By Pete Hawthorne

The Gehl skid steer line offers some of the nicest equipment for moving rocks, gravel, dirt and other items in a hurry. They have many sizes of skid steers to meet your project needs. Their top model, the 7810E is the most powerful skid steer on the market in the world. If you need to move earth or other large items a Gehl skid steer is the choice for you.

You can find a Gehl skid steer to fit your needs if you do construction work, landscaping excavating, logging, or farming. They have the size machine to handle big jobs fast or ones small enough to get in those tight places. Gehl has skid steers ranging from 24 hp to the 99 hp model 7810E. Their skid steers have lifting capacities between 850 lbs and 3850 lbs to handle those heavy projects.

Gehl offers many options in the control features of your skid steer. You can get any model with hand foot controls, joystick controls, or dual hand controls. You can choose the control feature you are comfortable operating.

Gehl skid steers are great for the landscaper that has to move rock and dirt. They can backfill, and shape a lawn in a hurry. You can use the Gehl to spread black dirt and smooth it out before sodding or planting grass. They also are excellent choices to haul rock and other items used in landscaping.

Contractors can use the skid steer to level the ground and other site work. They can also use it to move materials around and lift them up to second floors and roofs. You can get boom attachments to lift truss rafters and poles.

Excavators will use these powerful machines to backfill and shape the grade around buildings. They may have a grapple attachment to do prep work on a building site. A Gehl skid steer will shape a driveway or parking area fast so it can be paved or spread class 5 on it.

Around the farm a skid steer of the Gehls capabilities is a must have. They will assist the farmer on many occasions. They will cleanup livestock areas in a hurry saving the farmer back breaking work. They also come in handy if there is a grain spill or other disaster. A skid steer will aid them in repair work to equipment by lifting and carrying heavy items around.

Gehl skid steers are ranked tops in many classes. These are the machines that will last when you put them to work for you.

By Dick Atkinson

Skid loaders are one of the most unique and versatile specialty tractors available. One of the nicest things about skid loaders now days is they are just loaders. It used to be that a skid loader to start button on the front and that is all that can be done with it was haul and maybe dig. Now days skid loaders are used for so many different things in their productivity and labor saving features are a great benefit in many circumstances, for example–

In demolition

For snow removal

In clearing land

For a plant nursery

Of course for farming

and also construction

Skid loaders have advanced over the years and become much more convenient to operate, easier to maintain, And all in all more, functional and useful.

The most interesting aspect of this progress is the accessories that are available to enhance the usability of your skid loader. Skid loader accessories such as various sized and shaped buckets, tree spades, stop grinders, trenchers, dumping hoppers, we all saw, wood chipper, grapple, brush extractor, concrete mixer, and the list can go on and on.

Some of these skid loader attachments are static in nature and just operate with a tilting at lifting of the bucket mechanism. Still other more intricate attachments have their own hydraulic systems in order to do more complex operations. For example the concrete mixer as I hydraulic motor on it to rotate the concrete mixing barrel, while the bucket motion is used for dumping and of course the skid steer can drive the mix or wherever the concrete is needed. It’s much like your own little ready mix plant. The concrete mixer attachment is so useful because it saves most or all wheelbarrow work, and thus is much safer And very laborsaving.

There is also a barrel handler, or drum handler that is used to maneuver lived and even don’t 55 gallon barrel. The safety benefits alone of this attachment is incredible. So many people get hurt trying to move 55 gallon barrels either from the strain of moving a barrel that could be upwards of 500 pounds, or from it falling on them and injuring them. If you have need of moving barrels this could be a very advantageous tool for you.

If you regularly need to dig holes for posts or other construction there are whole lockers put on the front of skid steers that are very useful. These whole lockers can be used for putting fenceposts in, highline posts or With a very large alter you can dig a hole as big as 5 feet depending on what you are constructing this could be a very useful attachment for your skid loader.

If you have need of a backhoe, there is even a backhoe attachment for the front of a skid loader. Granted it is not as versatile as a true backhoe but depending on what you are doing it may in fact do the job sufficiently for you

Most of us have seen three point mounted brush mowers. With a three point mount attachment on a skid loader along with the PTO drive a brush more may be attached to the front of a skid loader. With that same three point hitch attachment a whole world of three point attachments opens up for use in a skid loader. For example discs, tillers, log splitters, the list here goes on and on as well.

If you have thought of the getting a skin loader, but were unsure if it’s usefulness would be worth the investment I’m sure you’ll find that the plethora of attachments now available for skid loaders could very well make the purchase well worth it.

By Dick Atkinson

Skid Loaders have been around for many years, but never have there been so many skid loader attachments available.

Now days a skid steer is not just a loader, or a piece of equipment for scooping and moving dirt and other material, just about any imaginable attachment that can be conceived has been made for the skid loader.

When I was a kid we had a Gehl Skid loader on the farm that we used for so many tasks.  We did all of the things with that skid loader with just the bucket that came with it.  Of course we used it for cleaning the free stall shed and barnyard, that was the primary purpose that it was purchased, but there were so many other uses for it as well.

We mixed cement in it by hand for small concrete jobs, hauled grain with it, used it as a portable scaffold, and I even replaced the engine in my first car with it.  Looking back, it was one of the most useful pieces of equipment that we had.

Today you can get attachments that will do so many things with you skid loader including a backhoe, brush mower, grapples, ditch diggers, barrel handlers, earth augers, pallet handlers, round ball unwrappers, stump grinders, rock pickers and power brooms just to name a few.  At this moment I am sure there are more skid loader attachments being dreamed up and manufactured.

If you have a specific job to do, there is a good chance that you can find an attachment for you skid loader to accomplish the task.