treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yep. You have a pretty good understanding of how it works.
My Bandit 200 will eat branches your mini would have trouble carrying, and I have a 12K knuckleboom crane on my chipper truck, so we don't use the A300 until it's really a big job.
My next toy/s are a dumping trailer that can carry my A300, rather than the 3 axle flatbed that we use now. After that, I get a mini-loader for the tight quarters and the small gates.
I'm waiting for a mini with smooth tracks, too. I went for over 20 years without buying a skid steer, since I can't stand tearing up the ground everywhere we go. I have used small tractors with loaders, but they have limitations too.
I might be wrong, but I don't think you would touch a low hour A300 for 28 grand. They cost over $50K new. BIG cost for a big machine sums it up pretty well. If it weren't for that machine in snow removal this year, I would have been in big trouble with my customers.
I don't see what all the rage is over the slick tracks. You gotta get a little traction somehow. The weight of the mini keeps the damage to a minimum. That 9,000 lb a300 wouldn't get it on the golf course like lawns on the properties around here that all have sprinkler systems. Don't care what kind of flotation tires you have on them.
How do you drag brush from the way back with that thing.
My dingo can drag huge branches up to my BC 2000 and put them into the rollers. We put bigger stuff into it with my 14 ton crane or subs.
I absolutely could not live without a mini.