Skidder or Tractor? If you could only have one.

[inchman]

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??

Here is the definitive answer to this question (as I have thought about it a LOT)!

There are three main considerations-

1-The skid steer is only good if you are NOT working alone. IE you have a crew of people. The reason is that you can't get in or out of a skid steer unless the bucket is up or down completely. Depending on the bucket you are using, it might be very difficult to climb over it. You need to have 'other' people to move something or put something in a bucket, or hook up that chain while you are in the operators seat. Think about how many times you had your front end loader bucket over a big log or rock, got off the seat, hooked up a chain and got back in the seat and moved the item. This isn't always possible with a skid steer because the bucket may prevent you from being able to get out.

2-Next, skid steers do not handle hills an uneven terrain well. So if you are on a hilly farm, they are downright dangerous.

3-The costs and limitations normally make them a poor choice on most home farms.

I'm not knocking skid steers, as they are awesome for what they are good at. They are smaller and can even work inside barns and all. But to have just the loader (no PTO or 3pt hitch) it is not that useful in most home situations.

 

[Hermio]

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??

A tractor is more versatile, but it is not well protected on the underside. If operated in the woods, it is vulnerable to having hydraulic lines pulled out, oil filters ripped off, etc. I had my Mahindra 5035HST modified with a custom-built skid plate to protect the underbelly. It is removable for access. I drag ~4000 lb logs out with it.

 

[Hermio]

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? View attachment 3582119

My Mahindra 5035 will lift 2700#. It is a 49 PTO Hp tractor.

 

[HAR]

Just my 2 cents, but I went through this post 3 times, and the OP 'fidowanttobe' never did clear up the big gnawing question...is he talking about a 'log skidder' or 'skidsteer'. I suspect 'log skidder'. As usual, the conversation has gone all over the place, mostly pitting skid steers against tractors.

Some have honed in on something that my dad always said. Every tool has a specific purpose and use. Many hammers will drive a tack and a spike, but sledge hammers are a bit of over kill for tacks and tack hammers will never drive a railway spike. Get the correct tool for the job to be done. If you only need it once, maybe rent or even borrow (if someone is brave enough to lend). If it is your business, buy.

My nephew manages his 170 acre wood lot that is used in his Maple Sugaring operation. He uses a tractor (L3130) with FEL and a Farmi winch. He has done this now for 14 years with no problems. While he does have a backhoe for the tractor, he did purchase a small tracked mini excavator for specific uses. For the tractor, he also has a bush hog, snowblower, flail mower, and york rake. Again, each tool has a specific use and job.

 

[Mister3]

Just my 2 cents, but I went through this post 3 times, and the OP 'fidowanttobe' never did clear up the big gnawing question...is he talking about a 'log skidder' or 'skidsteer'. I suspect 'log skidder'. As usual, the conversation has gone all over the place, mostly pitting skid steers against tractors.

Some have honed in on something that my dad always said. Every tool has a specific purpose and use. Many hammers will drive a tack and a spike, but sledge hammers are a bit of over kill for tacks and tack hammers will never drive a railway spike. Get the correct tool for the job to be done. If you only need it once, maybe rent or even borrow (if someone is brave enough to lend). If it is your business, buy.

My nephew manages his 170 acre wood lot that is used in his Maple Sugaring operation. He uses a tractor (L3130) with FEL and a Farmi winch. He has done this now for 14 years with no problems. While he does have a backhoe for the tractor, he did purchase a small tracked mini excavator for specific uses. For the tractor, he also has a bush hog, snowblower, flail mower, and york rake. Again, each tool has a specific use and job.

Pretty sure he meant this type of skidder

 

[bsekf]

Nobody has talked about price. We are talking about 3 different machines, 4wd tractor /FEL, a skid steer and a skidder. I just bought a nearly new 55 hp 4wd tractor/FEL for $25K. Couldn't even look at the other 2 pieces of equipment for less than $50K each. My Mahindra 5155 FEL has skid steer quick hitch and if I could add a front hyd pump* so I could run a skid steer harley rake and a brush cutter, I would have all the bases covered with one piece of equipment. I already have a 3 point log winch and a Kubota 7030 to recover with. Built a quick hitch york rake and a quick hitch 8' snow plow blade.

*Is there an after market front hyd pump?

 

[dolfisherman]

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??

I plow, shred, plant some large food plots, cut, rake, and bale a little hay. So a tractor was necessary for me. I have a bucket, grapple, hay spear, and a free puller for the tractor. But there are times when I need a skid loader, such as pulling larger mesquite trees or really clearing a brushy area. I rent one when I've got about a weeks worth of work for it.

 

[sd455dan]

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

Sold the skid steer as well, much happier with a 55HP tractor and a 60HP TLB

 

[aircommuter]

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.

You can do that with a skid steer too.

 

[aircommuter]

A skid steer is not the most stable loader. A crawler loader is a very stable all purpose machine. I always got a lot work done with one machine like that. But they aren’t designed for very many attachments. Just depends on what type of work you do.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I'm on the skidsteer side.
I've been wanting a skidsteer for leveling dirt for 50 years.

I wouldn't even think about using the skid steer for that, even though I have all the necessary parts and adapters to run 3-point stuff on the skid steer.

For leveling dirt, gravel, etc. I much prefer using the tractor pulling one of these two.

If there's no real precision needed, either the snow pusher or my made-towable 3-point blade also works well. As does a box blade behind the tractor.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

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.

You can do that with a skid steer too.

Yes, for the most part I could, just not nearly as efficiently. I thought I explained why in the post you quoted, but maybe not clearly?

 

[jrsavoie]

I wouldn't even think about using the skid steer for that, even though I have all the necessary parts and adapters to run 3-point stuff on the skid steer.

For leveling dirt, gravel, etc. I much prefer using the tractor pulling one of these two. View attachment 3631584

View attachment 3631585

If there's no real precision needed, either the snow pusher or my made-towable 3-point blade also works well. As does a box blade behind the tractor.
View attachment 3631620

Where I want to level, I don't have room for all that. Neither the backhoe or Little Kubota LX2610 fit well.
I'd never buy less than a 40 hp again. I find the LX2610 to be worthless.

My wife wanted me to have something that didn't need worked on. That only lasted until it needed serviced.

we should have bought older and bigger. Or smaller framed

Or just got a skid loader at that time. We were replacing a John Deere 400 garden tractor.

I.need to find a roving mechanic near Clifton, Illinois

I also have fill to dump over a foundation wall.

 

[lilranch2001]

Like asking:

"If you could have only one screwdriver..."

"If you could have only one size socket..."

Bruce

Or only one woman!!

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I keep seeing it posted in this thread about not being able to get out of the skidsteer if the bucket or attachment is raised and while that may be true with some brands, but there are 2 brands that have overhead roll up doors and you can exit the cab no matter what the position of the loader arms. This was a must for me when I bought my skid steer, there is another brand that has side entry into the cab , so there are options out there to negate that point that continues to come up.

 

[Jwmaustin]

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??

I thought about this quite a lot, and I have concluded that I could make use of a skid steer versus one of my tractors. When purchasing my second I thought about the skid steer and was encouraged by my wife among others, but like everyone here seems to say I thought Tractor was more appropriate to our role living. But since I do have two machines I think would be a skid steer I think gives me the best of both worlds

So, my rationale is that I already have a small tractor. The skid steer would be big enough to take over duties of the bigger tractor and give me the best of both worlds.

Why do I like the skidsteer.? It’s got a higher lifting capability for loading trucks. It’s got a more visibility to the front. The way is designed it can turn literally on a dime. The hoe attachment as far as I can tell will do everything the backhoe on my bigger tractor does plus you can actually raise the lift arms and dig higher up on a bank or over a wall, etc.

I believe the hydraulics on the skid steers that I’ve seen are superior to ones on my green machines and can operate front hydraulic equipment better.

By the way, those of us in the industry, (I’m associated with Cummins and others) are pretty clear what a skidsteer is.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Why do I like the skidsteer.? It’s got a higher lifting capability for loading trucks. It’s got a more visibility to the front.

As mentioned earlier, in my case the tractor lifts higher, plus it allows me to see where the load ends up when using a dump trailer.

For a small field of view, yes the skid steer does offer better visibility up close. With the tractor I can see 360, it has usable mirrors, and only the hood can really hide anything. If I forget what I drove up to, I deserve to run into it.

I'd give the tractor an A for visibility and the skid steer a D-.

 

[Sportsman762]

I keep seeing it posted in this thread about not being able to get out of the skidsteer if the bucket or attachment is raised and while that may be true with some brands, but there are 2 brands that have overhead roll up doors and you can exit the cab no matter what the position of the loader arms. This was a must for me when I bought my skid steer, there is another brand that has side entry into the cab , so there are options out there to negate that point that continues to come up.

If the bucket is partially up such as loading stuff in a truck bed, your still stuck with crawling out under the loader arm (dangerous) or over the loader arm. With a tractor your mounting and dismounting does not change regardless of were the loader is. My experience is mostly in open station skid steers. You do bring up a good point regarding cabbed skidsteers.