ASV RT-65-1C

Mid-frame radial-lift machines usually compete on how much they lift for the money, and this one deliberately does not. What it sells instead is ground pressure - 4.2 psi from a 7,400 lb loader - and a suspended undercarriage that lets an operator use the full 9.1 mph across ground where a rigid-track machine of the same weight has to crawl.

ASV rebuilt this generation from the frame up, replacing the hydraulics, engine, controls, wiring, pumps and hoses rather than restyling the old machine, and the result reads like a much more expensive loader from the seat: a colour display, a suspended adjustable seat, a roof escape hatch and self-levelling that works in both directions. The cooling package is specified to carry full load at 118 degrees F, which is the number that decides whether an attachment works through a July afternoon. Underneath, independent torsion axles hang the track frame off the chassis and the bogie wheels flex beneath that, damping ground shock twice before it reaches the operator. The cost of that design is a lot of wear parts: bogie wheels, idlers, bearings and seals that a rigid undercarriage simply does not have, plus tracks that cost more per set and dislike abrasive material.

Landscapers, utility contractors and acreage owners are the constituency - wet ground, finished turf, septic and spring work where rutting is the expensive mistake. It is the wrong tool for rock, concrete and demolition. Before signing, price the options separately, because two-speed travel, ride control and high flow all live on that side of the sheet; ask for the undercarriage parts list in writing; and measure how far you would actually drive for a bogie wheel, because thin dealer coverage and softer resale than the Cat and Kubota equivalents are the two costs this machine's purchase price hides.