Mini's vs. full size Skid steers.

Brian... Its the hills that kill the mileage on the gas trucks (I don't run diesel). Modesto is say 1.5 hours away.. Costs me 60.00 round trip with out a fully loaded trailer. Costs nuttin to get to Modesto... Its all down hill or flat for the most part. Coming home and climbing 3000 feet twice on the way (second climb is from 2000 to the 3200 mark. I have two passes to get over) is where you really use the fuel. And if I drive all the way from one end of my state to the other.. it's like driving across 3 states in a lot of cases in the US. LMAO
 
Mini skid steer = great back yard access for suburbia jobs.

Skid steer = great for everything else.

I can't wait until I get me a Bobcat A300 8)
 
Yup. I would check there first.... Merced has a lot of tractor dealers and such... I was recently at Volvo rents and they did not have one. I would have to look about and see who else might. I am anticipating that a mini is a pretty specialized piece of equipment. More for the urban environment than a farming/ranching/rural areas. So .... we shall see.....
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #33
The mini has a lot of aplications for the farm/ranch as well.
Cleaning out horse pens, grading and leveling horse rings, doing small concrete jobs inside of barns, moving hay around moving feed around, lots of odd jobs for them. I have seen most of these and tried do do some with a large machine and had a lot of hand work left over.
You really have to think about what needs you expect the machine to fill, then choose.
 
Ideally, you have both. Lawn care, you need a lawn mower and a line trimmer. Trees, you need a chainsaw and a hand saw. Skidsteers, you need a full size and a mini.
 
Looking at the asv site, what interested me was the flail mower attachment... One of the attachments we really need for whatever machine we eventually will acquire in the future :D
 
sawinredneck said:
Most everything mini rental wise around here is Bobcat based. That is the only service center that has mini's. You can rent the Prodigy at Home Depot, but you have to take it all, machine, trailer with attachments, for I think $425 a day. I need to make a few calls this week and double check on that, but I am afraid I am SOL on renting.
Click to expand...

All you have to do is watch for a deal on the attachment you want Andy. Then just fire up the welder and change the mounting plate....
 
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  • #39
DTW902 said:
All you have to do is watch for a deal on the attachment you want Andy. Then just fire up the welder and change the mounting plate....
Click to expand...

And right you are Dave. Just have to have the money, and to NEED that attachment enough to justify it.
Case in point, I can rent/borrow a trencher (not my favorite thing to do anyway) cheaper than I can think of buying one for the machine, no more than I plan on using it. I really couldn't justify buying one, but having an option to rent one would be nice.
Same with an auger. I want one, and could pretty easly justify it, but it would take a few jobs, and I don't know exactly how well it would work in this wonderful soil. So being able to rent some of these things a time or two would be really nice. It's just not a realistic option around here. That's all I was trying to say.
A Bobcat you can rent about anything and try it, a mini, you might be limited.
 
The Prodigy is a mini mini. Does not have near the lift capacity of the Prowler. I liken it to more like a toy.
 
Thats one reason i bought the 463, you can get threw a 36" gate, you sit down and drive it, and will lift 1400# tipping. Much more if you keep it close to the ground or get some counter weight. 6.5 mph, and just shy of 8ft pin height....:D
 
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  • #43
DTW902 said:
Thats one reason i bought the 463, you can get threw a 36" gate, you sit down and drive it, and will lift 1400# tipping. Much more if you keep it close to the ground or get some counter weight. 6.5 mph, and just shy of 8ft pin height....:D
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"But it's a great deal Andy, Dave is great to work with Andy, I think it will work great for you Andy..........."

Really, for what I do it's cool, and I forsaw all of these problems.
 
This is one on the trailer, the only one I have on this computer. I did like the 726 TNT had on his trailer at Andy's. Just didn't like the price.
 

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I think In a practical world owning both or having both at arms length is the way to go. There have been several times when I have used both the mini and the A300 on the same big job.

One stump grinding contract we used the JD tractor and the A300 to carry off chips, and the mini to haul backfill.
 
yall think 1500 hrs on a TL130 is to much.......dude is throwing in a new set of tracks with it...22k. Oh yeah it has a cab with heat and air

yanmar, 67 hp
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #47
Not terrible, but quite a bit, and the price is pretty high IMO!
I can get a Bobcat 763 with 2k hours for $10k for refference.
 
Used skidders are like any other piece of used equipment .You have to have an idea what you are buying and know about what it's worth .

It's one thing if it was used for example on a horse farm to clean out stalls and another thing if it had the snot whipped out of it using it for demolition .

Obviously if it's leaking oil out of most of the seals and the crankcase oil looks like creosote walk on by .It's not too hard to determine how much a machine has been maintained .If however the thing has been pressure washed ,run her a tad before you plunk down the cash .Neat and tidy might tell a tale too .:/:
 
sawinredneck said:
Not terrible, but quite a bit, and the price is pretty high IMO!
I can get a Bobcat 763 with 2k hours for $10k for refference.
Click to expand...

I've been looking around the web and have not found a better deal......I looked at a new holland ls170(wheeled), but nowhere near as nice as the TL130
 
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