Build or Buy Skid Steer, wide or narrow?

[4570Man]

Except I'm going to have to spend money on fixing rusted cylinders, abandon the tracked idea entirely spend another good chunk on steel, hoses and come up with a plan to hopefully drive each side independently with hydraulic motors which I have. After I've probably got 5k in this thing it's almost certainly inferior to a real mini excavator and has a very low resale value. Another big problem with home built machines is pretty much the whole system relies on a bunch of cobbled together parts that can't be replaced. I'd rather fork over more cash for a machine that works and if I found a good deal has near 100 percent resale value. I never had a spread sheet of expenses but I pretty much broke even on my L3240 tractor after using it 700 hours and it was much nicer than anything I could build. At least for less money.

 

[bdog]

Curious what you do for a living. You don’t have to answer but unless you work for below minimum wage you are going to spend more of your time on this than it will be worth. Is it possible to do? Sure. Is it a wise reasonable endeavor? No. Building a skid steer from scratch will take thousands and thousands of dollars in parts and hundreds of hours of time. I am all for building things yourself I have built a ton of things myself but at line has to be drawn somewhere on what is practical and what is a waste of time. You can rent skid steers for cheap. Rent one for a few days and see how much you get done.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great, I guess the collective wisdom here has shifted since I rebuilt my Case tractor to have electronic fuel injected controls.
The DIY capable crowd has gone somewhere else?

First, I'm a huge fan of DIY and love following a thread by somebody who tackles the unusual and unique projects!!! Sadly, they never seem to finish any of the build it yourself tractor threads, or even the super cheap tractor rebuild threads. The money hole just keeps swallowing until it becomes too much and the entire project is abandoned. A few guys in Easter Europe have posts tractors that they have build themselves that actually function, but they are really just beefed up riding lawn mowers with a front bucket to puck up a few hundred pounds at a time that will more then likely break down once a week.

Why don't you use your Case tractor for this project?

 

[nimblemotors]

someone built this...

 

[Sebculb]

When you said that buying used for $10,000 isn't in the cards, do you realize that for that amount, you are looking at a worn out, gonna break down, money pit?

Iｴm in this category with an old backhoe right now. Getting really tired of the nonsense. Iｴm actually fantasizing about building a backhoe or something to replace it that all works on cables and linkages and clutches and big heavy gears. none of these solenoids and overgrown electrically controlled automatic transmissions. Probably just fantasizing but with the pic that the original poster put up of that black skid steer someone built it's adding fuel to the fire.

 

[Sebculb]

someone built this...

View attachment 545121

Did they say how much it cost to build?

 

[joeu235]

Good Luck!! You can buy a really good skid steer for $15K, but building your own might be fun.

 

[Sodo]

Rent. Youæ±*e talking barely half an acre. Why on earth would you go thru the hassle for something that can be done in a day or two if youæ±*e very slow.

Even if it was 5acres I think anything you build would still be way more trouble than it was worth and not to accuse you of hobbling things together but not many people would want a explorer skid steer contraption. You壇 be the only one that knew how it worked and would get penny痴 on the dollar to what you had in it

Brett

All true. Except a skid steer is a high-performance and dangerous machine geared towards max productivity by an experienced user. It takes a half a day to get where you're not just making a mess. I used one that was old and rickety, the controls did not self-center at neutrals, and the operator safety cutoff was removed entirely. I was shitting bricks for half a day. It was probably far better than anyone could construct even for $10,000. And for $10,000 you can test it first, and walk away if you don't like it, go look at a different one.

Might be efficient to start building a new skidsteer from an old skidsteer.

 

[Zick]

Did they say how much it cost to build?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/39418-home-built-skid-loader.html

The builder say's less than $2K but also said most of the cost was hydraulics. Didn't say if he bought all the steel new or had some laying around.
Also this thread is from 2004 (didn't say when he actually built it, could have been many years before) and we all know how steel prices have been lately.

I find it hard to believe you could build something like that today using all new material for under $2K.
I built a Harley rake for my tractor which is all mechanical about 4yrs ago and it cost me about $1500 which would be way less material than a skidsteer!

 

[finn1]

Consider that the manufacturers have hundreds of engineers, sofisticated finite element programs, massive proving grounds and field test programs, and still end up with warranty claims, you sound somewhat naive.

I bought a five year old skid steer with 750 hours, used it for eight years and 300 hours, and traded it in on my Kioti for exactly what I paid eight years ago.

The dealer resold it within a month. His asking price was $3k more than I paid.

Buy a good used skid steer, or rent.