Best used CTL/Track Steer????

[Garrett2006]

What’s the best used tracked skid steer/CTL for someone that’s very experienced on tractor work, but looking to add a skid steer to the Arsenal & only played on a couple here and there. Will best used for grading yards, driveways and pushing dirt. Also, looking to use it for mulching later on down the road once I can get my heads on a mulching head. So, I know I need a high flow unit. What’s the best and strongest for someone starting out with one. Thanks

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I like running Cats, and the 299d, is a nice machine. I have ran them before, but they are out of my price range for personal use.

 

[WeedyJ]

I think the mulching head possibility may help rule out a lot of them. I understand that you need not only high flow, but good lift capacity. I bought the Bobcat T770 new 2 years ago. If I get to the property once a week, that's a good day. And we do not crank it during deer season It's now due for the 500 hour service if that tells you anything about how much I love it. My buddy literally does nothing anymore outside of bobcat work. When I was researching, it seemed like they all had pluses and minuses, but because a dealer is 15 minutes from my house, and they have numerous attachment I can rent, I went with them. The other feature I like is that the engine will bog down if you put too much load on it. This lets you stop and back off, keeping you from blowing the engine. My one mistake was getting a dozer blade simply because we don't use it. My buddy can grade with the bucket great. As far as used, I can't say, but I would think that any of them would be good IF they were maintained.

 

[247Deer]

I bought a CTL last year first one. I had run quite a few on job sites before my advice would be buy the biggest machine you can afford if you want to run a mulching head and by a machine with hand controls much easier to operate as a beginner. Also a HD mowing/brush cutting deck can do as good a job as a mulching head I just cleared this area for a food plot last week

 

[247Deer]

I can’t get photo of what I cleared to upload says file is to large but here are some other places I cleared

 

[WeedyJ]

Agree with what he said about brush cutter. Unless you are needing a lot of heavy duty mulching, there are some good brushcutters. I chose the Blue Diamond Extreme duty High flow closed front mower. cuts 5-6"diameter saplings, but also mows my clover. A mulcher would do heavier stuff and faster, but don't need it that bad. Stump grinder next on my list I got the skid steer first, so don't have the tractor mowers, etc. One pic from last year. Grapple has been HUGE for me as well when it comes to clearing.

 

[kl9]

Don’t waste money on a mulcher. Not worth it.

Get a high flow machine with 2 speeds and hand controls. Brand doesn’t matter much. They’re all very similar


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[Garrett2006]

I have a Brown Rotary cutter for the tractor. So I guess I could get away with notnhave the Mulcher on the CTL. The Brown is a beast & cuts just about anything I throw at it within reason.

 

[247Deer]

Not the same one is PTO driven one is hydraulic driven I have a Vail mower for my skid steer that can cut an 11 inch tree

 

[Catscratch]

I love skid steers but geeze they can be expensive to work on! I'm currently trying to fix a Cat that sprung a hydraulic leak out of the cooling fan motor. Cat want's $650 for a new fan pump... and they don't carry a rebuild kit so they kind of have you over a barrel. In fact, I can't find a rebuild kit anywhere. I took the motor to an o-ring specialty store yesterday and they had never seen any seals like it. I'll try to engineer something today but what will probably happen is I'll fork out the $650 because they don't sell the $1 part... for a softball sized motor that turns a plastic fan!

 

[Catscratch]

And now... the rest of the story.

When I took the motor apart there were these plastic or nylon "backups" inside that had deteriorated over time and were crumbling apart. They kept pressure in and without them in the shaft seal was getting full pressure (which it couldn't handle).

The goofy things weren't just round, but had two different depths built in.

Cat to me I shouldn't have opened it up and that "those parts aren't even listed with the factory... just buy a new pump". Instead I took some o-rings and cut them in half to fit in the deeper grooves, then placed an uncut o-ring on top so that all channels were filled.

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[Catscratch]

Unfortunately the backups can't still up more than a few thousands, and my orings stuck up a lot.

What this did was compress the bearing blocks into the gears and bind them up once the thing was all bolted together. :(

My solution was to superglue the orings into the bear blocks and rub them face down on a piece of sandpaper on the table. This flattened things out nicely and got me within specs.

Bolted it all back together and ran the steer until it was low on fuel. No leaks and it solved the intermittent overheating problem we've been having the last couple of years (I'm guessing this motor has been slowly declining for a while). Saved about $700 in repairs and didn't have to have the machine sit while waiting on parts to ship.

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[bjseiler]

Do most rotary cutters need high flow too or only the forestry mulchers?

 

[WeedyJ]

I know with some cutters you can get either option. The guys at Blue diamond told me that the high flow will come back up to speed faster when cutting heavy.