Looking for first Skid loader

[searcyfarms]

as you can see from my signature i have a SS, tractors of various size and a cut - the reason i got a cut is because my SS is too hard on the ground around my house for landscaping but i wouldnt trade it for anything for doing dirt work, clearing brush, moving logs, moving/loading/feeding hay, i have driven a CTL and my wheeled SS with metal tracks will work circles around a CTL in the mud. My cousin has one and i used it for one day in CRP trying to move trees, pull trees, clear brush and i couldnt do jack squat, i couldnt get any traction to create leverage. It was very frustrating.

Feeding hay, pushing debris, digging manure, doesnt work on a CTL in the mud/winter when its soft. A wheeled machine is a little rougher in some applications but for my work i would never want a CTL. A CTL will flat run circles around a wheeled machine doing grading I suspect.

I will never be w/out a SS, they are the cats meow and so much better than my tractor/loader for so many things. I have ran Bobcat 743, 773, S185, S250, S650, T650, 853, 963, Case 1845C, ASV SR-80 ( what my cousin has ) TAK TL140, TAK TL10, Kubota SVL75-2, I have owned a Scat 1700C and two Volvo MC110s. All wheeled machines with hand/foot controls personally. Out of all the machines I liked the Tak controls/feel best. I liked the Kubota cab/features best. I like the servo controls but so much more to go wrong and the newer stuff is out of my $$$ range. I love my heated cab in the winter and i limit the heavy work in the heat if possible

 

[4570Man]

Metal tracked skid steers might have better traction on mud but pretty much everything else is worse. My buddy had one and I hated that thing. It was loud and annoying to use, tears up everything to levels previously not known possible, can’t be driven on asphalt or in the shop, still has the awful ride of a wheeled machine, still can’t grade worth a flip, and is a death trap to load on a trailer especially on a side hill. To make matters even worse it had a leaky tire and he wouldn’t take my suggestion to put it on the front and it broke the bead on the back so we pulled the tracks off pretty often to re seat the bead. Did I mention I hated that thing?

 

[laurencen]

having owned the 743 i will say its a small machine, worked for what i needed, the one thing going for it is ease of working on, my new 590 is a great machine and the air seat takes the roughness out but full of electronics

 

[searcyfarms]

Metal tracked skid steers might have better traction on mud but pretty much everything else is worse. My buddy had one and I hated that thing. It was loud and annoying to use, tears up everything to levels previously not known possible, can’t be driven on asphalt or in the shop, still has the awful ride of a wheeled machine, still can’t grade worth a flip, and is a death trap to load on a trailer especially on a side hill. To make matters even worse it had a leaky tire and he wouldn’t take my suggestion to put it on the front and it broke the bead on the back so we pulled the tracks off pretty often to re seat the bead. Did I mention I hated that thing?

agreed they will flat tear up anything you use them on so they are pretty exclusive to what you need to do with metal tracks, i use BAR tracks not flat ones so i dont have any trouble with snow/loading on my steel ramps and wooden deck. I drive mine right into my concrete shop, very little scratching at all, no they do not grade worth a hooey, definitely a rubber track machine for that work, i run no flats under my tracks!!! We have lots of locust and hedge around here so i run over whatever i want to like a rubber track machine but when it gets muddy i can keep right on working.

Any SS will beat you to death compared to a tractor but so will a Cat/dozer - an ASV or CAT with the bogey type rollers are much more forgiving than the Takeuchi style solid tracks but also cost a lot more to maintain. IF i was doing it for a living it would be a different story for sure but I will say this a SS will flat hold its value I have been very please with that part of owning one as well.

 

[Carl_NH]

I am on a very limited budget. Probably no more than 8K. I do not plan to use for it light landscaping. I need to reshape a large slope and build a few retaining walls, put in some French drains, and a few other things most of my yard is crap so I知 not worried about tearing it up. I am also looking at a 1980 bobcat 610 for 4200.

Brad

Welcome to TBN and as you have seen on TBN there are an experienced group here, and on the whole they are right - SS are great for moving dirt/materials and getting materials spread on a construction site but a lot of members here have multiple machines as there is not one best tool for each task.

For your stated uses - grading a slope, installing French drains, retaining walls, a compact TLB (tractor/loader/backhoe) is a multitool that does most of what you want to do with some limitations. It wont have the lift capacity of a SS, but has the maneuverability and ability to trench, lift/place rocks, and move/level dirt.

As others have said - rent one - I rented a wheeled SS Bobcat 743 or 53 in early 90s and spread 100 yards of topsoil and moved a lot of material but ended up with a TLB for the next big project - walls, and landscaping ,moving dirt, digging up tree stumps etc. But I hire the big stuff (stumping 3' trees, and moving large boulders) and do the finish work - spreading/grading, walls etc.

On your budget a $5-8K SS is going to need work from time to time and with the hydraulics can get complex and expensive in a hurry, vs a used tractor is a lot simpler and usually can be fixed without a huge expense.

Good luck in your search, and consider expanding your options/solutions for a machine. Also where you are located, and acreage you are looking to tackle will give a better appreciation of your tasks at hand.

 

[4570Man]

A real TLB like a L39 or will run pretty close to an equal weight wheeled skid steer in lifting. Considering he’s looking in the baby skid steer lineup I don’t think brute force was top priority. I’d way rather have a TLB for a wide spectrum of work vs a small wheeled skid steer.

 

[Carl_NH]

A real TLB like a L39 or will run pretty close to an equal weight wheeled skid steer in lifting. Considering he’s looking in the baby skid steer lineup I don’t think brute force was top priority. I’d way rather have a TLB for a wide spectrum of work vs a small wheeled skid steer.

Agreed - that's why I got the B21 TLB in 2001 which is the smaller version of the L39 as I wanted a commercial purpose built machine - and at the time, there were two commercial TLB options - the L48 and the B21 and I didn't need the capacity of the L-48 but something rugged with a BH.

The OP doesn't want to spend more than $8K and he should be able to find a CUT and maybe a TLB like the B21 or similar.

 

[finn1]

I bought a Deere 240 skid steer for $10 k in 2008 and got all my money back ten years later. Extremely useful machines.

I switched to a CUT with a cab, and find that other than easier entry and exit, it is nowhere near as useful for dirt work or material handling with forks.

I Ended up buying both a small open station mini ex and a CTL to supplement the CUT capabilities. The CTL is an all around better machine for my use, as the property is quite soft on the lakefront, and a wheeled vehicle doesn’t do well there. I will keep the CUT only because I can easily drive it down the road between properties, and the ent/exit is so much better than the CTL for things like snowblower operation.