Reading a skid steer spec sheet

Rated operating capacity is the figure every dealer leads with, and it is not what the machine can lift. It is a safety fraction of tipping load, which is the weight at which the back end comes off the ground.

For wheeled skid steers the fraction is settled: half of tipping load, and all 55 wheeled machines here follow it. For track loaders it is not settled. 73 of the 90 here are rated at 35 per cent, and 17 at 50 — those being Case, New Holland and Wacker Neuson.

That is not a rounding difference, it is about a third. The clearest way to see it: the largest advertised capacity in this catalog belongs to the Case TV620B at 6,200 lbs. Measure every machine the same way and the biggest is actually the Cat 285 XE. Nothing is wrong with either maker's number. They are answering different questions.

Every machine page here shows the advertised figure, the fraction it represents, and the tipping load underneath, so you can do the comparison yourself rather than taking ours.

Tipping load is the physical measurement: load the bucket until the rear wheels or tracks lift, and that is the number. Because it is measured rather than chosen, it is the fairest single figure for comparing two machines from different makers.

One caveat we mark on the machines it affects. Some makers publish the advertised capacity and the fraction it represents but not the tipping load itself, in which case dividing one by the other recovers it exactly. That is a re-expression of two published numbers, not an estimate, but it is not a measurement either — 32 machines here say so on their own page.

A radial arm swings through an arc. It reaches furthest at mid-height and pries hardest down low, which is what digging, grading, backfilling and dozing actually need.

A vertical arm keeps the load close to the machine and reaches highest at full extension, which is what loading a high-sided truck or stacking pallets needs. Buying the wrong one is a mistake no amount of engine specification fixes. Of the machines here, 101 are vertical and 44 radial, and the split is close to the split in what people do with them.

Lift height is quoted to the hinge pin, not to the top of a raised bucket, so the usable height is lower than the number by roughly the depth of whatever is on the front.

This is the decision everything else follows from, and it is a question about your ground rather than about which machine is better.

Tracks spread the machine's weight, so they work wet ground, slopes and soft fill that stop a wheeled machine. You pay in undercarriage: it is a wear item measured in thousands of dollars and it is the running cost that surprises first-time buyers. Wheels cost a fraction of that to keep, move faster between jobs, and do less damage to finished surfaces — and they sit down in mud.

Rental fleets still buy wheeled machines for exactly that running cost. Owner-operators working dirt mostly buy tracks.

Auxiliary hydraulic flow is what decides which attachments a machine can actually run, and it is the most expensive thing to get wrong, because the attachment often costs as much as a down payment.

Standard circuits here run from 8.9 GPM to 45 GPM. A bucket, a set of forks, an auger, a grapple or a broom will run on almost anything. A cold planer, a mulching head or a large brush cutter needs high flow, and will bolt onto a standard-flow machine and then run badly or not at all. 126 of 145 machines here offer or include a high-flow circuit.

Watch two things on a quote. High flow is usually an option rather than standard, even where a brochure implies otherwise. And some makers sell a third tier above high flow that adds pressure rather than volume, which matters for a different set of attachments again.

Operating weight decides what you can move between jobs without a second truck, and it is the spec buyers underestimate most. Machines here run from the Bobcat S70 at 2,892 lbs to the Case TV620B at 16,300 lbs.

Only 28 of 145 come in under 7,000 lb before attachments, and you still have to add the trailer and the bucket before comparing against your truck's rating. Weight is not purely a cost either: a heavier machine is a more stable one at full reach, which is why the figure appears beside tipping load rather than on its own.

Engine power here runs from 23.2 hp to 132 hp, and it matters less than buyers expect. Hydraulic flow decides what attachments you can run; capacity decides what you can lift. Horsepower mostly decides how hard you can work both at once without the machine bogging.

The line worth knowing is 75 hp. Below it, an engine can usually meet emissions rules without diesel exhaust fluid, which means no DEF tank, no consumable to buy and no regeneration cycle to sit through. Above it, the full aftertreatment package arrives. Several makers have deliberately tuned machines to sit just under that line, and it is a real running-cost difference rather than a technicality.

31 of the 145 machines here show no price. That is not an oversight. Heavy equipment is dealer-quoted, a few makers publish a starting figure and most publish nothing, and an invented number would be worse than a blank.

Where a machine has no published price we show what comparable machines list for instead — the middle half of the prices of same-type machines within 15 per cent of its capacity. Every figure in that band is a real published price on a machine you can go and look at. It tells you roughly what money you are in. It is not a quote.

Where a price is shown, treat it as a tier rather than a figure. An enclosed cab with air conditioning, high-flow hydraulics, two-speed travel or a self-levelling bucket can each move the total by five figures, and regional dealers price the same machine differently.

47 machines here are the same hardware sold under two badges. Case and New Holland compact track loaders come off one line in Wichita. Gehl and Manitou are the same machines with different paint. Several of Yanmar's 2026 track loaders are ASV machines in Yanmar colours.

We list both, because you can usually buy either, and cross-reference them on each page rather than presenting them as alternatives to weigh against each other. When the hardware is identical the real question is which dealer is closer, which one answers the phone, and which one you would rather owe a service call to. That is worth more than most of the specs above it.