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[Steve]

I find not only myself but site I drive by, a skid steer job is never done and requires a fair bit of manual labor, I do not experience this using a CUT. Andy, What is your thought on where a skid steer excels? I never understood the design. What advantage does it have over a tractor like yours? Is there any advantage?

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[LawnMoore]

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Originally Posted by Steve Andy, What is your thought on where a skid steer excels? I never understood the design. What advantage does it have over a tractor like yours? Is there any advantage? And also with tracks, any advantages?

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[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

Andy,

What is your thought on where a skid steer excels? I never understood the design. What advantage does it have over a tractor like yours? Is there any advantage?

Tracks give them traction, without tracks they are useless landscaping, but a skid is very heavy and like excavators the rip the crap out of the soil/sod, now with an excavator I can use the bucket to turn to help eliminate this.

Steve, where a skid would blow my doors off is loading say top soil, mulch, turf etc, it lifts very high and can turn on a dime, he could load a truck in 1/3 of the time as me. Other than that, I can't honestly think of anything in our business where it would be better.

[LawnMoore]

And,.

Where i just went to check on some CUT at my local dealer, they didnt recomend me buying a cut if i wanted to get grapples on it, unless of coarse i payed about an extra thousand dollars to have another hydrolic valve added for opening and closing the grapples. And then again i would lose quite a bit of lifting power because of the extra weight of graples.

My main expertise is Tree removal, so like Andy said i could load a lot faster with a skid.

Also i am almost 100% sure there is not a CUT anything like the unit i want to get.

You guys should google it. Its around 13k but for me, if i get all attachments available, i can do alot more than my normal tree removals.

Bobcat S70


and Andy, the CUT i have looked at is 13,800 with loader only, its a 2010 Kubota BX2660

can you check that out for me online and give me your thoughts on it, as to about which of your models it would be similar to.

[Steve]

Steve, where a skid would blow my doors off is loading say top soil, mulch, turf etc, it lifts very high and can turn on a dime, he could load a truck in 1/3 of the time as me. Other than that, I can't honestly think of anything in our business where it would be better.

It sounds like they would be better for someplace with a hard surface to work on versus someone's yard.

There seems to be this big perceptual image of the skid steer and that they are a very important tool for landscapers but all in all they seem not to be.

[LawnMoore]

No you guys ( or just you Steve are actually wrong there i believe, there is a place in landscaping for skidsteers still.

My friend has a large skid steer with the rubber tracks,. and he is constantly busy site prepping and he said he gets so many calls because where as a tractor will have a hard time getting up steep inclines and keeping it clean, he can crawl right up them grade & level and have no problems with getting stuck at all.

Keep in mind these are very large jobs though, and not just your run of the mill yard.

Then again he also helps me loading tree debris, and he can go right across any yard and do absolutely 0 cosmetic damage, then we only have 1 are for turns and staging, where as he cleans it up and levels it back really easy. Or he will drive straigh in and back straight out, load in the road way or down the road on the right of way, using 3-4 poiint turns for turning around.

So theres still a place in landscaping, and like i said the bobcat S70 if you would google it or go to bobcat.com you will see that its very light and will fit through a 36 inch gate!

I have used the S70 for a couple of years with another company i ran a crew for.

I have never had an issue with it tearing up the grass as long as it was gradually turned and not zero turned!

So dont knock it unless you have tried it.