Once designed to carry fork and bucket, these versatile machines help companies make a profit, no matter the size of the project.

By Joseph Lynn Tilton

In the past, skid steers played a small role in moving dirt and debris. Now, with more than 100 attachments, this versatile machine adds muscle to just about any company dealing with dirt, whether it’s a modest landscaping company or a strip mine operation.

Smaller Footprints
“The most remarkable about skid-steers is you can get compact machines with footprints smaller than backhoes or other machines,” says Jim Hughes, brand marketing manager for Case Construction Equipment, in Racine, WI. “Versatility of attachments almost makes their uses unlimited.

“Today’s machine offers cleaner, quieter, and more comfortable cabs than did older models.” Improved ergonomics boosts long-term operator care, helping keep muscles and joints in place. When deadlines loom, operators can take on longer days without exhaustion.

“These machines are built to make money, to be comfortable to run for long periods of time. A comfortable operator is a more productive operator.” He comments that new machines offer better visibility, which leads to greater safety, as well as being able to dump dirt and debris into high-rise trucks without spillage.

Furthermore, thanks to improved lighting and HVAC, those in the northern tier of the US are able to keep working when the sun and temperature goes down. “It makes for better performance in snow removal. Here in Wisconsin, improved heating keeps you warm.” During summers, cooler cabs keep operators on the go no matter the humidity and temperature.

Electronic communication also is a far cry from the days of hand signals. So is daily maintenance ease. Increased on-site service work helps reduce time and money needed for those repairs. Hughes concludes, “A skid steer can rack up thousands of hours until it’s retired, simply from age or new model improvements.”

Quarry Success
Phillip Brown, founder and president of Alabama Wholesale Stone in Oneonta, AL, an $8 million a year operation, has 11 skid steers, two equipped with removable tracks, along with 26 other pieces of machinery used in our operation. “I started quarrying over 20 years ago, when I had to work for gas money in an abandoned quarry on my dad’s property.” Brown’s first line of tools for removing stone consisted of a shovel, pry bar, and wedges. He then loaded the freed stones on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor.

Machines have replaced much of the back labor. “We excavate the stone from the quarry and palletize it. Fork-mounted skid steers move the stones to a breaker that develops them into finished products for everything from commercial sales, retail sales, or use on landscaping projects involving site work and sheathing individual homes.” Outsiders may think a quarry produces a single product, but Alabama Wholesale Stone offers its customers many varieties of natural stone, brown and blue sandstone, riverstone, moss/fieldstone, and all in many sizes and finishes. “Our products can be viewed at www.alastone.com. Quarrying our own products gives us control over the quality of our products.

“Breaking stone is fairly simple. Skid-steers move two to three slabs at a time to a 10- to 12-foot-long conveyor at the breaker. The machine then breaks these slabs into smaller pieces, which takes 20 to 30 minutes. We mine year-round, only missing approximately 20 or 25 days due to intolerable weather. We typically work 11-hour days in the summer and nine hours in the winter.

“We service our skid-steers and other equipment every 250 hours, and keep them greased at regular intervals. Some of our machines have more than 4,000 hours on them, but seem to operate just as good as when they were new.” He also comments that his 12 dump trucks take stone to specific job sites throughout the Southeast, as well as dumping overburden a mile away in a ravine on the family farm.

Working In the Mud
While skid-steers play a major role in small footprint operations, its cousin, the track loader, also is designed to handle tasks where solid surfaces aren't part of the landscape. “Any attachment you can run on a skid steer you can run on a track loader,” comments Mike Ross, division sales manager for Takeuchi-US.

“Skid-steer loaders [SSLs] excel when working on flat, dry, and paved or concrete surfaces. Compact track loaders [CTLs] work well in applications where traction is an issue. This includes soft or muddy conditions, steep terrain, and uneven ground.

With soft ground conditions, a CTL gives you more bite to the ground. They’re also more economical when dealing with grading work, especially on steep slopes.”

As with others attending the ConExpo, new CTL designs from Takeuchi Manufacturing will be on display. “The TL120, which came out in mid 2007, is our smallest trackloader. It’s 58 inches wide, has a 52-horsepower engine, and weighs in at about 6,000 pounds. It has a tight-turning radius so it can get into narrow spots."

Whether the machine of choice is a skid steer or a trackloader, there are limitations to total effectiveness of each. Having both in the equipment lineup makes it possible to use whichever machine can more economically handle a particular task. Both types continue to gain greater shares of the market for moving dirt and debris.

Skid Steers Keep on Truckin’
Danny Nabors, salesman for Tiger Equipment Inc., a Case dealer in Tupelo, MS, comments, “Skid-steers and mini-excavators have overtaken backhoe sales.” With 25 years in the industry, Nabors has seen increased uses for skid-steers, regardless of the size and type of operation. “There are a lot of trencher attachments on skid-steers, including power rakes and leveling boxes. They can handle jobs as small as seed beds to prep yards for individual homes.”

In the dealer’s marketing area, one unique use involves three- to four-story collectors that separate slag from lignite coal. “They wanted the smallest machine possible because they would be using it strictly for pushing the slag out of the way. Before, they had been using a $100,000 vacuum truck. It performed well, but was costly to maintain. Two years ago, they bought one of our 40XTs and found the return on investment took just three to four months, because the skid-steer worked more quickly and kept the site cleaner than the vacuum truck.”

Nabors adds that a land development firm uses its track machine with a brush cutter to help prepare the ground for moving dirt. “That skid-steer with a brush cutter can work on a 2:1 slope. It’s used after all the marketable trees have been removed. The job is to cut saplings up to 3 inches in diameter so site preparation can be completed.

“A skid-steer does everything from clearing the land and flattening lots, to cleaning up around houses and loading waste into a dump truck. Today’s skid-steers carry a fast-learning curve. It takes just about an hour for experienced operators to get comfortable with a new machine.” Ease of learning how to use a new skid-steer really helps in the contractor’s decision on which model to buy.

Helping Winning Bids Win
Most operators tend to be brand loyal, but some use different brands for different applications. One such company is Stewart Environmental Construction Inc., Tupelo, MS. Owner and Chief Executive Officer Clay Stewart reports his firm takes on projects within a 150 to 300 mile radius. This brings in $3.5 to $3.8 million a year in annual sales. “Our main focus is large commercial landscape construction involving hardscape construction, irrigation systems, large landscape planting, athletic field, and golf course construction.” Most projects of this scale leave little or no room for error.

Neither is there any room for bidding mistakes. “We won a bid on a $1 million project. I knew, with the help of skid-steer loaders, we could lower our production cost, and we did.” When asked how much Stewart Environmental won the bid by, he responded, “Less than 1%.”

Stewart adds, “We’ve got five skid-steer loaders, three of which are track type and the other two are rubber tire. Most of our machines are relatively the same size, and we mainly use Case track type machines with one Caterpillar rubber tire loader.” His favorite attachment, for the Case track-type machines, is the laser level system for grading. It consists of a Level Best, dual function laser box, two tripod mounted lasers (Rugby 400 dual-plane laser by Laser Products and Slope Master cone type laser by Laser Products), hydraulic laser control box, and laser receivers. His company began using this laser system three years ago. It can grade within .02 of a foot. Steve Crawford, operations supervisor for Stewart Environmental, indicates that product use has increased dramatically since putting this laser system in production.

Stewart explains, “We began laser grading twelve years ago with a hydraulic Buffalo Box pulled by a tractor unit with a dual plane laser system, and we still use this system.” They went to the new system, because it mounts on the front end of a track type skid steer, allowing them to grade in any direction. Also, mounting on a track type skid steer helps them grade more material without bogging down in wet conditions. “This gives us a lot more days of production.”

One strategy that ensures high quality and profitability is in-house operator certification. “Normally, it’s a bit of a contest. The foreman makes a recommendation after an employee has six months with the company. Then the decision is made whether an employee is capable of handling certain pieces of equipment. A candidate has to have a minimum of 4 hours class time and 12 hours onsite experience. “Initially, a new operator gains onsite experience by moving materials such as dirt, gravel, mulch, trees, shrubs, et cetera. As he gets more familiar with the machine more tasks are added.”

Stewart Environmental Construction utilizes many different attachments. One such is a Lift-A-Chute. “We use this attachment for gravel, sand, and sometimes concrete, to be installed in a trench or footing. It’s mounted on the bucket, and hydraulically closes down on materials in the bucket like a clamshell. Then with an adjustable chute, 2 inches by 12 inches in size, the materials are poured into a trench or footing with no overspill.”

Another favorite attachment is the trench-tamping wheel, which eliminates ground settling. It mounts on the front of the skid-steer and the wheel is centered between the tracks. The tamping wheel rolls and tamps the trenches. “It is a major labor-saver over manual-operated compactors. The skid-steer operator can tamp 3,000 to 3,500 feet in a four-hour period, rather than two men with ramp tampers taking 10 hours to do the same distance.” Other attachments include a power rake (for tilling, grading, and preparing large turf and bed areas), grader blades, power brooms, and jackhammers.

After commenting that skid steer attachments have helped increase their skid steer use tenfold in the last five years, Stewart comments that an anticipated return on initial cost is 75% on the first project with a 12-month return on investment. Stewart, with co-owner Sallye Stewart, president of Stewart Environmental Construction Inc., says, “Our goal is to produce the best quality product available. To do that, we have to be more diversified in our work strategy and this includes the type equipment that we use on a daily basis.”

After Safety Comes Comfort
Manufacturers and users alike agree that safely operating a skid steer is prime. Then there’s operator comfort. “Almost half of our sales today have enclosed cabs, heaters, and ac, but increasing visibility is number one,” declares Gregg Zupancic, product marketing manager for John Deere skid-steers and track loaders. “Superior visibility is essential, because skid steers work in tough and tight places.”

Zupancic adds that those wanting to get in the dirt-moving business, including cleanup, retaining walls, and land clearing equipment, tend to take on skid steers to help boost opportunities to care for a greater range of customers. “That’s one reason our focus is adding different sizes and price points to our skid steers—and also introducing attachments sized for the new models. The most common attachments, after a fork and a bucket, include augers, hydraulic trenchers, demolition equipment, and landscape rakes. In the winter, snow blades and hydraulic snow blowers also are popular.”

He agrees that CTLs are becoming increasingly popular, with companies wanting both SSL and CTL equipment to ensure a more consistent production level, regardless of surface, terrain, or weather conditions. Lighter, smaller machines are popular, because anything under 10,000 pounds doesn’t require a commercial driver’s license. They’re also easier to haul from worksite to worksite.

Zupancic comments, “All equipment is not the same when it comes to performance, uptime, and lower daily operating costs. Keep in mind there will be days that a contractor is generating income with a CTL versus no income if he has only a skid-steer.”

Keeping Busy When It’s Cold
Another advantage with skid steers is they’re a year-round machine. Just ask Lee Keenan, Vice-President of Purchasing and Production for Countryside Industries Inc., a $25 million a year family firm headquartered near Chicago in Wauconda, IL. “Snow removal plays a major role in our winter activity, and with the right attachments, skid steers can move a lot of snow in a short time.”

Come summer, activity heats up even more, with 37 skid-steers helping the company handle projects that include high-end commercial work, rooftops, retail developments, homebuilders, and municipal jobs, such as school and roadside construction involving seeding or sodding.

“Attachments for our skid steers include forks, silt-fence installers, trenchers, augers, and hawk buckets for installation of trees. Skid steers give us the ability to safely move and install materials with speed. They’re quick to maneuver and are very efficient vehicles.”

Still, he emphasizes, a crucial component to utilizing skid steers involves the individual operator. “Our operators average 15 years of experience. Our goal is to give them a piece of equipment they enjoy. Comfort has increased greatly over the last year or so. Skid-steer improvements are not as dramatic as they were a decade ago, but manufacturers continue to refine the basic machine.”

In Countryside’s case, the focus is not on hours for machine life; rather, they stress preventive maintenance to maximize the life of a given piece of equipment. “We have an aggressive maintenance program to maximize their use. When it’s time to consider a new machine or another attachment, we try them out before making a commitment. Basically, our purchases are based on operator feedback. We also depend on distributors to keep us informed of changes.”

But when you’re a larger player in the game, how do you decide which jobs to take on? “We’ll install projects ranging from $5,000 to $5 million. We value relationships and servicing our existing clients. If they ask us to do a project, regardless of its size, we do it.”

When it comes to bidding new work, Countryside prefers to focus on projects where they won’t be one of 20 bidders. “We prefer projects that people are committed to quality and have deadlines. In those cases, they are more selective to whom they will award the project.”

As with other highly successful grading companies, quality of work helps ensure the customer will contact them for the next job. “We don’t have a defined sales staff. We’ve built our business based on relationships and trust. It’s a given that one goal for any company is to make a profit so that company can stay in business. But our employees understand our goal also is primarily to service and please the customer.”

Another important goal is safety. Countryside Industries requires hardhats and safety glasses on all projects. The firm also gives out monetary awards for meeting safety goals. Keenan closes, “We promote from within because we know who’s getting in the cab.”

Maintaining a Low Debt Profile
What happens if a contractor is underpowered for jobs he wants to take on, but hesitates at the price of a new machine? Kent Pellegrini, multi-train loader industry manager for Caterpillar, Peoria, IL, comments, “Rental is an obvious solution. Then, when a contractor feels prepared to take on a skid steer, the work is to get the right model for the right jobs. He also needs to consider where he will be in a year or two so his company doesn’t outgrow that new machine.

“It’s a greater investment to buy a larger machine, but a better long-term investment. The biggest mistake one can make is buying just to get by. Attachments or work tools help skid steers for many tasks, but those can be rented for niche jobs. When renting proves more expensive than buying, it’s time to get your own attachments. It’s tough to spend a lot of money. Most contractors are wise on what they actually need to use.” That’s where research, including attending trade shows, can make a difference.

He concludes that the key highlights for buying today’s skid steer includes air-ride suspension seats and radio-ready cabs.

Regional Trends
New Holland is another leading producer of these versatile machines. Dave December, New Holland’s brand marketing manager for skid steers and compact loaders, notes the firm has been producing skid-steers for 36 years.

Four district managers comment on trends in their regions. Regarding Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, Paul Hottovy says, “The demand is for SSLs with 3500-pound to 4000-pound rated lift capacity. About 84% of our customers want wheeled machines, while the other 16% buy track.”

The top five selling attachments in his territory include low-profile buckets, pallet forks, earth augers, pickup sweepers, and brush grapples. Popular features of intros in ’07 include higher HP units that can still be configured to 66 inches in width, and 72-inch width units that will fit most SSL trailers. “The expected life of our machines is 4,000 to 5,000 hours or higher.”

Working concerns include serviceability, operator safety, and operator fatigue. The ability to be able to lift the machine up into tall buildings for space renovation, or lower the machine into building foundation sites is important. “Skid steer loaders are often one of the first pieces of equipment to arrive at a construction site and the last piece to leave.”

Cary Dail, district manager for Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, says, “A skid-steer is one of the least expensive pieces of equipment in a contractor’s fleet. “The major shift along the East Coast to CLTs is their ability to deal with wet ground conditions. But, rubber tires are more affordable with initial cost and service expenses.” Buckets, hammers, blades, backhoes, and planers are the top five add-ons in his region. In his area, skid-steers are used for poultry house cleanout, landscape preparation, road reclamation/paving, concrete work, and tree spading.

Down south, Tony Guaglirado, says the trend in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, is more units for a given contractor, with larger units a favorite upgrade or fleet add-on. He emphasizes, “Be sure to buy enough machines to do the job without overbuying.”

He notes that there are some unusual uses for skid steers. “Chauvin Bros. in Belle Chasse, LA, use units to clean loose grain on barges and push it on the conveyor. These units run 24 and seven whenever grain is off-loaded from barges into ships.”

For North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Greg Rodriguez reports, “These machines continue to grow in the marketplace as the must-have tool. I would liken the skid steer to the shovel in the average household—most people have one around. Every contractor finds themselves justifying the purchase of a skid-steer, and then eventually getting a larger unit because of its versatility.”

He also reports that the market for CTLs has grown from 13% in 2005 to 17% in 2007. “I don’t see the market for CTLs going beyond 20% in my territory.” That said, North Dakota, due to its gumbo soil, has a CTL demand reaching 50%.

Size range, price, operational ease, attachment diversity, and the ability to take on many different projects, make skid-steers a popular member of a company’s fleet.           

Joseph Lynn Tilton specializes in waste and transport issues.

GEC - March/April 2008

Home | Search | Subscribe | About | News | Advertise | Register | Services | Industry Events
Keep Informed | Contact Us | Current Issue | Back Issues | ForesterPress | StormCon

© FORESTER MEDIA, INC.
P.O. Box 3100 • Santa Barbara, CA 93130 • 805-682-1300