What is The Best Mid-Size Skid Steer?

[mikester]

I own a wheeled and tracked skid steer. The wheeled machine doesn’t do well in soft ground. If the ground is fairly firm but muddy on the top it doesn’t do well. It also rides like a pogo stick. If you’re working on fairly smooth and dry ground it’s a capable machine. The tracked one is a completely different animal. You’re not buying a tracked one that’s not at a fire salvage sale for $15k but a tracked machine is very capable. A tracked skid steer will make a tractor look silly. The wheeled machine will still outperform a tractor on dry ground. The tractor wins in mud. You can run steel tracks on the wheel machine to help with the mud. I don’t have them on mine because I don’t like them for one thing but I drive the machine on roads and driveways so steel tracks are out of the question. View attachment 764545

I'd take a CTL over a SS any day. You forgot to add how SS are more unstable. Both machines operate under the load, have poor reach, poor all around visibility, have restricted egress and are death traps.

If your machine catches fire and your boom is part way up and you can't lower your boom because the electric over hydraulic controls stopped working then you need to remove the back window to climb out over your burning engine. No thanks.

They are great machines for getting into tight spaces. I still prefer my M59 which has comparable or better boom lift capacity than similar HP SS/CTL.

Good luck finding a decent CTL for $15K

 

[4570Man]

I'd take a CTL over a SS any day. You forgot to add how SS are more unstable. Both machines operate under the load, have poor reach, poor all around visibility, have restricted egress and are death traps.

View attachment 764615

If your machine catches fire and your boom is part way up and you can't lower your boom because the electric over hydraulic controls stopped working then you need to remove the back window to climb out over your burning engine. No thanks.

They are great machines for getting into tight spaces. I still prefer my M59 which has comparable or better boom lift capacity than similar HP SS/CTL.

Good luck finding a decent CTL for $15K

A CTL is much more planted to the ground than a SS. They could flip on their nose like that but they don’t make a habit of it like a SS does. The reach isn’t much different than my M59 was. The egress is bad. I’d like to have a JCB one arm skid for that aspect. I wouldn’t go as far as to call them death traps. Id bet a lot more people have died on open station equipment than the amount of people that have been burned to death or were crushed under the loader arms. A Kubota machine with the roll up door is some better in that aspect. My 75 Kubota has a good bit more lift than the M59 does. The 15k part is unreasonable but you aren’t buying a M59 for 15k either.

 

[Hay Dude]

A CTL is much more planted to the ground than a SS. They could flip on their nose like that but they don’t make a habit of it like a SS does. The reach isn’t much different than my M59 was. The egress is bad. I’d like to have a JCB one arm skid for that aspect. A Kubota machine with the roll up door is some better in that aspect. My 75 Kubota has a good bit more lift than the M59 does. The 15k part is unreasonable but you aren’t buying a M59 for 15k either.

I want the JCB tracked tele skid, but the “tele” part is a bit too small. Maybe when theres some used ones available, I will finally go for it.

Still like the small telehandlers. I have rented many a telehandler for construction and always admired their capabilities.

 

[4570Man]

I want the JCB tracked tele skid, but the “tele” part is a bit too small. Maybe when theres some used ones available, I will finally go for it.

Still like the small telehandlers. I have rented many a telehandler for construction and always admired their capabilities.

If I was strictly lifting stuff I would buy one of those. But the ability for precision grading is important to me. I’ve never had a compact telhandler but I’m guessing it’s lacking for grading dirt. My M59 wasn’t good at it and one of my friends had a compact loader and it wasn’t any good for moving dirt.

 

[ning]

I'd take a CTL over a SS any day. You forgot to add how SS are more unstable. Both machines operate under the load, have poor reach, poor all around visibility, have restricted egress and are death traps.

View attachment 764615

If your machine catches fire and your boom is part way up and you can't lower your boom because the electric over hydraulic controls stopped working then you need to remove the back window to climb out over your burning engine. No thanks.

They are great machines for getting into tight spaces. I still prefer my M59 which has comparable or better boom lift capacity than similar HP SS/CTL.

Good luck finding a decent CTL for $15K

Here's a link to a report about that accident

 

[MinnesotaMorg]

Here's a link to a report about that accident

Thanks for linking this. I would rather be terrified of what can happen and be more careful than operate with my head in the sand. That poor ******* what a way to go.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Just for price reference, about a week ago I bought a used Kubota 65 with 1300 hours for $35,000.

Yesterday I sold my 2015 Bobcat T550 with 2700 hours for $21,500. Two years ago I paid $17,000 for this machine and put 200 hours on it over the 2 years.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Just for price reference, about a week ago I bought a used Kubota 65 with 1300 hours for $35,000.

Yesterday I sold my 2015 Bobcat T550 with 2700 hours for $21,500. Two years ago I paid $17,000 for this machine and put 200 hours on it over the 2 years.

I have an SVL 75-2 and absolutely love it so far, I bet you will like that machine.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I have an SVL 75-2 and absolutely love it so far, I bet you will like that machine.

I had rented a SVL 75 this spring to load about 1600 tons of sand. Thats when I was convinced I needed to upgrade to a Kubota.

 

[scootr]

I poo pooed Kubota tractors for many years as less than the construction skiploaders I was used to. But this new to me MX5200 has changed my thinking. It is a very capable tractor that is infinitely easier to use.
My Bobcat 773 is a machine you have to have a specific use for and a lots of seat time to get handy with it. It's really not an all around tool for a ranch or nearly as versatile as a small or medium tractor

 

[4570Man]

I poo pooed Kubota tractors for many years as less than the construction skiploaders I was used to. But this new to me MX5200 has changed my thinking. It is a very capable tractor that is infinitely easier to use.
My Bobcat 773 is a machine you have to have a specific use for and a lots of seat time to get handy with it. It's really not an all around tool for a ranch or nearly as versatile as a small or medium tractor

A 40 year old and fairly small skid steer isn’t a close comparison at all to a more modern CTL. Obviously the price point of a CTL sets them above the average homeowners budget and the tearing up grass isn’t ideal either but when it comes to doing work a CTL will make a tractor loader look silly. A joystick control machine is nothing like an old school foot pedal machine either. An inexperienced user can make the joystick machine do what they want with just a few minutes practice.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I had rented a SVL 75 this spring to load about 1600 tons of sand. Thats when I was convinced I needed to upgrade to a Kubota.

Yes sir, I am sure that most brands are capable, but the overhead sliding door and the overall simplicity of the Kubota made it an easy choice for me.

 

[ning]

Thanks for linking this. I would rather be terrified of what can happen and be more careful than operate with my head in the sand. That poor ******* what a way to go.

I think in general that investigations into accidents of all sorts should be published in an easily found fashion - preferably anonymized, of course.
I often see a report of some accident that closed this road or some fire started "cause under investigation" and we never find out how did that fire start??

These are really useful bits of information; how can I learn from someone else's mistake unless I know how it happened? This is supposed to be a benefit of society, but we seem to have lost this; unless you're in the know or get really lucky (like that study linked above) it's just "i guess we'll never know".

I realize that there's a segment of society that is attracted to disaster media, but I think for the most part there's a natural inclination to want to see what happened to get some notion of how to keep this from happening to you, and I suspect much of ancient story tradition was built like this.

 

[4570Man]

Deleted

 

[4570Man]

My wheeled skid steer was able to lift and carry this but it was pretty much done. My similar sized track machine will lift about 1/3 more. That’s still about double what a larger compact or smaller utility tractor can lift.

 

[4570Man]

Yes sir, I am sure that most brands are capable, but the overhead sliding door and the overall simplicity of the Kubota made it an easy choice for me.

The roll up door is nice in it’s own way. It’s kinda aggravating but that trade off is much better than the alternative option of a swing out door. I’ve been very happy with my Kubota SVL-75. I’ve had one for several years and just recently sold it and bought another new one. The Kubota is also considerably cheaper than a Deere or Cat.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

My SVL 65 is an open cab, but I have used a 75 with a closed cab and they are nice.
There seem to be a lot more of the 75’s available compared to the 65’s. I felt that the smaller 65 fit my needs better than a 75. I bought mine from a rental company and it took them a year to get one available. They had to wait on new ones to put into their rental fleet.
I did price one about 18 months ago, and they quoted me $28,000 back then for one with about the same hours and the one I just bought for $35,000

 

[4570Man]

My SVL 65 is an open cab, but I have used a 75 with a closed cab and they are nice.
There seem to be a lot more of the 75’s available compared to the 65’s. I felt that the smaller 65 fit my needs better than a 75. I bought mine from a rental company and it took them a year to get one available. They had to wait on new ones to put into their rental fleet.
I did price one about 18 months ago, and they quoted me $28,000 back then for one with about the same hours and the one I just bought for $35,000

My Komatsu is open station and my Kubota has a cab. The cab is way better. Just for a little bit I’d sell the Komatsu and buy something with a cab. The Komatsu is a nice pre emission machine otherwise I probably would have already done that.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

The roll up door is nice in it’s own way. It’s kinda aggravating but that trade off is much better than the alternative option of a swing out door. I’ve been very happy with my Kubota SVL-75. I’ve had one for several years and just recently sold it and bought another new one. The Kubota is also considerably cheaper than a Deere or Cat.

That price was another thing for me as well, I originally wanted a JD for service and parts reasons, but the price tag made me look at other brands the comparable Kubota was $18k less than the JD and there was just no way that I could justify it.

 

[airbiscuit]

I had a skid steer and liked it, but it has a learning curve and I don't know anyone who has ever operated a skid steer who hasn't put it on its nose at some point.