the years, KC Bobcat has had the privilege to partner with Pat on countless jobs.
“KC Bobcat is always really accommodating. If I have something go down, they get my equipment in the shop and push it through. For me, it’s all about that access to service and parts anywhere I’m at in town. We work anywhere an hour out from Gladstone, so I can go to Olathe or Tracy or Blue Springs, and they’ll always have something nearby to get the equipment back up and going. They always take care of me.”
Everybody’s always like, ‘Why do you stick with them? And I say, ‘Well, one, I like the machines. And two, nobody else is going to give me the service that I get through Bobcat. It’s just not even possible.’
Pat McConnell
Concrete Design of KC
To this day, Pat still loves to get in the cab of his Bobcat 341 mini excavator.
“My favorite thing to do is sit in an excavator and stack a wall. I’ve built a lot of natural rock walls…I don’t know how many hundreds of tons of rock I’ve stacked. I just like to build walls. For me, moving dirt is just monotonous work because I’ve done so much of it. But rock walls…that’s the thing I really miss about working for my dad. When I worked for him, I used to build all our walls. And my favorite machine for that is still the 341! I wouldn’t trade that thing for a million years.”
We’ve been backing businesses like Concrete Design of KC for 50 years—and we’re just getting started. Here’s to the next 50 and the stories still to come!
