Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Skid Steers

Ok gents,

Here's my dilemma. Come fall, I'm going to be buying a piece of equipment. Was all set to get a 50ish horse tractor, but after renting a skid steer for a weekend to move a schidt ton of snow I've reconsidered and do believe a skid steer better fits my needs. Basically, I need to be able to move round bales and stack them 2 high, haul bucket loads of gravel, and move snow. Those are the bare bones requirements. In order to have enough ass to lift a round bale with the bucket it'll need to be around 50 horse minimum. It'd be 4wd as well. I'm well versed in 2wd tractors, ran a lot of them, and in fact I have an old Case with a home made bucket that just ain't cutting it anymore. After putting 11-12 hours on that skid steer it really showed me how much quicker it is, and just damned handy for moving snow on my drive way (short wheel base lets be work sideways instead of working angles). Of course there's a 101 other things it'll get used for around here, but the main things are moving snow, moving bales, and moving gravel/top soil.

I've run skid steers some, more than some, far less than many and while I'm handy enough driving them, I don't know jack about what brand, size, option, etc are better or worse than others. And maintenance, which brands are cheaper to work on than others?

Any input would be appreciated. Damned sure going to be a used piece of equipment, as I'm only looking to spend 20-25k at most.

Jason

They've got a lot going for them not the least of which is the drive train in tight spots being able to turn around on the length of the machine has big advantages. I've used one to feed a little saw mill I had and I have a skid steer mower it takes a little getting used to but after that you can make the things talk.

Problem with a skid steer though is you need fairly hard ground, if there's any mud or soft ground on your place you'll be wishing you had a tractor pretty quick. But if the grounds OK you can do lots with that bucket and fast as you say. There's a dizzying array of attachments for the things too, hammers, packers, grinders you name it. I'd say if you don't need to plow a field or mow with it and the ground is firm give a skid steer a hard look. I'm no expert but it seems to me the guys that make a living with them run the original, the Bobcat about 3/4 of the time. From what I've heard the hydrostatic drive is about bomb proof in them. Not to say some of the newbies aren't good just what I see and have only run Bobcat myself.

The concrete outfit I used to work for had 3-4 1845 Case skid steers.

They were tough little machines.


I'd love to get one that wasn't all tore to hell.

I use a wheeled Bobcat at work and also have access to a tracked Bobcat. A lot more traction with the tracked one, plus a smoother ride. They'll increase the price by 5-10 thousand though. I'm talking used, haven't even priced the new ones.

The feedlot that we deliver feed to just burned up their 2nd Cat brand skidsteer. Crap builds up around the engine and catches fire. After the first one, he had Cat do all the maintenance on it and it still caught fire. They came out that night with a new one so they do have good service.

There are a lot of attachments for skidsteers now, it's just a matter of how much you want to spend.

I just bought a 1994 753 Bobcat with only 1425 hours on it. It looks pert near new. A one owner. I had to buy it before the end of the year to save a little on my taxes. Really lucked into it.

Good point on the soft ground Salty, I've only used them in soft ground where there was a base not too far down. Nice being able to use the bucket to un stick yourself, have run some tractors that had enough down pressure to do that too. Most of what I'm going to be using it in does have a good base, but most of my place is bottomless swamp in spring. Though to be fair, you can stick a tractor easy enough in that crap too.

At my price point sammo, beat to hell might be all I get. And after fugking with an old tractor, and old plow truck I'm done repairing, and messing with schidt that I either can't fix or is constantly needing fixed. I'll buy a 3rd world new tractor rather than an old U.S. made fixer upper.

yeah, packrat seems if you can dream it up they make it as far as attachments. Mine'll get a fair bit of use, but honestly couple hundred hours a year is about it.

I own a John Deere 320 with hand and foot controls. I really like it and the price I paid was really good since it only had 468 hours on it. I’ve been on Gehl , New Holland, Case, Kubota, Cat, and Bobcat. The older Gehl 5640 and 6640 are really good. The 3 I have run had Perkins engines and would pickup a pallet of sack Crete with ease. new Holland’s are junk in my opinion. Work on it for 3 days to use it 1. Cat is awesome but you pay the Cat price and parts aren’t cheap either. I’d rate the ones I’ve run and used Cat, Case, John Deere, Gehl, Kubota, Bobcat, and New Holland. The top six are really close. They make different controls and to me that was the hardest to learn going from pilot controls to hand foot controls to t handles.

Our 753 Bobcat is a little hinky on snow (particularly packed).
But tractors ain't all that great, either.
The auctions around here seem to run around 14K for almost any skid-steer.

Oh solid rubber tires are great on pavement or concrete but not so much on anything remotely soft. Steel tracks are great if you can afford them and wear earplugs.

I've used Cat, Gehl, and Bobcat and they are all decent machines. You can get a tracked machine or one can run tracks around the rubber tires. There's much less cost and maintenance on an rubber tire vehicle compared to an track only vehicle.

Any way you slice it the amount of attachments available for the skid steer is mind boggling. That is the beauty of these machines.

Personally I have an small 4wd hobby tractor with back scrapper and blade and front bucket. It's alright, but I would much rather have a skid steer.

Just bought a new Holland ls190. 2-speed, 85HP, lifts 3000 lbs, weighs 8700lbs so still easy to haul with a gasser. Easy loads my dump truck with 4' sides on it, probably 7' ish tall. If going new with wheels I'd go new Holland or gehl.
General purpose, I'd do wheels. Excavating/digging most of the time I'd go tracks.
Takeuchi and Kubota both makes an awesome track machine. Gehl/new Holland has really good lift capacity to weight ratios. Bobcat has broad dealer support. Case are tough as nails. I didn't like the cat's I've ran. Never operated a deere.

As long as you don't need to run a plow or disc, the skid steer will do just about anything the tractor will and do it faster. I'm renting a Deere 326e right now, with a Vail X brush cutter on the front. I use it for initial clearing of rough areas, so I don't have to beat the hell out of my tractor. It's nice being able to cut stuff without having to run over it first. Using the bucket on a skid steer is WAY faster than my tractor, too. You can actually see what you're doing with the skid steer, rather than dealing with the obstructed view of the tractor. Think about whether you'll have a need for high flow hydraulics or not. Some of the mulchers/brush cutters require them.

The skid steer WILL tear the heck out of your yard if you get in soft areas or don't take care to turn slowly. They are also hard to near impossible to operate in soft or wet ground. If you're working in soft areas a lot, you really need to consider a tracked machine.

Definitely look at getting a closed cab if you're gonna use a brush cutter or mulcher. Also will be much better in dusty work or cold/hot weather.

Wish I could give you more info. I've run older Case's, and newer Bobcats and Deere's. I wouldn't mess with anything old with the foot controls, unless I was getting a heck of a deal. The price's seem to be pretty high, even for used ones, anymore. I see very few decent modern machines for less than $20k, anymore. $30k plus certainly seems the norm for NICE used machines these days.

Don't own one but a friend has one of the larger Bobcats - and have used it for a wide variety of tasks. It is nimble and quick, handles heavy loads, raises stuff way up and runs attachments that do good things (forks, buckets, auger, cement mixer, etc.) and we have moved a good bit of road/driveway snow quickly. But, have never used it on a mushy/sinking surface - although my tractors can get stuck in that stuff.

Take a close look at high the bucket goes up. On NH or similar designs, the bucket when all the way up remains extended out past the skid steer. Avoid ones where the bucket comes back over the skid steer when raising it. Most skid steers pivot lifting arms on their rear. NH design pivots them on center of skid steer.

Come North with your $$$$ and get 25% more bang for your buck.

We have a backhoe attachment and an auger attachment for ours - the down pressure is really nice when drilling. It's nice not having to pull, or dig out a buried auger, that broke a shear pin.
12 and 18 inch buckets for the backhoe handle most of what we do.
Once, I even saw a grader attachment for a Bobcat. That would be nice to have.

You can get a pretty decent machine for the money you want to spend. A skid steer will run circles around a 50hp tractor unless you want to pull an attachment or have a race to the next farm.
The little tractor will likely have about the same size front tire as a SS so same difference for flotation while loaded.
Find one with 12" wide rubber, that makes a huge difference. Steel tracks are fairly cheap but they tear the crap out of your lawn. 1750# lift capacity or a bit larger for what you want to do. Much bigger and you can't haul them behind a pick-up on a car trailer.
If you don't need A/C, electronic controls, keyless start and all that other BS, stay away. Way cheaper to buy and maintain.
Every brand/model/series had their good and bad days. I won't work on older Bobcats or newer Cats unless I'm getting dealer wages. The LX series New Hollands are pretty bulletproof as are the Gehl and Mustang machines. Plain, simple working units. Don't let a dealer talk you into a bunch of options you won't use in your 2-300 hours a year as they will cost you money even sitting still. Two-speed is nice if you travel more than across the yard. High-flow is only needed for a snowblower or other high hp attachments.
Under 1000hrs will be a nice tight machine. 4000hrs is getting up there on a SS. They are still working but expect to start replacing lots of components if they haven't been already.

I saw a video of one with a firewood attachment, I forget exactly how it worked but basically you put a log on a cradle and the thing pulled the log bucked and split it and puked firewood out the other end. Crazy.

Timely topic as I have been shopping around for another skid steer. This Gehl 4625 SX was bought used in 1999 and has been low maintenance and a strong runner.



I have operated other brands and recently tested some used ones. I am going to stick with a Gehl and ready to pull the trigger on a 2008 5240 with 1400 hours on it.