mini skid steer

treevet

Hey, OOMT, let me get this straight......it sounds like you have a Toro and it is not a Dingo.....yet it has the same model # as an existing Dingo (non diesel powered unit).

Let me know what you want to know about the grapple and what you would like to see in a picture. Dave at BMG after market grapples said to me that this grapple lifts higher than his. This helps me load a trailer over the sides.

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treevet

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treevet

Few days ago we took the Dingo thru a 35 " gate and it did a huge amount of back breaking pain in the ass work. Yesterday we cleaned up a 10'8" stump's grindings with the large material handling bucket we bought used. Dumped it all in the dump trailer and this job would have taken 1 man about 3 hours to complete or more and left him useless for the rest of the day and crying about his back the next day. Changing implements is as easy as unplugging a light from a socket and then putting it back in.

Can't wait to see the stump grinder BMG is debuting at TCI Wisc. Specs say it has a 38 hp Kohler. Can't find the price until then.

Urban Treecare NZ

Thats a serious amount of firewood in a little trailer treevet!! does the hydralic ram struggle with that amount of load??

treevet

No Treekiwi, never has unless the battery is low. I may upgrade the tires if I keep putting on loads like that though. It was initially bought to deliver split wood just a little over the sides which is a full measured cord. Now that I have this Dingo it has become much more useful. I might even fabricate a little chip box for it sometime.

TrevMcRev

Keep us updated on that. I'm interested in a mini loader but really want one with a good stumpgrinder option. Then i'd sell my rayco and just use that & a mini grinder.

treevet

OK Trev. I'll be getting rid of my 630B Vermeer if this works out.

treevet

Ran into a deal on a Bobcat MT 50 today, but it involved trading old "Brutus" (my avatar). We really needed the parking space as the old boy never went out anymore due to skid steer. Feel like I abandoned an old friend.

newguy18

You got rid of your truck?Man i know that feeling,seller's remorse,i always feel bad when i get rid of a vehicle,4 wheeler,boat,etc.

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old schooler

Daniel Janjic

Hi guys, great site here, I'm just getting into the game but I have had a lot of work on the little diggers, my opinions: Diesel has much better torque for lifting and digging and breaking stuff loose and is quieter.

The heavier the better as it gives you more pushing and shifting stability.

The toro has a very friendly one hand control and the off the back platform is great as you don't get beaten up as much when they kick around and buck you off! (especially going down hill loaded!)

The Kanga is great but the toro is better, just have to convince my hirer to stock them..

Here Toro dealers have just been pushing a deal where you get A$10k of attachments with the purchase, A$31-$36K...

I have other priorities but I appreciated the loan.

Cheer's,

Dano

treevet

....and lasts longer (diesel). Welcome Dano

Phased1

Hey all you (lucky) mini skid steer owners,

I'm also looking for a mini skid steer.

I'm sold on the fact you need a grapple and the BMG is the best or close to it.
But I haven't decided on the machine, I can demo the Vermeer 600 but not many others, so I'm looking for opinions, good & bad, about the other machines out there.
Also I was leaning towards getting a wheeled unit but Vermeer is recommending the tracked unit and say they sell them 25:1 over the wheeled unit.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.



Phased1

OutofMytree

A couple of things you can do to save YOU a bundle of money.

1. Go looking without your wallet.

2. Demo everything! Not look at it, use it on the job.

3. Consider your normal work routine and how the gear fits in. Will you need another vehicle in order to tow the trailer?

4. Size matters. Each cut you DO NOT make is less wear and tear on you and your saws and is less time. That said, the machine size and especially the width matters too. Do you work in a lot of small yards or is it mostly open paddocks?

5. Tyres or tracks make very little difference if you are a brutal operator. In hindsight it hasnt made much difference to me.

6. Treevet said something which most people miss. How high does the unit need to lift in order to clear your tailgate?

7. I am yet to purchase a grapple. It is possible to work with just a simple bucket and rig a towing sling for long logs and just slide straight under big blocks. This is definately a 2 man job however.

8. The branch manager grapples are the only units I have seen so far that HYDRO swivel. The vermeer will swivel but you unpin it and hand rotate.

9. There is no rule that says you must buy a grapple or indeed any accessory from the dealer you buy the loader from. I mixed and matched with success on my own purchase.

10. Service is an issue but only if parts are hard to obtain. I was unhappy with the back up service at the point of purchase but the guys who service my chippers are awesome and look after the loader just as well. Only issue is genuine parts and that you have to investigate. Some gear is so unique you pay a fortune for aftermarket bits n bobs.

Best of luck.

treevet

Excellent post by Outofmytree.

I have a new Dingo with a grapple I pictured in an earlier post. I also bought a tree ball squeezer (joke not intended) that we had not used until a couple of days ago. We did a large planting job on a large campus and it unloaded the delivery truck, drove the 2 1/2 cal 12 foot tall trees to the widespread spots and centered them and dropped them in the hole I had dug with a stump grinder.
Very impressed.

I lucked into a used Bobcat MT 50 recently that I had to buy as I want one on each crew next year. Since I already had a grapple on the dingo I bought the BMG for the Bobcat. They do not interchange. We just got it a few days ago but played with in the lot and I think it will be an improvement in picking up a pile of brush without getting off and choking with a lanyard on the grapple (like we do on the dingo) but rather just grabbing them and off you go.

Dave at BMG does not recommend the hyd swivel. I am not sure why but it is on his literature. Maybe liability. Mine free swivels. The grapple on the dingo has worked very well at grabbing logs and putting in dump trailer. It actually gets higher than the BMG, and I think the only shortcoming of the Dingo is it being height challenged.

We are much more impressed with the Dingo. Didn't demo the Vermeer and I have 4 machines of theirs and love their service, but their demo unit was being used and didn't want to wait.

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treevet

Here is the BMG we just got. Kind of neat that it has a Bollard on it. We will have to try it out on light stuff.

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OutofMytree

We are all waiting though only some of us were wise enough to bring popcorn...

treevet

You can just feel the drama in the air.

TreeDimensional

Just make sure you don't have too many wraps on the bollard. I can just see the headlines now "ISA Certifed Arborist, leaves a large Christmas ornament (Mini-skidsteer) in tree", then have to head home for the crane!

treevet

I'll just borrow yours if you ever get the damn cab on it!

newguy18

He still doesn't have it back togther yet?

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old schooler

osb_mail

those ball forks are the whip I used to use them all the time on full sized skid loader I could unload 2 2.5 caliper or 3 1.5 caliper trees at a time i am fast with them , some guys would rather use the pallet forks but I think they just could not under stand the ball forks I guess .I dont know if I would want the extra weight on the front mini skid but they great on full sized skid loader

treevet

They work just fine on up to 2.5's OSB but much bigger than that might be a prob with the mini. I gave up doing the big tree planting with my crane. Too much work if they die and awkward after client has paid top dollar for a big tree.

osb_mail

Smaller is better (thats not what she said) I worked planting and growing trees for 12 years .From growing small trees in 1 gallon pots to transplanting 8 to 10 inch trees .People need to understand that the instant landscape is joke plants need time adjust in environments younger tree the better I have seen to many large tree with small root systems blow over ,or just die I really anything bigger than 2 caliper you are wasting your time .Big trees are a waste of money - completely off mini skid steer topic

treevet

Yeah the smaller trees gonna catch up to the larger planting usually. We just finished a 13 tree planting job. Very profitable with the Dingo and Stump grinder digging the holes and the nursery delivering the stock.

This is a Nyssa sylvatica, Sour gum or Tupelo or Black gum. Fire red color in the fall. Just as good or better than a flower show in the spring IMO.

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Bruce Hopf

Those Mini Skid Steers look pretty Handy. I've even seen them in Tight Areas in Barns, with a Loader and Bucket on them. Impressive little machines. Bruce.

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treevet

I agree. Almost as important as the advent of the chainsaw IMO. Mine will go in the back of my 3/4 ton pickup or lots of other places. The main thing I think, is the ability, finally, to hold on to groundmen. I usually burn them out in a couple of years even if they were high level football players.