If you could buy any skid steer which one would it be

[ropensaddle]

What about the toro dingo anyone experience these little work horses

 

[Willy Kurz]

I have got a Bobcat S300 and it does everything I need it to do. But it's a most to get the all wheel steer if your on alot of turf. They also came out with the S330 now and it awesome. Also get the high flow package its worth the extra money. If you want something a little smaller that is productive the S185 is good for getting in the yards with a stump grinder and doing work

 

[neighborstree]

i just picked up a 05 T300. with only 700 hours today at auction. ill ge pics soon

 

[flushcut]

My competition is using mostly manual labor and I have one competitor who loses customers because they have been screwing up their customers yard w/ a wheeled Bobcat with flotation tires. I always focus in providing a service not equal to, but better than my competition. High end clients see ruts and they have a heart attack. A lot of the people I work for are very particular for their lawn and pay a lot more for us because we dont screw up their property. I.e I dont pull my bucket truck on a nice lawn I use my spider lift instead. My marketing focuses on "turf freindly". Altura Mats are too tiresome to lay especially when its an acre away to the backyard for the trees.

I demo'd a few Bobcats and I dont care for them, track or wheeled. Demo'd a Swinger 2000 for 2 weeks, liked it very much but still not turf freindly enough for me on wet and the price and warranty couldnt hold a stick to the 2007 ASV RC50 Turf Edition. Of which is on its way from the factory to my dealer here in NJ. Just got a new 20ft Bri Mar trailer to haul it and one of our stump machines. Im hoping it arrives this week. Oh also waiting on a 63" grapple from Unlimted Fabrication. All 3 items should be popping up by the end of this week/early next. Can't wait!

Thanks to everyone who helped me in the decision process!

So how do you like it? I am looking into getting an rc60 right now. I dug this up on a search.

 

[lly_duramax]

If you could buy any skid steer which one would it be?

Bobcat T300

 

[arbor pro]

Mini Skid Steer. Will fit thru 36" gate and go places a big skid steer won't go yet can haul brush, logs, mulch and even move around equipment. A mini won't pick up a 2000# log like a big skid steer can but, it will carry out the 500# logs and piles of brush that your big skid steer can't get to and save you a whole lot of wear and tear on your back.

If I could afford it, I would own both - a mini and a full-size skid steer. Since I can't afford both, my choice is a mini.

That said, I like Bobcat, JD and CAT for full-sized skid steers. Always had great luck with bobcats over the years. I owned a 753, 763 and a 873. I suppose the 873 would be called an s250 today. I didn't like the bigger machine. Although it lifted more, it was too big for my liking. The 763 (probably called an s150 or something like that today) was just right. Lots of power but more compact and very stable.

 

[deevo]

Mini Skid Steer. Will fit thru 36" gate and go places a big skid steer won't go yet can haul brush, logs, mulch and even move around equipment. A mini won't pick up a 2000# log like a big skid steer can but, it will carry out the 500# logs and piles of brush that your big skid steer can't get to and save you a whole lot of wear and tear on your back.

If I could afford it, I would own both - a mini and a full-size skid steer. Since I can't afford both, my choice is a mini.

That said, I like Bobcat, JD and CAT for full-sized skid steers. Always had great luck with bobcats over the years. I owned a 753, 763 and a 873. I suppose the 873 would be called an s250 today. I didn't like the bigger machine. Although it lifted more, it was too big for my liking. The 763 (probably called an s150 or something like that today) was just right. Lots of power but more compact and very stable.

That Boxer is slick looking....what do they go for? Treeclimber57 has the 763 (I think) He's happy with it

 

[arbor pro]

That Boxer is slick looking....what do they go for? Treeclimber57 has the 763 (I think) He's happy with it

New, a 532dx boxer goes for between $23-24k with a bucket. That grapple was just custom built. I haven't gotten the bill yet but it will be around $1200-1500.

I'm selling the package for $19k with only 50 hours on it. That new grapple will carry a lot of debris.

My previous machine was a bobcat mt-50. I'm selling the boxer to go back to the walk-behind style. It's just what I'm used to. I personally don't care for the ride-on platform.

Crazy how much power that 532dx has though. Lot of machine in that little body.

 

[fatheadon1]

my boss has a t 300 and an s175, iv run cat and i tell my boss every day to sell, them both and get a 185 with over tire tracks. for me the t300 is so big it has a lot more blind spots then the 175 and in thigh spots can be a pain in the neck. as for the tracks in my eyes unless you just going fwd and back you tear up more. the 175 is a great all around machine just a little under powered. with my boss when we were looking at the t300 i said you cant make a 11000lbs machine lighter and can cut big wood smaller so the 175 can handle it but the price was right so he got it still. this is just my feedback as im the guy behind the contorls of our skiddsteers.

 

[arbor pro]

...you cant make a 11000lbs machine lighter and can cut big wood smaller so the 175 can handle it but the price was right so he got it still. this is just my feedback as im the guy behind the contorls of our skiddsteers.

:agree2: Good point. Smaller equipment may not be ideal in every situation but you can get it into a lot of spots the bigger equipment can't or shouldn't go.

BTW - I demo'd a vermeer 600tx on tuesday. Not a bad machine overall. It's 25hp kubota diesel had about as much power as the 32hp in my Boxer though the boxer will lift a bit more. The controls were fairly comfortable although the reverse positions (left-right) on the joystick seemed switched around. I kept backing up in the wrong direction which was frustrating.

Unfortunately, the grapple on my boxer didn't quite line up with the vermeer's mounting plate pins so I couldn't move any brush or wood - just push debris and dirt around. It did that well. I did manage to get my boxer bucket on the vermeer so was able to screw on a 2" ball and move my genie lift around. The vermeer also did that very well. The earlier reviews on the vermeers that I've read online saying they are gutless are inaccurate IMO. the 600tx has decent power and a fast ground speed. I do wish it had a speed control. The joystick is touchy when you first jump on it. I suppose in time, it will become more natural.

All that said, it's overpriced. I think vermeer is just trying to charge a couple grand more for their name on it. My bigger boxer cost the same new as the smaller vermeer. Dollar for dollar, the 532dx boxer is a stronger machine that the vermeer 600tx. I would like to see boxer adopt the joystick controls. While a good machine as it is, it would be better with joystick controls.

Now I'm waiting for Ditch Witch to bring me a 650...

 

[defensiblespace]

If I were working on lawns all day, I would get some alterna mats to put down. Having worked on lawns for years, I know just about any machine will do some kind of lawn damage, especially if the lawn is wet. It is quicker to put mats down than it is to fix ruts. That way you can stop worrying about trying to find some turf friendly piece of equipment and pay more attention to the specs that matter when buying a machine. The price of the mats will eventually save you money in labor to fix damaged lawns and save you the headaches from angry customers.

 

[arbor pro]

If I were working on lawns all day, I would get some alterna mats to put down. Having worked on lawns for years, I know just about any machine will do some kind of lawn damage, especially if the lawn is wet. It is quicker to put mats down than it is to fix ruts. That way you can stop worrying about trying to find some turf friendly piece of equipment and pay more attention to the specs that matter when buying a machine. The price of the mats will eventually save you money in labor to fix damaged lawns and save you the headaches from angry customers.

Minis don't cause ruts. They'll rip up grass if you turn too sharp but they're not heavy enough to cause ruts if you have a tracked machine. I'm speaking from experience here. A deeply lugged track MAY leave a lug mark in really wet lawns but the entire track will not sink down and leave a rut. A little common sense and care and a tracked mini will not leave marks on a lawn.

 

[Bowhunter01]

I've got a bobcat S250 with the 15.5" wide superfloat tires on it, and the high flow hydraulics. I like it a lot, its a versatile machine. I would hesitate to carry logs out over a lawn that gets frequent irrigation without plywood or mats though. If its dry there's no problem. I've got a stump grinder and grapples for it, and don't know how I'd do tree jobs without it. I chose the S250 over the S300 because it was around 1000 lbs lighter.

Feeding a leyland cypress butt first into the chipper from the air conditioned comfort of your loader will make you smile. Especially after you carried it 50 yards and then crunched it up with the grapples, which is what I would recommend for all leylands.

 

[ellisi]

skid steers

Look at asv, I think they have a turf "friendly" track option, look and see if they still offer this now that terex has bought them. They have also come out with a new pt 100 with 20in tracks that is coming out this fall. They said it has more gpm and higher pressures for cutters the dealer in my area is suppose to have one in soon and I am going to demo it supposed to be pretty nice.