Excavators and Mini skids

A

ajblease1

Location
Bartlett, NH
My plan is to purchase a machine within the next 30-45 days. I am just starting my business and taking some strain off my body is top priority. I want to limit moving brush and wood by hand as much as possible. I'm on the fence between excavator and mini skid. Could those of you who have experience with both share your thoughts? If you use an excavator, what size and model is it? Do you use it for things besides tree work?
What mini skids are yall using? Do you put them to work outside of your tree work needs?
 
There are already quite a few threads on here regarding various machines and their advantages disadvantages so I won’t go into which mini to buy, but I’ll give an opinion on the excavator v. mini skid question.

An excavator with a rotating grapple is an excellent machine for feeding a chipper. However, it is a lousy machine for dragging brush out of a back yard. It will be just plain slow. A mini skid feeds a chipper quite well with a bit of practice, and is a great machine for pulling debris long distances. If you are buying only one machine, and you are primarily using it for trees, I would recommend the mini skid with a Branch Manager grapple.

As for what machine to buy, I like minis in the 1000 pound operating capacity class. Much smaller is not very productive in my mind. I’m a fan of both Ditch Witch and Vermeer, but there’s others out there as well, and many that are good - a lot of the decision comes to personal preference and dealer support.

We only do trees, so we rarely use a loader for anything other than moving brush or logs. However, in my past (landscaping and excavating) I ran both machines for earthwork and both do well at it, provided you’re using the correct machine for the task at hand. An excavator digs holes well, but doesn’t do finish grading. A mini skid will finish grade nicely, but good luck digging footers for a house with one.
 
Subbed for a guy with a mini excavator with a thumb on the bucket. I was genuinely surprised at the weight that machine would lift and the precision he had while running it.

Retractable track width but still pretty wide compared to mini skids I think and it absolutely destroyed the lawn though. Wish I could remember the model, something from Bobcat.
 
We run both. We have an sk650, sk850, and a yanmar vio35 mini ex. We have a bmg for the mini skid and a thumb on the excavator. The excavator will pick up around 4000 lbs so it outlifts the mini skids by a good bit. It's great for storm work. We can lift fairly large pieces off with it. It's got so much reach that we can normally pick apart a storm fall tree. It also works really good for keeping our wood lot clean and organized. Its nice to be able to stack stuff high. We are planning to put a grapple on it at some point. Feeding the chipper doesn't work very well with a thumb. We occasionally dig out a stump or two but thats normally the only digging we do. Sometimes well dig the dirt off a tipover. It weighs 8k.

While the excavator is awesome to have, a mini skid goes with us on just about every job. They excel at fitting in tight yards and feeding the chipper. They are lighter and take a smaller trailer to move around vs the excavator. If I had to choose one machine to start out, it would be a mini skid. I'd still buy the mini ex as soon as I could.
 
Mini will be much more usable over an excavator - and we do tree care and landscape installations. I rent a mini excavator about 6x a year - not enough to warrant a purchase. We use our mini every day. I bought an auger attachment for the mini tree planting - quicker than using an excavator.

Only limit to a mini I've found is lifting height, lifting capacity (we just cut weight in half for tree work but it can't lift a pallet of pavers), and can't dig nice footers for wall installations.

I use my mini to go to the mailbox, carry my coffee, and high five the crew.
 
My first loader was a bobcat 325 mini excavator with grapples. And I quickly found out the same thing @Reach said: excavators are great for sitting in one place and feeding chippers or loading logs into trailers or working on steep ground but they suck for traveling any distance. So my next purchase was a branch manager 254t. It is all the things the excavator isn’t, it’s fast, small and agile. If I was on relatively flat or gentle terrain all the time and could only have one machine I’d choose the branch manager. I’ve never tried the mini skids, they look like they would handle steeper ground better than the 254? I think that regardless of what you choose you’ll be far more productive than you are now.
 
ajblease1 said:
My plan is to purchase a machine within the next 30-45 days. I am just starting my business and taking some strain off my body is top priority. I want to limit moving brush and wood by hand as much as possible. I'm on the fence between excavator and mini skid. Could those of you who have experience with both share your thoughts? If you use an excavator, what size and model is it? Do you use it for things besides tree work?
What mini skids are yall using? Do you put them to work outside of your tree work needs?
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What kind of tree work are you doing? Clearing, residential, what volume? Chipping or hauling material? If residential and chipping go mini all day long. I use my mini for many projects at home and wouldn’t have the same use for an excavator. Grapple, bucket, and forks on a 40” wide tracked machine can accomplish a bunch around a farm, fuck wheelbarrows.
 
It’s been decades since I’ve used a excavator, but I still sometimes will plant the bucket of the mini and try to turn the tracks.
 
ajblease1 said:
Thanks for the input. I've decided on a mini skid and will be purchasing a Vermeer CTX100. If I need an excavator or big machine they are much easier and cheaper to rent than a mini.
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Good choice. I like the CTX100. I’m not a Vermeer fan, but that machine is a big exception, as I love the controls, both the smooth operation and the placement of the auxiliary hydraulics lever.
 
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