skid steers

I'm looking to buy a skid steer. It will only be used for occasional hobby use. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a track machine or over the rubber tire machine or even just a tire machine. It would be used for dirt use. What's everybody thoughts? Thank you.

Soil type is a variable. sand, wet sand, loam, clay dry clay wet (not good). Digging, smoothing, loading each is somewhat different. Fro clay with moisture Tracks On the rubber tire or straight tracks. for dry clay or compacted soil tires are OK but not great. On pavement or compacted gravel tires are better. Jim

Thats what i'd say if your not on gravel or a man made surface i would recommend tracks. However they come at a fair bit more cost so of you dont mind taking smaller bites and shallower cuts a wheeled machine will server you well anywhere that aint wet

I dug a lot of dirt with my Bobcat S205. I put over the tire tracks on for winter and spring. that machine ran mostly every day to run the post driver for our fence business. I then got a bobcat T 590. I will not own another tire machine for the work we do. That said, all three styles have their strengths and weaknesses. If i was not on hills and soft ground the majority of the time i think a tire machine would work OK. Tires run cheaper than tracks if you factor in the undercarriage of the track loader. Tires are more user friendly and ride smoother.
We used slime in our tires to reduce down time from punctures
Hope this helps,
Andy

I have an old Gehl skid loader. It's on wheels and, even with our usually wet, sinky ground, I still prefer wheels to tracks.

Tracks offer more floatation, but also have more wear parts that can cost quite a bit to buy parts for. The tracks, themselves, are quite expensive. If money isn't an object for you, you might like a track loader better. But personally, I'll take a wheeled unit first every time. You can also buy no-flat tires for wheeled units so that you will never have to worry about flats -- EVER!

Well this is what is happening , the skid steer market is going to tracks at 10 % or m ore each year. This last year 86% of the new KUBOTAS sold were track units. Must be important to some users for sure. But for occasional use you probably can get buy with tires , that unit will definitely be cheaper in cost to purchase.

Depending upon exactly what your hobby/''dirt use'' consists of, if not a huge ''contractor type'' operation, have you considered a modern utility or compact utility with front wheel assist and a hydro transmission?

They will move a reasonable amount of dirt and you don't have to crawl over the bucket & whatever's in it to get on and off and you don't have to lower the bucket to the ground for access to get on and off, which can be a handy thing sometimes.

buy a tractor with FWD dont ripe the ground up every time you turn a lot easier to fix and to get on and off and a lot faster have a Kubota mx5800 and a case 1845c Kobota is the go to machine also the skid steer is heavy just my 2 cents worth

When my little 70 JD went to pot I replaced it with a brand new 1025r compact tractor. Best thing I ever did. 1/4 price of a new skidder. I had to put fluid in the rear tires so now it will out dig the 70. Faster on the road, don't dig up the yard when turning, rides smoother, easier on and off.

If you will ever be loading dirt into vehicles or dump trailers I do not like skid steers. I have a 77" wide dump trailer, and none of the skid steers that have ever loaded it were able to reach the center of the trailer for proper load distribution. The side walls are 24" high. Every skid steer load would end up piled up against my side walls and with only 2-3500lbs axles cause me tons of headaches pulling. Front end loader tractors never had any problems with reaching the center line nor any pivot type traditional loaders. Only had problems on yards with skid steers.

I have a track machine and will say they will do jobs that a rubber tire machine can not start to do and will go when a tired machine is bogged down and stuck
Tracks are pricy, $2200 per side for my machine, but if used properly the tracks will out last several sets of tires. Put new tracks on mine 15 years ago, replaced one last year but that was my fault
A couple of places rubber tracks are not good is on a hill with wet grass or a muddy slope.
A good all around option would be a tired machine with steel tracks one could install when needed
For job site maneuverability and speed nothing beats a skid steer

I hired my neighbor to do some yard work with his Wheeled BobCat.
It tore the crap out of my lawn and put deep ruts in my yard.
I never bought a bobcat because of that.

The amish or mennonites who built my pole barn used a track skidder. The ground was covered with snow.
No damage to my lawn.
I noticed a lot of cracks in the rubber tracks.

My tree trimmer uses a track skidder. He knows not to turn in the yard. He only goes back and forth. He turns when he gets to the driveway.

I would recommend a small backhoe for dirt work.

Consider the weight of a backhoe and skidder.
Backhoes don't damage the grass when you turn like a skidder does.

Hire someone with a skidder and see if you really want one.

I worked for the county parks and we went from a wheel to a track. Wheel was smoother on the operator. Tracks are bone jarring. Tracks will go places tires wont. Buuuuut, those tracks were constantly falling off and a 2 man pain to put them on. We tentsioned them almost every time we went out with it. It became necessary to bring a grease gun and pry bars and 2 extra tubes of grease with us at all times. But they will go places. Glad it wasnt on my dime.

A full sized backhoe is one of the most versatile machines you can have on the farm/homestead. Since they are not the most efficient machine for many tasks they are also relatively affordable used as most every big construction project has a bunch of tracked excavators working and one stray backhoe on hand for its versatility.

Around here the backhoe serves as:

- Forklift for handling 1,800# super sacks of feed with clamp on forks
- Round bale handling with the forks or with a hook on bale spear
- Crane with the backhoe and chains / slings
- Compactor for gravel on the road (18,000# machine has good weight on the tires)
- Recovery tow truck to get stuck mowers and tractors out. Also gets itself unstuck when the wife drives it onto soft ground
- Elevated work platform for tree trimming. Stand in loader bucket with safety harness hooked on and work from 15' high platform comfortably and safely (8,000#+ rating at full height)
- Trench digging with the backhoe
- Moving small amounts of gravel with the backhoe and placing precisely on low spots on the road
- Moving and loading larger amounts of dirt for various projects

Probably more tasks I'm forgetting. The backhoe gets used for something around here at least every few days. The loader reach is plenty far to dump material at the far side of my 83" wide dump trailer.

(quoted from post at 05:31:22 09/25/23) I worked for the county parks and we went from a wheel to a track. Wheel was smoother on the operator. Tracks are bone jarring. Tracks will go places tires wont. Buuuuut, those tracks were constantly falling off and a 2 man pain to put them on. We tentsioned them almost every time we went out with it. It became necessary to bring a grease gun and pry bars and 2 extra tubes of grease with us at all times. But they will go places. Glad it wasnt on my dime.

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Something was wrong with that machine and/or the operators. They rarely need adjusting and the tracks don't fall off when the track is good, the sprocket is good, and the rollers are good.

You can still pick up an off-brand wheel machine fairly cheap, BUT any track machine worth having seems like it's going to set you back $25,000.

This is not an answer to your question, but I would recommend thinking about a 40-50 hp. 4wd tractor with a loader. Skid Steers have a definite place...but unless your doing a lot of heavy work, the tractor is handier. I have a Cat SS weighing 11k lbs. & I use my tractor 80% of the time. You can put a 3rd function on a tractor that allows you to use a grapple.

I bought a old late 1970's (gehl 2500) mighty mac 8B, this spring, I realize that it is a small machine, I know it will take 10X as long to dig the dirt for landscape work, I built a set of pallet forks for it and will move 800+ pound logs, lifting 500 pounds on to trailer. moved and spread 20 tons of wood mulch. Paid 1800 for it and would buy it again, not big enough to tear itself apart. if on grass just dont turn sharp, nephew has track machine and on grass it will tear up alot if turn sharp more than wheeled machine moving logs off lawn.

I've dreamed of a skid steer just for an aggressive front rotary mower. So you can see what you are doing and lift it. Wish they made something for a FEL that was economical and powerful. I am thinking of something that you can lift 4 feet in the air and drop on a MF Rose bush.

(quoted from post at 07:44:08 09/25/23) I've dreamed of a skid steer just for an aggressive front rotary mower. So you can see what you are doing and lift it. Wish they made something for a FEL that was economical and powerful. I am thinking of something that you can lift 4 feet in the air and drop on a MF Rose bush.

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Something like this? Several of them up for auction at Martin's on Saturday. You need high flow hydraulics to run it though.