CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT: Big Productivity, Little Package

Imagine a skid-steer without the cabin, boasting 360-degree views, and a myriad of attachments that would make any contractor green with envy. You’ve just created a mini skid-steer, also known as a stand-on compact utility loader. 

The landscape industry began buying up mini skid-steers and compact utility loaders in the mid-1990s, when contractors saw that they were useful for more than just material handling. Mini skid-steers were first used in countries like Australia and Canada, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, where they were used to move dirt and clean out barns, says Kevin Smith, product manager for compact utility for Ditch Witch, Perry, Okla. “They began to see the benefit and the versatility of multiple attachments, and multiple functions with a single unit,” he says.
        
The use of mini skid-steers by landscape contractors gained prominence in the mid-1990s largely because the market began to focus on more than just upper-end clients. “They were looking for a machine that could help reduce their dependence on hand laborers and bulkier pieces of equipment that didn’t perform well in many of their applications,” says Greg Lawrence, marketing product manager at Toro, Bloomington, Minn. And landscape contractors were looking for ways to reduce their costs and increase their productivity.
 
“When they started looking around at the jobs and tasks at hand, they needed a productive, compact, versatile piece of equipment and mini skid-steers began to answer that,” Smith says. “From that, manufacturers have continued to evolve those units to help contractors perform better on those jobs.”
 
Since the machines are stand-on or walk-behind, the operator can see 360 degrees around the equipment while working. “The 360-degree visibility that you get when you’re on these machines is something that we continue to hear contractors raving about,” Lawrence points out. “If you’re working in tight, confined areas, the ability to see all the way around you while you’re working continues to be a positive on these machines.”

Mini skid-steers allow contractors to work in even more confined and congested areas than larger, sit-down skid-steers. “Landscaping is not just happening in rural American anymore,” Smith says. “It’s in urban areas, downtowns, subdivisions that have 10 feet of room between the houses. You just don’t have the room to put traditional, bigger equipment in there. That’s part of why there’s been a shift to these smaller machines.”
 
Because mini skid-steers can access these areas, they allow landscape contractors to mechanize jobs that could only be done by hand before, completing jobs faster and with less manual labor, says Aaron Kleingartner, loader product specialist for Bobcat, West Fargo, N.D. “Instead of hiring two or three extra workers to dig holes for trees and shrubs, one operator can mechanize these tasks in half the time with an auger attachment on the mini track loader,” Kleingartner says.
 
The uses for mini skid-steers continue to grow as new attachments are designed. “Though mini track loaders don’t have the lifting capacity of a full-size skid-steer loader or compact track loader, they are able to easily lift materials and perform smaller jobs,” Kleingartner explains. A landscape contractor might use a mini skid-steer for grading in a constricted area, digging holes for trees or fence posts, installing irrigation, demolishing a concrete patio or steps, hauling sod or paving stones, or sweeping driveways and sidewalks.
 
One of the more unique duties Smith says mini skid-steers are being used to perform is in building trails. “We’ve had an opportunity to have them used in a fair amount of building recreational trails that people are used to seeing in parks,” Smith says. “It’s one of those applications that many contractors may not think about.”
 
Also, space limitations continues to push the use of compact utility loaders. “Over the years, residential lot sizes have decreased – homebuilders are maximizing land by placing larger homes on smaller lots and building homes closer together,” Kleingartner points out. “Because of this, landscape contractors have less space to maneuver when completing tasks such as grading, sod and irrigation installation, and placing hardscape materials.”

EVOLUTION OF A MIGHTY MINI MACHINE. While the basic design of the mini skid-steer or stand-on compact utility loader has remained the same over the years, manufacturers have introduced a wide variety of attachments that radically change the duties that can be performed. Mini skid-steers come in both wheeled and tracked varieties and offer a range of horsepower. “The evolution of the compact utility loader means more choices,” Lawrence says. “Landscape contractors can select a model based on the type of fleet they currently have, ground/soil types, altitude and climate, and the attachments they will be operating.”
 
The small size of mini skid-steers and low ground pressure means the machine is very unlikely to break up concrete on a sidewalk or tear up grass or turf. “A lightweight, versatile machine has the ability to solve the needs of the job while minimizing turf damage,” Lawrence says. “This gives the contractor the peace of mind knowing they will not have to go back and replace sod on a job.” And the machine’s size makes it easy to load and unload on trailer and transport from the jobsite.
 
What started as a simple bucket machine that hauled dirt from one side of a jobsite to the other has grown into a true multi-function machine. It has hundreds if not thousands of duties it can perform while on the job. Mini skid-steers can minimize contractor investment on the job, while increasing productivity. “It allows a contractor to take one unit to the jobsite one day and do all of the tasks that he needs in that day,” Smith says. “If you take a crew of guys with shovels, and you give them a powered piece of equipment, their productivity will go up.”
 
Many times, contractors buy mini skid-steers intending to reduce their labor force. But sometimes that’s not the result. “So they actually end up expanding their businesses, taking on more work, while still being able to maintain their same labor force,” Smith says. “These machines have evolved and can do anything from clearing the land prior to hardscaping, all the way down to laying sod.”
 
Compact utility loaders are ideal for landscaping, general construction or virtually any application where efficiency can be improved through the replacement of hand labor to bolster profits, Lawrence says. The most popular attachments are earth augers, trenchers, soil cultivators, underground boring units, tillers, vibratory plows and power rakes. “The breadth of attachments enables these compact units to perform big-machine applications like grading soil or carrying large rootball trees,” Lawrence says.
 
The stand-on design of the mini skid-steer gives the operator immediate access to the jobsite without having to exit the machine from a sitting position. The same applies to walk-behind versions. “Walk-behind machines deliver an added degree of comfort because the operator is not actually on the machine and does not need to ‘hold-on’ to secure themselves while operating the equipment,” Lawrence says. “For some, it may be less intimidating to walk behind a machine than to ride on one.”

A MYRIAD OF USES. Many landscape contractors look to mini skid-steers as an entryway into expanding the services they provide. “The range of attachments that contractors can purchase and rent makes the list of applications almost endless,” Lawrence points out.
 
Lawrence has seen irrigation contractors using mini skid-steers with a variety of attachments, such as trencher attachments or vibratory plows to install pipe, trench fillers for covering an open trench, underground boring units for pulling pipe under driveways and sidewalks, augers for installing valve boxes and buckets for hauling materials. Still other contractors use attachments such as backhoes, pallet forks and buckets to build decorative ponds. Mini skid-steers equipped with hydraulic breakers can be used to take out walls on demolition jobs and then to clean up after the job is complete with a broom or bucket attachment, Lawrence says.
 
The terrain on which the mini skid-steer will be operated will determine the track. Aggressive track is used for hardscape work, such as digging out a pool, where the operator needs to get a lot of traction on the ground. Turf-friendly track is smoother and is designed to be used on sidewalks and turf. With this type of track, less or no damage is done to the ground because the tracks don’t grip as hard.
 
While mini skid-steers could be considered expensive, the benefits should be weighed before thinking the price is out of the ballpark. The typical unit with a bucket attachment can range in price from less than $10,000 to more than $20,000. Most machines landscape contractors use range in size from 1,000 pounds to 2,500 pounds. The final price will depend on the horsepower, size and attachments purchased.
 
Contractors should try to accurately match the machine to the job for which it’s needed, Smith says. “A fencing contractor who’s drilling post holes all day doesn’t need the high horsepower performance that someone who is using a high-consumption attachment – like a tiller or a stump grinder – would use,” he says.
 
If there’s one drawback to using mini skid-steers, it’s that some landscape contractors get too ambitious and try to use them for a larger job than intended, Smith says. “They are so productive that people try to do more with them than they should.”