mini skid steer

treevet

Got a little extra money and a mini skid steer seems like a harmless expense that might pay dividends. Could replace 1 man poss for loading and dragging and hauling. Cost I have found from 15k$ to around 20k new.

Vermeer has 2....S600 (with or with out tracks) and S400 (with or without also). Bobcat Dingo also has 2 models and I have used them both. Vermeer has great service and I feel loyal to them from other stuff I have and service.

Anybody got any comments on these machines? Are there other choices in a mini? I searched forum and didn't find anything on "mini skid steers"

brendonv

I have a thomas, no longer made. Check for Ramrod, they seem to be an affordable nicely built model from what I hear.

Instead of replacing 1 person you are going to be replacing more like 3 with the work these things do.

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treevet

Thanks I will search Ramrod. What size bite have you got on the grapple and how high will it get over with lift. What is max wt lift (not what they tell you). I assume you had to move those pieces forward and stack in your truck?

Spruce take down in 1st pict? "underbid" not hard to fig that one out.
Nice looking gear.

treevet

Also what size and type of engine did you choose and why?

brendonv

It's hard to say max weight lift, as it all depends on how the load is situated in the grapple, how much you weight, how much extra counter weight you have, the angle of the machine, and your posture standing on the deck. It lifts more than you and 4 guys can lift. My machine has a 25 HP Kohler. The grapple is a Branch Manager Attatchments item, search "top notch equipment" in google, too lazy to get the specs. The machine is worthless unless you have it.

Yes thats spruce in the grapple, and yes I wasn't thinking when pricing the job.

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treevet

You're going to need to slab them pretty thin when you get to the fat part of that #2 pict? In the one behind the garage I suppose you put them in the truck with the end facing the truck and the unit instead of sideways.

I'll probably load them over the side of my dump trailer or just drive them to my crane and then place them in my opened top larger dump trucks.

I think they are really a neat little unit. But how does one analyze the difference? Ramrod, toro dingo, mini bobcat, and vermeer mini. I am sure there are more. I enjoy the shopping aspect.

brendonv

I had to slab them to about 18-24", then in half agian on some of them. The pic near the garage the logs were parrellel with the machine, so it made for weight to be far out but it still handled it without tipping.

The difference between them all is width, lift height, gas /diesel, tracks /wheels, $$, and local support. Vermeer and Bobcat are big bucks, Toro I think below that, and then Ramrod. There are ones called Prowlers, Boxers, and Gehl makes a real nice articulating loader for something else to consider.

Top Notch Equipment not only sells the grapple, but Ramrods too. I bought my Thomas from him (Dave) and he is a top notch dude.

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treevet

Yeah I agree. I have a Bobcat dlr about 6 miles from my bus. Vermeer comes down the day after you call them as they are always coming down here for something (35 mile trip) for somebody.

Looks like you could run the machine or boom it right into an 8 ft pickup bed?
Prob need to be 1 ton but I have one. If I still lived in your area I would look your dealer.

treevet

I think it will come in real handy for loading or spreading stump grindings. Man I hate to load wet stump grindings. Also I have seen an attachment for a snow blower. Have you tried this Brandon?

brendonv

Top Notch is in Minnesota, he shipped mine to me on a pallet.

Never tryed the snow blower, or any hydraulic driver attatchments besides the grapple.

treevet

What is the widest span the grapple will pick up? How come you bought it from aftermarket? $ I suppose.

Also wondered what the possibilities are for rigging or welding something to drag limbs (it is tracked after all) from behind with it? I know you can bite into them but when I rented one for brush (other time was stump cleanup) it was sometimes a problem with the width of the load.

Eric Frei

I bought my BMG from Dave too, was the first one in Oz with it, now there's two I think as some guy in Sydney got one.

The grapple opens 46" I think, pretty wide.

Great for dragging branches, stack them butts all lined up and grab and reverse, just by the chipper you spin and shove them in. The grapple spins mate, nothing out there as tough or reliable, grab one.

All I can say for you is get a loader that lifts the most weight, every extra pound matters.

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treevet

Do you guys get hammered for overseas shipment on equipment like you do with the Stihls? Is there different configurations and quality in grapples? Seems like one could fabricate a little larger bucket than the ones I see. You say you back the brush out after grabbing the butts Ekka, then spin the unit to load the chipper, does this get the brush all the way into the feed rollers?

treevet

The one dealer, Vermeer said that the two machines are so close in weight carrying capacity that you might as well get the smaller one and save 5k$
Good to hear your opinion on that one. I am demo ing one as soon as they can get one down to me. Then they said you have the option of buying the low hour demo at reduced if you choose with full warranty.

The power is 30 hp gas or 25 hp diesel and the diesel caused a few $k more.

brendonv

I feed the chipper without stepping off the machine.

treevet

Nice.....Hey it s funny Ekka how you guys got the skid steer called Kanga (is that a Ramrod?) and now we have an equipment company on our forum called red ROO (basically Carlton, etc). They should join forces for obvious reasons (become kangaroo Co)

Garry Brockley

Oh god that belogs in the just joking thread under awful

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treevet

have to admit it's not a knee slapper

Eric Frei

Yes you can spin and shove it into the rollers.

I would not get diesel. Then attachments need to run on diesel too, like my stumper grinder. Petrol is a safer bet.

Kanga was the original, then Dingo over here ... rest copied.

Kanga's largest export market is USA.

I used to have forks before the grapple, and could lift more with forks as the grapple weighs more and the load is further out than forks ... also watch the lift height, I could just clear the trailer and truck sides.

If possible get 4wd and street tyres as they tear up less grass than chunky tyres or tracks. If you can get fat street tyres or bald tyres even better. See if you can get the puncture proofs filled with rubbery crud.

Mines 24hp, plenty. It only has to drive a hydro pump.

Check ground speed, slow sucks, we mainly haul log etc not trench so a machine like Dingo here is better suited to landscapers as it has better hyro adjustments for them with variable gates and 2 pumps. But they travel slow in comparison, ground speed is what we need.

Most fittings are universal these days, I can go to Dingo and buy stuff to fit Kanga etc.

I made my own small mulch bucket. Machine is 990mm wide and the buckets they sell standard were 1200mm wide ... lots of gates are 1m so I made a 950mm wide bucket, see, common sense but manf's lack that at times.

You can also get rakes, makes cleanups of yards easy especially felling dead trees, TNT makes rakes.

Check list.

1. Ground speed
2. Universal attachment mountings
3. Load SWL and lift height
4. Petrol
5. Tyres
6. 4WD
7. Good ergo controls, I can drive and raise/lower etc with my fingers at same time, Kanga has very good ergos for that.
8. Easily servicable, like Donaldson filters, oil filter etc. (mine has Donaldson centrifugal pre-cleaner fitted with paper filter in barrel)

Hope that helps, they are a great investment and once you own one you'll never be without it, and like me always carry a tape measure to make sure you can get that unit into the yard, if you cannot then the job will suck!

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treevet

Thanks, great info. How do you transport yours? I am thinking trailer is time consuming set up when you buy this thing to save time and energy. It seems it could ramp right into a 4 by 8 pick up bed without the attachment on. At 2k lbs. approx I might want to add a leaf on each side.

Is there differences in the grapples. Dingo has a "grapple rake". Maybe that is what you have since you said they are universal. In their vid it did not look like the grapple closed all the way to grab a small piece like a branch stem. The pallet forks would obviously move more material but I am sure there is some re-pickups.

Eric Frei

S W I V E L

understand the word, if it doesn't swivel it S U C K S

Swivel means getting a 10' wide log out of a 3' wide gate.

Stop over thinking this, we know, we use this shit daily.

Swivel BMG grapple, end of story, Dave's the man.

Here's a link to a post of his, with his links in his sig.

Chase the man up, tell him to get his ass back to this site and make some sales! As well as friends and perhaps even advertise here.

http://www.treeworld.info/f6/hey-you...html#post25820

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treevet

done

treevet

We demo'd this machine for today and have it for 5 days. TX525 narrow track with 25 hp Kubota diesel and grapple rake. Interesting in that Bobcat sells it and has since the beginning but they just started selling their own mini s but will continue to sell the tx525 Dingo. Salesman says that the Vermeer narrow machine will not barely fit thru a 36" gate and this machine will. He also says that these non lugged tracks are the most popular and in his defense (not Ekka's opinion obviously) it is the most seen used around here. I likely will buy the rotating grapple and biggest bucket and the forks that power inward to pick up heavy tree balls for planting. We will try out the S600 Vermeer later this week for comparison. This machine worked real nice today thru a gate and clamping brush and some moderately large pruned branches to the chipper.

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brendonv

Give me an update on how you like that grapple rake. I was thinking about getting one for loading bigger peices into the truck, and the option of moving rocks, and construction debri.

treevet

Yeah I will. Today we just grabbed some big piles of brush with it and it worked fine. Tomorrow we will be picking up some wood and test dia and weight. Seems to have very good grip. It lists for a little over $2500 FYI.

brendonv

Dang, thats alot of dough!

A dude on e-bay sells a grapple rake but the down side is it doesn't bypass so you can't even grab a limb the size of a 5 gallon bucket. He sells them for around $800 so it's almot worth buying and modifying.

treevet

yeah the dealer's going to nail you. 800 bucks if you can mod to bypass sounds like a great idea. The guy up on Ekka's post has the swivel grapple for $2k, is that the one you've got?

brendonv

You betchya. Along with anyone else I know who owns a mini, which is alot of people. Dave's a good dude.

treevet

How long does it take to get one shipped to you after you ordered it?

kimtree

dont want to count my chickens,but should be getting my bmg to go on my articulated loader any day now