What to look for in a Skid Steer.

[Lineman North Florida]

I love my Kubota SVL 75-2, it's been flawless and I am able to service it myself , so it's not to bad.

 

[scootr]

I bought a 773 Bobcat with 6k hours on it. That's a lot of hours but I knew the owner and his maintenance schedule was per the manufacturer. 10 yrs later I replaced a hose and a battery. I'm pretty easy on equipment because if it breaks I have to fix it. 6K is about my recommended limit. I typically lean towards low hours and miles on used equipment. Of course it depends up previous use and maintenance. GL in your search

 

[RayIN]

What are the results of the land survey for after removal of those small trees and brush? You said it's all a slope, removing underbrush and smaller trees results in erosion and practically eliminates new trees to replace the present trees as they mature and die.

 

[scootr]

What are the results of the land survey for after removal of those small trees and brush? You said it's all a slope, removing underbrush and smaller trees results in erosion and practically eliminates new trees to replace the present trees as they mature and die.

And won't the livestock want a few trees to shade up under in summer and block the wind in winter? You probably didn't mean you wanted to clear cut a hillside...
IDK, their your cows.

 

[RayIN]

And won't the livestock want a few trees to shade up under in summer and block the wind in winter? You probably didn't mean you wanted to clear cut a hillside...
IDK, their your cows.

That's not me, I'm not CyberCop.

 

[jk96]

Good info to know. What would you/all recommend?

Really hard to say on what brand of CTL. I've heard good and bad on them all. Everyone says stay away from Case because of wiring issues, maybe that's just the older units or maybe I'm lucky. I'm on my third Case, keep upgrading in size. Never had a wiring issue. In eight years I've had one injector failure covered under warranty, and a hardline hydraulic failure that was fairly expensive, $1400 due to being in the belly of the unit and the amount of labor to get to it. I've heard deer owners say stay away from Kubota and Kubota owners say they would never own a deer. I would look at dealer support first. Are they close, do they have a competent shop. If they are moving a lot of equipment they probably are working on a lot as well and have some experience. I would also stay away from any unit that has been used for forestry work. That type of work is very hard on equipment.

 

[spitter]

Takeuchi or Gehle with a Yamar engine and pre-emissions machine with low hrs. would be the holy grail for a part timer who wants to fix his own ****. But very hard to find. Don't even consider a Bobcat after 05. All CTLs with emission garbage are hampered by the same problems. If you stick with a pilot-controlled machine you eliminate a ton of wiring which is always the bain of any piece of old equipment.

 

[aircommuter]

Crawler loader with a 4 in 1. Like an older Case 855d or bigger. No substitute for weight and torque. Wasting time is a bad idea since you can never get it back.

 

[4570Man]

Crawler loader with a 4 in 1. Like an older Case 855d or bigger. No substitute for weight and torque. Wasting time is a bad idea since you can never get it back.

I somewhat disagree. I have a 30,000 pound dozer and it will do more work in 5 minutes than a skid steer will in an hour but an old school track loader is a hard beast to tame. I had a 955 track loader for about a month and decided it wasn’t for me. A rear engine track loader with HST drive would be a different beast but that’s lot more money. It would take years of experience to be good on the 955 and I’m not sure it would ever operate at the precision a skid steer can. A skid steer is easy to run and someone with minimal experience can do good results.

 

[CyberCop]

And won't the livestock want a few trees to shade up under in summer and block the wind in winter? You probably didn't mean you wanted to clear cut a hillside...
IDK, their your cows.

I plan on leaving the larger trees for shade and not all is a slope. When I'm done I am looking at 10 to 15 acres of flat and gentle slopes. The rest is a hill side.