Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Which new(er) skidsteer?

Ford 8n with a hitch scoop

A CAT or comparable hi flow with a forestry mulcher will make things pictured above look like tonka toys

Whatever works for the job and your budget

Nothing but time

Is Ren Fiddy standing in the scoop with an electric chain saw?

LMAO

Nawww

Wortuh hose and a grubbin hoe

And Miracle Gro ? Didn’t he eat it the first time you showed it to him ?

Pop rocks man, mix it in your Hawaiian Punch

That's all we've bought for the last 15 years and their rubber track models are flawless. I would have to have a really good salesman to sell me on something else after 15 years of experience with them.

Son in Law has had a couple case wheeled units for over ten years. He recently leased a couple Kubota tracked units. I see they both have his Company decals on them now, so they must be off lease.

I guess that means he likes them a lot. Otherwise, they would have gone back.

I researched the hell out of the subject about a year ago. It came down between the Kubota and Cat. I went with the Cat 289D3. A year later and I am very pleased with the machine. I was worried about it being underpowered by the 75 HP engine. It has plenty of power and you don't have to mess with def and the related problems. Go Cat and don't look back.

I have a NH LS190.b
Seat belt sucks. Had to replace the whole system last week after the safety failed and locked the system.

If your are even thinking JCB I'd make sure you talk to someone who has one and has some hours on it.Don't know about their skid steers but have a 10 year old back hoe at work bought new lots of problems.The old saying JCB Junk Constantly Broke applies to it.

One thing a forestry mulcher does, is cut trees and brush off at the ground, leaving a stump in every case.

Those stumps grow back in lots of tree species, plus, you cannot use ground engaging equipment with stumps like land mines everywhere. Well, you can, but you see why you shouldn't, the first time you hit one.

I have a Tak TL8 w/ the 3307 Kubota engine. Same motor as the Kubota SVL75-2.

The Tak has been great for me. Never felt underpowered. The SVL75-2 has more auxiliary control options on the joysticks. I’ve put a lot of hours on a SVL and they do have better visibility.

Both are hydraulic over hydraulic iso controls. Easy to work. F’ foot controls.

The CAT 3.8 is made by Kubota, FYI.

Oh and as mentioned, Tak and Kubota have roll-up doors. Nice to be able to work with the cab open if you want. Was a selling point for me.

Caterpillar. They are the ones that all others are judged by.

There are 2 ways to buy a CAT. 1. through CAT. 2. Through the CAT rental store (same machine, different salesman). I buy used out of the rental fleet. EVERY time that machine comes in it is serviced and maintained by a CAT tech.

adults were having a conversation. you have so much to say but so little to add

I'm probably not a good person to ask because I've never shopped around. My attitude is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've always had nothing but Bobcats and have been pleased with them. My machines run 7:00am until 4:00pm Monday through Friday and 7:00am until 12:00 on Saturdays. They never stop, but we're just using them to load trucks. No real digging or excavating. I've got 3 of them right now. There's a large landscape company that's one of the largest in the country and they have a contract with Bobcat where they lease them during the Winter and park them in commercial parking lots for snow removal and leave them there all Winter. When the Springtime comes, they turn them in and the Bobcat Dealer sells them off as "used" at a discount with no hours on them. I think that the last 4 machines I bought were that way. The past few were financed through Bobcat at 0% for 48 months. That's a deal. The last couple were loaded with a cab enclosure and AC.

I got talked into a New Holland one time back in the early 2000's. My guys ran that thing into the ground.

If I were going to look elsewhere, I'm a big Cat fan for wheel loaders. You can't go wrong with Caterpillar.

A high school buddy in Hawaii runs a Cat with a forestry mulcher and has been pleased with it. I need to give him a call and see what he can tell me.