4570Man
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2015
- Messages
- 17,921
- Location
- Crossville, TN
- Tractor
- Kubota M59, Kubota L3800, Grasshopper 428D, Topkick dump truck, 3500 dump truck, 10 ton trailer, more lighter trailers.
I think the compact telehandler with the right tires and high flow or a JCB teleskid on tracks would be excellent all around tool.
JCB Teleskid | Skid Steer Loader | JCB.com
The JCB Teleskid is the first skid steer loader or compact tracked loader with a skid steer telescopic boom, making it the most versatile tracked skid steer you’ve ever seen.www.jcb.com
Problem is, even the used ones are pretty spendy. The compact telehandler s been out a long time and may be more affordable.
If they could make a road speed telehandler with high flow, it might be worth a look for me for bales, front bush hog and land clearing work. With a set of rear hydraulic remotes, it could pull a wheel rake for hay.
The JCB is still a bit of a toy.
I’ve never operated a compact telhandler but I have operated a compact 5 ton wheel loader that one of my friends owned. It was excellent at lifting and carrying materials. No surprise there since that’s the sole design purpose of a loader. It was smoother riding and didn’t shake your pallets apart like a CTL tends to do, the visibility was better with the forks at truck bed height although the visibility was worse at ground level, the tipping load was over 4 tons which is more than a comparable size skid steer and you could safely get out of the loader with the boom raised. The downside is the loader was trash for doing dirt work. Grading out a yard is nearly out of the question with the loader. The next major downside to the loader is the off-road stability sucked. The compact telhandler appears to be better in that aspect. The other downsides that the telhandler doesn’t solve is the tires on the loader are bigger than a skid steer tire but they’re still not equal to the flotation a tracked skid steer has and the loader has marginal hydraulic flow. It could use a grapple but a mower or other high flow attachments was a no. Ultimately he sold the loader and bought a 97-2 Kubota CTL and my desire for a loader was mostly cured and I kept my skid steers. I could still go for a JCB Teleskid on tracks.