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Skid Steers

W

Willow Springs

Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2013
Messages
5
Location
Alberta
On my father in laws place we used a skid steer for just about everything. It had big flotation tires and we almost never got stuck. Tractor hardly left the shop. I am planning to get one myself, but the one I used 15 years ago was 15 years old then. Need some info on new models.

For those of you that have used Skid Steers for farm work what would you reccomend. It will be used mainly for pushing snow, manure, dirt, cleaning sheds/barns and feeding. Needs to be good in a lot of snow and mud. Also should I get Tires or Track?

Thanks.
 
Definitely get tracks. It's the best way to go for work like you described.
 
I am a great fan of skid steers - - - I have ( and do ) owned several from the first one I bought ( and still have at my son's farm )

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This is a 1975 Model 700 BobCat with a 25 HP V4 Wisconsin gas engine. It is easy to get stuck in mud.

I had a 7753 BobCat that I traded and can't find pictures of but we went from it to a 328 John Deere
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It had heat but I hated the door lifting over my head, it was a pain and with rubber tires it is still not good in mud.

My son traded it for a 326D John Deere with heat and air and radio but still tires.

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[/url]We had to let the air out of the tires to get it in the church for Restroom remodeling.
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But my all time favorite is my 277 Cat with hi flotation tracks - - - smoothest ride of any I have ever driven and will go just about anywhere.

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It seems like I find something different it will help me with every day.

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If you can find a 277 Cat you might get it at a bargain as they have bearing problems in the undercarriage - - - Call me and I will tell you how to update very cheaply and you will have a great machine!
 
Yeah - we use ours literally every day for something.

I agree tracks are nice. An option I wanted but when the deal on this one came along I could not turn it down.

Ours is a New Holland L170 - on wheels - got about 180 hours on it now.

I was going to go with the next model up but it was about three inches too high to fit into a few places and about six or eight inches too wide to fit through a couple of doors.

I figured for brand new and with three different buckets I could not go wrong at 29,000 bucks - so it is in the shed now. Cab, heat and air.

Hard to find any good used ones around here - usually beat pretty bad so for the first time ever we went new.

Nice machine - no matter what breed you get be sure to put heat and air into it.

You will appreciate that some winter or hot summer day.

What I can say is this - I now wonder how we ever got around this place without it.

Be sure to get the extra hydraulics - makes it nice if you have to handle wrapped bales with a squeeze vs a regular bale fork - no holes to patch!

And be sure to get the added weights on the back - mine came without me asking as it was already installed - accidental good fortune.

I can clean pens faster and better than with a tractor. I can get into the barns - I can move and stack bales faster in tight places than with a tractor. And man will it move snow.

No matter the model you choose I can almost guarantee you that it will be used a lot.

Best to all

bc
 
I have never used a track machine, but I know where one is, if needed. I don't own one with tires either, but have several hours in several models. I liked the JD best, but with more practice, the Cat with twin joysticks would probably have been more efficient.
Like any tool, you keep finding more you can do with it. If I only had three toys to ranch with, a skidsteer would be number three. My list is one stock trailer too short, but I'd figure something out.
 
My opinion run as fast as you can away from the john deere skid loaders I had one and it was a lemon Never put many hours on it as it was always breaking down then it caught fire and burned. Replaced it with a used Cat 236b2 now thats a machine I paid $16,000 for it with a touch over 1700 hours new tires and wheels and a new bucket. I have steel tracks I can put on but don't very often they are hard on tires and for what I do I get by without them.Mine was used in a concrete plant and was filthy it had concrete dust/slime all over it soaked it down with vinager and an SOS pad and it cleaned up very nicely.I put about a 100 hours a month on it in the winter and about 6 hours on it all summer.
 
have been watching this thread with much interest....

how do you guys that feed with them handle getting in and out, opening and closing numerous gates, cutting twine or net wrap off etc.?
 
hayguy said:
have been watching this thread with much interest....

how do you guys that feed with them handle getting in and out, opening and closing numerous gates, cutting twine or net wrap off etc.?
Click to expand...

Amen! I use the City's 185 Bobcat quite often, and have run a brand new 326(?) JD (the biggest Deere makes).and getting in & out several times in the course of what I'm doing takes ALL the fun out of it.
While any of them can be handier than a pocket in a shirt, they are also a PITA to get in and out of......Don't know about NH or CAT, but they probably aren't much different in that department, either.
If you had help to open & close gates & cut twine, etc., they would be perfect....but I have a feeling that the majority of us here are one man bands.
 
hayguy said:
have been watching this thread with much interest....

how do you guys that feed with them handle getting in and out, opening and closing numerous gates, cutting twine or net wrap off etc.?
Click to expand...

About 9 or 10 months of the year I leave the door off the 277 Cat - - - the heater and air conditioner are good enough that they keep me comfortable.

When the door is on it is a little harder but still the whole job is much easier than any tractor loader I have used.

JCB makes a skid steer that only has one arm and the door is on the left like a pick-up truck - - - I tested one but the tracks did not have suspension and I guess I'm spoiled by the floating feeling with the Cat as I don't need the constant jarring from rubber tires or rigid tracks.
 
loomixguy said:
hayguy said:
have been watching this thread with much interest....

how do you guys that feed with them handle getting in and out, opening and closing numerous gates, cutting twine or net wrap off etc.?
Click to expand...

Amen! I use the City's 185 Bobcat quite often, and have run a brand new 326(?) JD (the biggest Deere makes).and getting in & out several times in the course of what I'm doing takes ALL the fun out of it.
While any of them can be handier than a pocket in a shirt, they are also a PITA to get in and out of......Don't know about NH or CAT, but they probably aren't much different in that department, either.
If you had help to open & close gates & cut twine, etc., they would be perfect....but I have a feeling that the majority of us here are one man bands.
Click to expand...


The cat is alot better for getting in and out of than The John Deere 250 I joked that it was like falling into your coffin every time you got into it.
 
I have a tracked ASV70. ASV is now Terrex, and I'm not sure if they even make a 70 now. I have a 84 inch rock bucket, with grapple, a smooth bucket, 60" pallet forks, a post hole digger, with 3 bits, and now a 6 way blade on the front of it.
The 70 is a mid sized machine, and in sand, I can move more dirt then I can with my antiquated D-4. Its just that much faster. I think it will handle 3600 pounds, easy. I have picked up 2 ton of bagged feed, but it gets pretty nose heavy then.
It won't totally replace a tractor, but come real close!!
We bought this one 3 years ago. Its a 2007, and had 400 hours on it when we got it. Think we got it for about $20,000. Now with all the attachments, we have about doubled that, but the attachments will last for ever.
 
LazyWP said:
I have a tracked ASV70. ASV is now Terrex, and I'm not sure if they even make a 70 now. I have a 84 inch rock bucket, with grapple, a smooth bucket, 60" pallet forks, a post hole digger, with 3 bits, and now a 6 way blade on the front of it.
The 70 is a mid sized machine, and in sand, I can move more dirt then I can with my antiquated D-4. Its just that much faster. I think it will handle 3600 pounds, easy. I have picked up 2 ton of bagged feed, but it gets pretty nose heavy then.
It won't totally replace a tractor, but come real close!!
We bought this one 3 years ago. Its a 2007, and had 400 hours on it when we got it. Think we got it for about $20,000. Now with all the attachments, we have about doubled that, but the attachments will last for ever.
Click to expand...

It sure is easy to get money tied up in attachments - - - We probably have about 6 buckets, 4 sets of forks, 2 grapple buckets, a 5' roto tiller, 2 seven foot bush hogs, backhoe attachment, one rock bucket, 2 tree shears, 2 sets of bale spears. I bid on an 8' 6 way dozer blade but did not get it - - - don't know I really needed it but I was not going to let it go cheap. This is with 3 skid steers so that we don't have to keep moving them from place to place - - - handy to have one loading hay and another one to unload. The old 700 BobCat has the least capability ( no heat or air and only about 2,500# of lift ) but I doubt it would bring much so we just keep it around.
 

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