Tracked Skid Steer or Tractor?

Cat_Driver · Feb 23, 2017

Years ago when I was looking for a new tractor someone mentioned a track skid steer. I though hmmmm, why not. It was the best decision I ever made. Don't let people scare you about maintenance. Actually There was more maintenance with my wheeled tractor because I always got flats that were costly and also cost me a day of no work while the repairs were getting made. Never got a flat on the tracks. I goy stuck more often than with my skid steer.Skid steer lifted twice as much as my tractor. Maneuverability can not be beat in a track skid steer, turning 180 degrees saved me more than I can count. Stability was a no brainer over a tractor. Bottom like if your a farmer get a tractor, for everything else a track loader is the only way to go.

Grandad4 · Feb 23, 2017

jeff9366 said:
PTO powered Logging Winch is an inspired suggestion. You can definitely winch yourself out of any bog, until the winch is submerged.

Agree with that. We used a PTO winch for several years and it was a great worksaver. These winches will have 150 - 250 ft. of line (depending on the brand), so you might even be able to build 1 or 2 trails on your 5 acres and pull trees to the tractor without going off into the muck. You'll be doing plenty of chainsaw work and you still have the slash disposal problem, but a winch does offer a good way to get the trees out without tearing the ground up so much.

Snobdds · Feb 23, 2017

AKRazn said:
The problem I see with a mini X is one the cost for such a specific machine. Once the land is cleared I would like to build gravel paths, move rocks on the beach for a better landing move firewood from winter kill deadfall, get pallets forks to help unload the boat for when we start the construction on the house.

The other part of this equation is that when we do get ready to build the house I plan to hire one of the larger landing crafts and bring over the cabin package and a smaller excavator. My step father has a 14K # New Holland that I plan to bring over. I guess another option would be to take the trees down, save the stumps, brush hog everything out as best I can and then once we bring over the big landing craft and house materials we can use the Excavator to remove stumps, and dig footings, water lines etc.

I know it's a lot of money for a purpose built machine, but I did what your doing and my mini ex got it done. The six way blade basically gave me a dozer to level ground. However I can't do without a tractor and sometimes you just need both. I moved an entire hillside to put my cabin back in the aspens, that's where the mini ex excelled. The smaller backhoe did a better job with the pylons because of the size.

4570Man · Feb 23, 2017

What is the budget here? A TLB like the Kubota L45 or a JD110 is pretty much unbeatable in in versatility and strength at that weight. But it'll take a chunk of change to get one. Both of those machines are slightly over your 7,000 pound limit by a few hundred pounds. Since you have 2 landing crafts I'd back the machine on and drop the backhoe and then haul the machine across on the other boat. Then return and get the other boat with the backhoe on it and back on and reinstall your backhoe. You could probably get them under the 7,000 pound weight by just dropping the FEL bucket but that doesn't leave much room for error especially if you haven't actually weighed the machine and are going by posted weight.

olPete · Feb 23, 2017

Cat_Driver said:
Years ago when I was looking for a new tractor someone mentioned a track skid steer. I though hmmmm, why not. It was the best decision I ever made. Don't let people scare you about maintenance. Actually There was more maintenance with my wheeled tractor because I always got flats that were costly and also cost me a day of no work while the repairs were getting made. Never got a flat on the tracks. I goy stuck more often than with my skid steer.Skid steer lifted twice as much as my tractor. Maneuverability can not be beat in a track skid steer, turning 180 degrees saved me more than I can count. Stability was a no brainer over a tractor. Bottom like if your a farmer get a tractor, for everything else a track loader is the only way to go.

Totally agree. As I said, maintenance is probably less up to 5000 hours and then some. I wouldn't go down the tractor route at all, at this stage, especially if the skidsteer was fitted with a 4 in 1 bucket, it would pull a lot of trees out in one or 2 days! Only downside would be to try to kit one out with a whole bunch of different attachments would prove expensive, compared to a tractor with same number of attachments.. but a 4in1 especially with tilt, and you've got a yardful in one.
You get pretty good at pushing yourself out of trouble with all that hydraulic muscle, with all the time saved you'd still be faster IMO.

mogwild · Feb 24, 2017

Reading this entire thread, I'm starting to wonder how much you could get cleared with 7000# of dynamite

This would be right at the weight limit:

Piston · Feb 24, 2017

I don't think a small CTL is the answer. Anything that weighs under 7k pounds isn't going to have enough hydraulic hp (psi and flow) to run any decent sized implements. I would rule that out right off the bat.

What about a Kubota L47? It's the new TLB which I believe weighs more than your limit, but the hoe weighs a good 1,500 pounds, and the bucket around 500 or so. You could take those off, and make two trips like mentioned previously. If you ordered it with high flotation tires or even just turfs, and carefully ran lower pressure in the tires, you would be able to use a light footprint.

I personally think that is the way to go.

mike69440 · Feb 24, 2017

Taking hoe and bucket off an M59 gets you just under 7,000 lbs, Just under. Buy used, these machines are tough.

ovrszd · Feb 24, 2017

mogwild said:
Reading this entire thread, I'm starting to wonder how much you could get cleared with 7000# of dynamite

This would be right at the weight limit:

Those trucks are very impressive and dependable!!!