Takeuchi
Takeuchi TL12R2
The bright segment is what Takeuchi TL12R2 is rated to carry; the grey run past it is the rest of its tipping load. Bar length is tipping load drawn to the same scale on every machine on the site, so a short bar is a smaller machine and not a conservative rating.
Land clearing, forestry mulching, and hard digging are what the radial-lift version of Takeuchi's large-frame track loader is built for, rather than truck loading. The TL12R2's 111.3 hp Kubota V3800 turbo-diesel feeds an available 40.4 GPM high-flow circuit, bucket breakout tops 8,200 lbs, and the heavy 12,590 lb frame with Takeuchi's stout undercarriage keeps it planted on slopes. Where the vertical-lift TL12V2 chases lift capacity, the R2 trades reach at height for a simpler, stronger boom that attacks the ground.
Suits: Maximum breakout and high-flow power in a radial-lift frame for clearing, mulching, and grading Its radial lift path reaches furthest at mid-height, for digging, grading and backfilling.
Lifting and reach
- Rated operating capacityTrack loader rating convention
- 2,975 lbs
- Tipping load
- 8,630 lbs
- Lift height to hinge pin
- 126 in
- Lift path
- Radial Lift
- Operating weight
- 12,590 lbs
Power and hydraulics
- Engine power
- 111 hp
- Engine
- Kubota V3800-TIEF4B
- Auxiliary flowStandard circuit
- 23.3 GPM
- Flow type
- Standard
- Warranty
- 2 yr / 2,000 hr
Fitted or available
What this machine can be ordered with. Some of these are standard and some cost extra, and which is which moves between trim levels, so check them against the quote rather than against this list.
What owners report
Summarised from the sources listed below. Nothing here was tested by us.
Digging and clearing, not stacking, is the brief this machine answers. Takeuchi's radial-lift large-frame track loader shares its 111 hp Kubota V3800, its 23.2 gpm standard circuit and its 40.4 gpm high-flow option with the vertical-lift TL12V2, but arranges the boom for force rather than reach - and the published figures bear that out, with more breakout at both the bucket and the lift arm than the pricier machine manages.
What owners buy it for is land clearing and heavy dirt work, and the machine is specified accordingly: 14,010 lb of tractive force, heavy guarding with a polycarbonate door and steel bumpers, double and triple flange rollers, and - genuinely useful on this kind of work - a tilt-up operator station and swing-out coolers for cleaning out packed debris. The cab comes properly equipped with a roll-up door, a suspension seat and a 5.7 in display with a rearview camera. The recurring complaint is the emissions system rather than the machine around it: the Kubota engine carries a particulate filter and a DEF tank, and owners report repeated DPF alarms, failed manual regenerations and shutdowns mid-burn, with dealers slow to resolve them because diagnosis runs back through the engine maker. Undercarriage is the other running cost, and mulching abrasive ground sits at the punishing end of the 800 to 2,000 hour range Takeuchi's own guidance describes.
A factory mulcher carrier that will rarely lift a pallet is what a land-clearing or excavation outfit gets here. If pallets and truck loading are even a third of the work, the TL12V2 is worth its premium for 1,135 lb more rated capacity and more height. Before signing, order the high-flow circuit if forestry work is the plan because it cannot sensibly be added later, price the counterweight if you need a little more capacity, and ask the dealer specifically how they handle regeneration faults - on a machine that earns its keep in remote clearing work, support response is a bigger risk than anything on the spec sheet.
What owners like
- It out-digs its more expensive vertical-lift sibling. Bucket breakout is 8,210 lb and lift arm breakout 8,075 lb, against 7,874 lb and 7,109 lb on the TL12V2 - so the cheaper machine pries harder at both ends despite carrying less.
- 14,010 lb of tractive force behind a 111 hp Kubota V3800 turning 276 lb-ft at 1,500 rpm is what lets it keep a mulcher or a grapple loaded instead of stalling and re-gathering.
- The optional 40.4 gpm high-flow circuit at 3,481 psi makes it a genuine factory-built mulcher carrier rather than a machine adapted into one, which is why it shows up so often with forestry packages.
- A radial boom has fewer pivots than a vertical-lift linkage - fewer pins and bushings to grease, less to wear, and less to flex when a heavy attachment is hanging off the front all day.
- The counterweight option is a cheap way to close part of the gap to the vertical machine: it lifts rated capacity from 2,975 lb to 3,291 lb and static tipping load from 8,630 lb to 9,400 lb.
- Service access is thought through for dirty work - a tilt-up operator station and swing-out coolers, which matters enormously on a machine that spends its life packing its own radiators with mulched debris.
What owners complain about
- Rated capacity is 2,975 lb against the TL12V2's 4,110 lb on the same conservative basis. Contractors whose week is pallets, block and truck loading are simply in the wrong specification, and the counterweight only recovers about 300 lb of it.
- Radial geometry pulls the load back toward the machine near the top of the arc, and at 10 ft 6 in to the hinge pin it also reaches lower than the vertical machine - loading high-sided trucks is noticeably clumsier.
- The 111 hp Kubota carries both a particulate filter and a 4.8 gallon DEF tank, and owners report the same pattern seen across this engine in Takeuchi machines: repeated DPF alarms, manual regenerations that fail to complete, and shutdowns during automatic burn cycles.
- Dealer resolution of those faults has been slow because diagnosis depends on the engine manufacturer rather than sitting with Takeuchi alone, and Takeuchi's dealer coverage is thinner than Caterpillar's or Bobcat's in much of the country - which matters most when a land-clearing crew is standing still.
- The 40.4 gpm high-flow package is an option, not standard. A machine bought on the standard 23.2 gpm circuit is not economically convertible into a mulching machine afterwards, so the decision is made once at order time.
- Undercarriage is the dominant running cost and mulching is the duty that punishes it hardest. Takeuchi's own guidance wants track tension checked at the start of every shift or every ten hours and loosened as packing conditions worsen, with realistic track life running from roughly 800 hours in punishing conditions to 2,000 hours in clean earthwork.
- At 12,300 lb with a canopy and 12,590 lb with a cab, before a mulching head that can weigh well over a thousand pounds, transport is a one-ton-and-gooseneck proposition rather than a trailer behind a pickup.
- A 31.6 gallon tank disappears quickly under sustained mulcher load, so fuel and DEF logistics have to be planned into remote clearing work rather than assumed.
Drawn from takeuchi-us.com, allmachines.com, compactequip.com, skidsteerforum.com.
What buyers ask
Why would I buy this instead of the higher-capacity TL12V2?
Is it a real mulching machine from the factory?
What does the counterweight actually gain me?
Does it have DPF and DEF problems?
What will the undercarriage cost me?
Put the Takeuchi TL12R2 against
Machines in the same range
The rest of the Takeuchi line
Takeuchi
Takeuchi TL11R3
$92,000
- Engine
- 107 hp
- Aux flow
- 23.1 GPM
- Weight
- 11,980 lbs
First of Takeuchi's new 3 Series track loaders, the TL11R3 is also the company's first with electric-over-hydraulic joystick controls. The 107.3 hp Kubota turbo-diesel drives a radial-lift boom rated at 2,735 lbs, with up to 40 GPM of high-flow auxiliary hydraulics for mulchers and planers. The EH system switches between ISO and H patterns, adds electronic self-leveling and adjustable sensitivity, and an 8-inch touchscreen with standard 270-degree rearview camera anchors a redesigned quiet cab. Takeuchi Fleet Management telematics comes standard for five years.
Full sheet & owner reports
Takeuchi
Takeuchi TL12V2
$95,000
- Engine
- 111 hp
- Aux flow
- 23.2 GPM
- Weight
- 13,195 lbs
111 hp of Kubota diesel drives the Takeuchi TL12V2, a large-frame vertical-lift compact track loader. It's one of the highest-capacity CTLs available, prized for its lift performance, durability, and value from the CTL pioneer.
Full sheet & owner reports
Takeuchi
Takeuchi TL10V2
$78,000
- Engine
- 74 hp
- Aux flow
- 18.8 GPM
- Weight
- 10,270 lbs
Built heavy at over 10,000 lbs with a 74.3 hp Kubota diesel, the Takeuchi TL10V2 is a mid-frame vertical-lift compact track loader from the company that invented the CTL. It sits between the TL8 and TL12V2 for contractors who prize Takeuchi's tank-like construction and undercarriage.
Full sheet & owner reports