# Skid Steer Plowing



## winteroasis (Feb 8, 2006)

I am thinking of getting a skid steer for plowing snow right now I have one truck and need something else. How do you guys transport them? Could it be used instead of a truck?


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## Jay brown (Dec 26, 2005)

ours has a two speed so we drive ours from site to site. our commercial accounts cover about a 5 mile radius. you will find that a skid steer is almost twice as fast plowing than a truck.


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## itsgottobegreen (Mar 31, 2004)

One skid loader with a 8' push box is as productive as two pickup trucks with 7.5' blades.


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## MickiRig1 (Dec 5, 2003)

Depends on what you would be plowing. 
You get a big condo complex with 100 + drives and circles you could really cleanup. The normal size plow trucks take longer to clear drives & circles where the skid steer with a power angle plow can make short work of the job.
The regular plow truck comes through and clears the streets, the skid steer then clears the drives and circles. Then again a compact truck with a plow could do the same job with alot cheaper purchase price.
You would have to trailer the skid steer to the site with another truck or unhook from the plow truck you have and have an operator to drive the skid steer. This adds cost and complexity to the equation at 3 in the morning.


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## Kramer (Nov 13, 2004)

itsgottobegreen said:


> One skid loader with a 8' push box is as productive as two pickup trucks with 7.5' blades.


Kind of curious,,, how'd you figure that??


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## Jay brown (Dec 26, 2005)

Kramer said:


> Kind of curious,,, how'd you figure that??


field experience???


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## itsgottobegreen (Mar 31, 2004)

Kramer said:


> Kind of curious,,, how'd you figure that??


Well with a plow your only using 3.75' of blade width on a 7.5' plow.

3.75 plus 3.75 = 7.5 which is still less than 8

On a push box your using 8' of blade width all the time.



Jay brown said:


> field experience???


YEP that too. We had one lot that was requiring two trucks full time along with a skid loader with a 60" bucket. We tried a push box for the first time. I put the two trucks on other lots after 2 hours. The skid loader was kicking ass. The trucks where just sitting idle. I only had to come in once every 2 hours to plow open the main entrance. 

Since then, we try to put as much heavy equipment out there as we can. Plus you can charge a hell of a lot more for a loader than a truckpayup


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## winteroasis (Feb 8, 2006)

I demo a Bobcat S250 and a John Deere 325 today what would you guy pick. I am leaning towards the Deere for 2 reason 1) will cost alot cheaper and 2) my trailer is not wide enough for an 8' balde so I will have to transport with boom slighty raised to clear the side of the trailer, the bobcat will not let you open the door with the booms raised.


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## itsgottobegreen (Mar 31, 2004)

If you want super easy to work on machines that run and run and run forever. Get a bobcat. You see more beat to death bobcat machines with 12,000 hours on them. How many deeres have you seen with that many hours on them. You can have the entire motor out of a bobcat in under 2 hours. Try that on a john deere. Remember bobcat was the first and spends all their R+D money on skid steer design. Where as john deere skidsteers is a very small branch that gets very little R+D. Remember New Holland built the JD skids steers for years. 

As for the 8' protech / trailer problem. Thats easy. Just nail down a couple of 2 by 12' to where the front tires would have to sit on the trailer. You just cut the end on an angle so you can just drive right up them. The boards will raise the tires up enought to be able to set the boom all the way down to open the door. Been there and done that.


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## Big Dog D (Oct 1, 2005)

winteroasis said:


> I demo a Bobcat S250 and a John Deere 325 today what would you guy pick. I am leaning towards the Deere for 2 reason 1) will cost alot cheaper and 2) my trailer is not wide enough for an 8' balde so I will have to transport with boom slighty raised to clear the side of the trailer, the bobcat will not let you open the door with the booms raised.


FWIW I tried the Bobcat S-300, Deere 332, and the Cat 262. It came down to a coin toss between the Cat & Bobcat both performance wise as well as financially. I was always a long time Bobcat guy but figured that I would try the Cat out for something different and bought the CAT 268.

The Deere in my opinion is a big clumsy non user friendly POS. If all you care about is the color or having lots of power, go for it but other than that I didn't care for much on the machines they offer. I'm not bashing it I'm just giving my honest opinion/review as I own and love my Deere 410E Hoe, Deere 50zts mini-X, and Deere 350C blade dozer and am kinda partial to Deere stuff.


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## bobcat s-160 (Feb 27, 2007)

you shouldn't even have to asked go with bobcat they hold up very wellwesport yea some people say they cost too much but you get what you pay for


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

Blizzard plows work great on Skid-steers. I would still say on large lots trucks are just as efficient if not more than a skid-steer. Its on the small tiny tight lots where a skidsteer shines


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## 02powerstroke (Nov 7, 2006)

stuff it on the trailer and drop it off the night before trailer in the snow isent my idea of fun.


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