Been looking at T190 Bobcat, S series tire version, and others....  Most have around 2k hours...some higher...  Some T190's I've been looking at are above 3500 hours...

I guess I have sort of a loaded question - how many hours (average) are too many hours on a skid steer provided it's not beat to fuck?  

I looked at what I thought was a nice S220 today.....was spray painted, water pump falling apart, new door on the back with hinges welded back on (someone ripped that bitch off), it drifted real bad...

Intended use - site prep for my garage, landscaping around the house, and clearing property.  Not for commercial use- it'll have an easy life....but I don't want junk.

How are Caterpillar skid steers?

You can find a jewel at that price range but you will look at a fuck load of them.

Closer to year end see if your dealer has any municipal trade in machines. I got my little S175 for something like 23k with 220 hours on it. One year old machine with cab, heat, etc used by a small town to pick up leaves.

I love my CAT 216B. Great little skidsteer. I've had other Bobcats in the past but would stick with CAT if I was to buy another.  

I'm putting a backhoe attachment up for sale. Don't use it enough to let it sit here. Still in good shape, so I'll let someone else use it.

My FIL picked up a Bobcat S250 with just under 1000 hours on it for $16,500 a few years ago. Guy was super hard up and it was the deal of a lifetime.....thing was freakin mint. I used it while building my house and went through it when I was done and replaced all of the hydraulic filters/fluid, changed the oil, while the cab was flipped back I de-greased everything, cleaned it all up real nice, hit all the lube points, replaced the upper front pivot pins/bushings. Thing still looks like brand new and has around 2500 hours on it now.

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What part of PA?

Different brands of machines have different control layouts. You want to figure out which maker's system feels right, as in intuitive, for you.

T190. My S series bobcats sit idle most of the time. Just make sure the drive moters have been serviced properly. Those are expensive repairs...

3k hours sounds about right for that price range.

If you will register with Ironplanet you can review the auction results over the past several months. Do this and take notes, you will start to see what your money will buy you.
Do you want rubber tracks or tires?
Will you want attachments or just a bucket to move material?

Do you really need that big of a machine?  I've been doing a lot of work with small bobcats.  Just takes a bit longer is all.

Hahaha that's the one I looked at today....

Greenville area - near Hermitage...

I rented one with tracks recently, now I would never consider buying one without tracks. I just can't justify the expense right now but it sure would be nice to have.

I'm on the wrong side.  Machinerytrader.com, you can search the whole country.  Ironplanet.com, you can see what people have been paying.  Ritchie Brothers, national equipment auction house, having a sale in MD next month.  

Large rental companies often purge fleet after 6-7 years regardless of hours, condition.  I've seen United sell 5 year old Takeuchis with 800 hours for $17k.  Volvo bought it's franchise stores out in 2011 and spent the next 2 years pumping the locations full of it's own product.  Volvo B series skid steers were selling at auctions for 50/60% of green sheet.  IIRC Sunbelt, United and whatever Volvo is now all use Ritchie Bros.

If you buy rental, don't buy in your AO, oilfield workers destroy the living shit out of equipment like they get paid to do it.  Try to buy down south, 90% of the skid steers above VA spend 4 months a year moving salt piles.

Personally, I'd go New Holland, Bobcat, Deere in that order.  Also, who has the closest dealer, you can't buy this suff at NAPA.

I work for Ritchie bros auctioneers. Register on our website and look at auction results to give you an idea of the market. They can be found for that price range through us.

I own a JD240, JD317 and CAT 262c

The 240 was 16k with 350hrs on it.

The 317 was 14.5k with 293 hours on it.

The 262c was 22k with 996 hours on it and a 6 way bucket.


Machinery trader is your friend.

My as an equipment buyer and operator.

CATs are the strongest with least visibility. They fixed this a bit on new.machines but not awesome. However they're tanks and they're heavy.

I love the visibility from a Deere skid. Same with NH skids.

My local bobcat dealer blows ass. So I avoid anything bobcat. If it's gonna have cat in the name. It's just CAT that's it.

(I own alot of cat equipment.)

Edit:

I'm right by you in Youngstown.

I was checking out Leppo's inventory but it's a bit overpriced...  Cooleys in Cambridge Springs has a nice looking CAT 226B (has some hours though) and a T190 that looks reasonably priced with like 2500 hours...needs tracks, but at $15k that doesn't seem too bad..  I am going to head over there next time they are open.

Keep in mind - I am not using this commercially....weekend shit around the house, some work at my shop, etc....

This looks nice to me - anyone familiar w/ Gehl?

http://buffalo.craigslist.org/hvo/5137189522.html

Or this - it looks ugly....but with new tracks and paint................................profit?

Takeuchi?

http://youngstown.craigslist.org/hvo/5108194539.html

Ball park 4k for both sides of tracks.

I've seriously found all mine on equipment trader if you're patient and look. I traveled over to near phily for my 317 and it ended up being an awesome purchase. 62hp and about 9000lbs with over the tire tracks and counter weights. It's small, nimble still, great visibility and enough power to even run my 5ft hydro ax.

The 262 cat replaces a D3 dozer.

If it was for home use, I'd get a utility tractor and not a skidsteer. Like a JD 4000 series. I'm not sure if you already have a backhoe or tractor, but I thought I'd suggest it. IMO, a skidsteer would make a lousy ranch rig, unless you are moving a lot of dirt all the time.

The skid steer has its place for construction use, but isn't a very good universal rig at all. It tears the ever loving shit out of the ground it drives on. No exceptions. All day long. Any time you start a skid steer, it jacks the ground. This is fine on a construction site, but it sucks around the house/ shop. Plan on never having grass again if you run the skidsteer over it. Plan on fixing your roads after almost every project. It gets stuck much quicker than a tractor. Slick mud, or anything soft and she's stuck right now. The solid frame makes the two points of contact sink quick. There is little self recovery ability in a skid steer when it's stuck good. With a 9,000 lbs skidsteer, you better have a heavy truck and winch, or a hoe. They are much heavier than a utility tractor that is capable of the same job. View area on a skid steer isn't good at all. You know reasons the build such great roll cages? They really love to roll over. If it is stuck good and you're pulling it out, there is a great chance you'll see it roll. Skidsteers are jumpy as hell on most hard surfaces. Try unloading some steel off of a flatbed with a skidsteer and forks. One good hop while you are trying to turn, and it spits the load all over (hopefully not into the delivery truck/ employees/ the shop). Where a utility tractor or (the right tool) a forklift is smooth as butter moving stuff around.

I've had skidsteers for the last 15 years. And my neighbor has a JD3200 series. A utility tractor is much more handy. I used the hell out of my Cat 216B, but I'm a demolition contractor. I move hundreds of thousands of pound of shit a year. Besides for grading my road, and loading out debris, I use something else. When it comes to working around the shop, I use a forklift before anything. And if I have a work protect around here, I borrow my buddies tractor. It is much more handy with a few attachments, than a skidsteer with similar.

I have a tractor w/  backhoe - 43hp.  It does well for light work around the house...fucker has been broken for a few months (it's Korean) and have had issues finding parts, but I need a skid steer for other reasons.... I loaned it to a friend to pull some discs around his mx track, got it back with the front wheel about ripped off the hub, countershaft casting leaking at the seals....TYM has sent the wrong fucking parts 3x so far....been down since May.  

I am clearing sections of the property to end up as yard, moving gravel, and prepping for a garage....the tractor just isn't heavy enough to do the clearing I need to do.

Yeah - I realize I can rent one and save a bunch, but I am wired to own this shit, can't help it...  I just have to keep reminding myself to NOT loan my shit to friends who destroy it anymore...

I am super interested in this machine - it's not local, but low hours, and VTS track system that I can pull and put tires on if I want....that's a badass idea really - maybe not ideal for someone who needs a dedicated track or dedicated wheel machine, but for someone who could use either, fuck this is slick as hell... Tracks are prob more expensive, but for me putting 100hrs a year on it, should be good...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-CAT-226B-SKID-STEER-VTS-TRACK-LOADER-ONLY-597-HOURS-LOEGERING-TRACKS-/391163860974?

Listen to this dude.  Skid loaders make terrible tractors and worse forklifts.  They are very job specific.

I have 4 fork lifts from 5k to 15k capacity and a tractor with backhoe and bucket.  Have used my buddy's bobcat s185 a lot...definitely need one.  The tractor just won't handle what I need to do...too light.

That is a really great unit. Same motor as in my 216B. At that price, I might Fo pending the tracks and bucket condition. I love mine. Couldn't be happier.

Check the price of those tracks. They are just like tires. You will have to replace them eventually. The low dollar tracks do come apart quicker. Better ones will last much longer. Changing tracks to tires is a full days job for two people. It's not easy. Tires are $150 each. I'm not sure what the wheels are. I'm sure you could get used from someone that is going from wheels to tracks. I ALWAYS run foam filled. That is spendy. But skidsteer wheels are very heavy to hold the entire weight of the machine on two wheels. They suck to pull for flat repair. So I use foam filled tires. Tracks are too much money to replace fore what I do (construction/ demolition).

****Make sure the thicker head gasket is installed. Most were factory repaired in 2006 before being sold. And I think all of the 2007s have it. The thinner gasket had a 200-1,000 hour operation life. The thicker are very well made and have a very long life expectancy. There was no recall. Just a new part number. I could ask my shop manager to see if you can tell from the outside of it has the better gasket. When it goes, it starts feeding cylinders with water. The radiator being over the motor makes the fluid gravity feed into the cylinders.  You'll go to turn it over and it's hydro locked. Check the water level, and it will be way low. This equals bad head gasket. It's a 5 hour fix for a mechanics and just the gasket. So cheap and easy to replace. It would not be a deal breaker from buying that machine. I'd buy it 87x over a Bobcat Bombcat... Just an FYI.

Don't let a squirrel chew on the wording harness. After startup in the morning, let the motor warm for a min before high RPMs. This helps the motor/ turbo live longer. Always use the glow plug switch before startup. Don't switch the hydraulic tank cap and the fuel cap. One will fall off.  

If you are interested in the Cat backhoe attachment for that unit, I've got one for sale. It is bad ass. The controls swing down into the cockpit and you sit in the cab to control the attachment. 12" and 18" buckets. It would go very nicely on that track unit. I don't do enough dirt digging to need it anymore. My business model has changed some. So my new construction tools aren't being used much. Just the demo equipment.

if you are going to be doing a lot of tight fast turns, get the wheels. If you will be doing a lot of digging, get tracks. for around the house, tracks are more versatile and stable.



 

I assume because you are in PA you are going to find a lot of machnes that were used either in quarries, by gas companies, or on a farm.

All of the above should be avoided unless you can get them for a steal of a price.

Start looking around for something that was single owner, like excavation companies that are upgrading. Most of the excavators I know service everything very regularly.

Be ready to show up with cash and I bet you can find an awesome machine at that price.

Tracks fuck up everything they touch.

They are the shit if you do jobs big enough to fit them.

The downside to most of those machines is the weight and the size.

We used to have one where I worked years ago and you couldn't pull it without one of the big trucks, and you needed a wide open jobsite to make use of it.

I'm also considering putting in a dirt Rc car track for up 1/8th scale gas and electric

Well I am down to two machines locally...  I looked at a few, walked away.  Also seriously considered that CAT on ebay but couldn't get any kind of guarantee from the dealer that it wouldn't show up completely different than advertised.  They sent 10 pages of forms to sign basically telling me to get fucked if it shows up as a box of rocks instead of a skid loader....so fuck that.

2003 Bobcat T190 with about 2500 hours at $15k from a dealer or a 1997ish Takeuchi TL26 tracked machine with bucket and forks for $10k.  Both similar size machines.  Tak machine has Isuzu diesel 61hp non turbo.  Has aux hydraulics, probably not high flow.  Tracks look ok, prob last me at least a year, and are relatively cheap to replace on either machine.

I went and looked at the Tak machine tonight - while not pretty and a little archaic, I think it will get the job done for me for what I need....a little paint, some TLC and it'll be pretty decent...  I've read some good reviews on the TL26.

Any advice between the two?

Picked up a Takeuchi TL26 tracked skid steer locally.  2500 hrs.  Bucket and forks.  61hp.  It's not the prettiest machine in the world, needs some paint and some TLC - pins, and bushings....but runs strong, starts up, and was 1/2 of what I expected to spend.  Got it for $9500...  I'll paint her up over the winter.  For now it'll do everything I need.  Have a little getting used to on the joystick control, but all in all it seems like its going to be a good machine.

Good job. What I always tell people is that tracked machines are great for the low ground pressure and stability, wheeled machines are better for use on pavement and pushing snow. The low ground pressure of a tracked machine will work against you if you are pushing snow or working on icy side-slopes. However, the tracked machines will get you into places with much less mess than a wheeled machine will.

Something like this?  http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/grd/5143595690.html

That would load, push and move dirt better than a skidsteer?

Nope. Like the below (4066m). It will do a job without tearing up the ground near as bad. Where a skid steer will destroy near everything it works on top of. And a tractor it is much more universal with a few attachments vs a specific purpose build machine like a skid steer. My point was unless all you were doing was new construction and needed to move a lot of dirt, a utility tractor is much more handy than a skid steer.

https://m.deere.com/en_US/products/equipment/tractors/compact_utility_tractors/4000_series/4066m_compact_utility_tractor/4066m.page?

Paint is for cars. Rust I'd the official color of tractors. Lol.

Long before trying to make it pretty, I'd get fresh fluids and all new filters in that machine. Then whatever points you aren't going to replace, grease the hell out it.

You can't beat that price! You could buy three at that price over what a new Bobcrap unit cost. I hope it holds up well for you.

Thanks.  I got a lot done this weekend.  Had a fuel system issue when the manual pump knob came loose and got air into the system, but we got it tightened back down and primed.  I have some work to do on the harness to figure out why the gauges aren't working, simple for me...  Pins need replaced on the bucket - it gets all herky jerky when I try to feather it...I can prob just make the pins if needed... Pretty pumped otherwise.