Skidder or Tractor? If you could only have one.

[Tomtint]

I try to not even turn with the skid steer, to keep it from tearing up the driveway, grass, whatever it's on, let alone run circles with it.

For basic loader work I find the tractor far more user friendly. Loading a dump trailer, for example, I can see where to put the next bucket load in the trailer.

The longer reach of the tractor's loader is also very helpful a lot of times, and especially when using pallet forks.

But my main complaint about the skid steer is the procedure required to get in and out of it. Gotta do the seatbelt and turn the hydraulics back on every time. Loading something on a flatbed can be quite complicated since if I want to get out and see exactly where things are, either the loader must by high enough or all the way down to be able to open the door.

With the tractor I can simply hop out and take a look, then get back in the seat without having to do anything special to continue. Plus, for the most part I can stay seated since I can see what's going on anyway.

I get it.. My tractor loader can lift about 1300 pounds.. The skid is north of 2K ..and much more stable at that weight. But as you say.. I can't get out of it mid lift. My skid is brutal on grass.. So i rarely go on it with that machine. Asphalt is no problem. I use a grapple on my tractor and like the longer reach.. But the skid can lift and move more brush/etc faster. My skid is older so I don't need to wear a seatbelt to use it..or turn hydros on and off.. If the motor is running,,I have hydro power. Again.. It depends on your chores as to if I had to pick one what would it be..
My chores with the skid are moving and loading 50 yards of mulch a year.. For me the Skid is faster and lift is higher than the tractor I have. I can load to the middle of a F550 easily.
I occasionally move snow with the skid.. That is far better than the tractor.. Its warm inside the cab and can push a 8' snow box uphill full of wet heavy snow and stack it 10' high without any problem.
The skid spreads about 100-500 tons of gravel a year on my road and grades it as well. In this use, the skid is also far more efficient at moving heavy gravels than the tractor is. And much easier/faster to set a rough grade on the road.
Now the tractor.. I use it for general yard chores, I pick up downed tree limbs, Move mulch around my home, also use it with a LPGS.. The tractor with the LPGS is much better and faster than the skid for final grad on my road.

 

[TMGT]

I wouldn't mind a Bobcat A300 or A770, with turf tires and aws they can go on turf without tearing it up. I'm not sure if they offer a current model with aws or not.

We have a couple of the A770 at work and seem to hold up well even with all the extra moving parts.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I get it.. My tractor loader can lift about 1300 pounds.. The skid is north of 2K ..and much more stable at that weight. For me the Skid is faster and lift is higher than the tractor I have. I can load to the middle of a F550 easily.
I occasionally move snow with the skid.. That is far better than the tractor.. Its warm inside the cab and can push a 8' snow box uphill full of wet heavy snow and stack it 10' high without any problem.

It's the other way around for me, with the tractor able to lift 2,000+ and the skid steer is supposedly only good for 1,500 (never really lifted anything but tree branches with it).

Also opposite, for snow removal I run an 8' front blade and a 9' rear blade from the comfort of the heated cab. Then, if warranted, I take the skid steer with the snow blower to get the snow away from the driveway.

I've never tried the snow pushers with the skid steer, generally use those on the little L3800 - if the weather is nice enough.

 

[Rustyiron]

You're missing a very useful part there. A crane.

It takes at least four to have the best tool. Okay, three if you get rid of the skid steer.

I have a crane for my SS

 

[Rustyiron]

The tractor/SS debate really depends on your property and tasks. No question that a tractor is the best for the average suburban property with lots of lawn and shrubbery.
The 2 are as opposite as a fork and a knife.

 

[scootr]

The tractor/SS debate really depends on your property and tasks. No question that a tractor is the best for the average suburban property with lots of lawn and shrubbery.
The 2 are as opposite as a fork and a knife.

I guess so if the fork will cut what you eat and it will stay put on the knife

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I bought a skid steer, it didn't take long to see a tractor is a much better general-purpose machine, the skid steer is too specialized for me I sent it back!

The skid steer is useless in deeper mud, especially if you have logs to skid out. How do you go a couple miles down the road with a skid to pull a big load of logs home? And it goes on and on.

SR

 

[TMGT]

I had both, I bought an older Case 1845c when I was building my old shop since I had a lot of dirt to move and only had the B2620 at the time.
It did the job well and found it really helpful in moving a lot of dirt quickly, but once I bought a larger tractor it didn't really get used much.
I ended up selling it a couple years ago as it pretty much sat around most of the time.

It was pretty useless in mud, I couldn't take it anywhere that I cared about turfwise, and being an open cab I didn't want to try to mow with it.

With the self leveling loader it was OK for fork work, but as already stated, once you started lifting you were stuck in the cab.

 

[4570Man]

This is a fairly average skid steer lifting close to 3000 pounds. The larger track machines can lift double that much. How big of a tractor would it take to make the same lift?

 

[BlueKnife]

G'mornin.
I get asked when I will buy a skidder, usually by skidder folk. I say never and that I don't need one cuz of my tractor w/FEL and they look confused. Or wounded?
While I realize that seeing the cutting edge would be a huge advantage, I feel that a tractor is far better for rural living.
Your opinions??

This is a skidder,

It will do things that no tractor could ever dream of. But it would really suck to try to use one to till your garden. I'm guessing that you're not talking about a skidder though. There is no perfect tool that will do all jobs equally well. Some are capable of doing many different jobs, but they aren't going to do those jobs as well as a machine that is built to do that specific task. The best tool for you is the one that is built to do the job that you do most often. If that is loader work, a skid steer or wheel loader beats a tractor every time (assuming lift capacities are comparable, obviously). If that job is row crop tillage, then a tractor beats the skid steer, no question. Get the right tool for the job, if possible, but if not, recognize that the compromise/hybrid tool isn't going to work as well as a dedicated tool.