Kickstand
New member
Considering purchasing a used mini ex for mostly home use. Initial work will be building a few miles of trail in mountainous terrain. Looking at something like a Kubota U17/JD 17D/Bobcat E20. All are 3700-4300# and have adjustable track width from about 39 inches to maybe 50-53 inches. Most of the trails will be for hiking only, so I want them to be as narrow as possible with minimal land disturbance. And some of the area is 45 degree slope, so the wider footprint of an larger machine really begins to create a large bench with much more disturbance. My question is, is it reasonable to use one of the above in the narrow width for the actual trail building, or is that feature more for fitting through a tight spot or gate only? I recently rented a Bobcat E26 (5600#, 60 inch width) to make a perimeter path around the property wide enough for a side by side or tractor and it worked really well for that, but looking for something narrower. Thanks for any thoughts.