I need a little advice guys. I need to clean up some corners on my lots. Since we dont get much snow here normally most clients will sacrifice a few parking spots vs cost of stacking the snow with a loader. This year is different and the lots are getting full of snow. The question is will a skidloader break loose the bottom of the piles that are hard and icy, or is a wheelloader a better choice. I can rent either one, there is a large difference in rental fees obviously and I've used skid loaders in the past. I know the wheel loader will stack higher and faster than a skid but is it necessary, although I'm dying to play with one. How is the visibility from the loader, can you see what you are doing? I.E curbs, turf etc. Thanks in advance.
Practice Most wheel loaders you can see pretty well, but if I were you I'd definetly practice before you take out some curbs. You need to go easy so you can "feel" stuff before you tear it out.
Lawnboy, I don't think the question of the skid steer breaking the ice and frozen snow at the bottom of the pile is a problem. The problem my be the time it takes to perform such a task. It will do it, just not as fast and easily as a wheeled front end loader. Like you said stacking with the loader can stack piles high, but with time a skid steer can do the same by buiding a slight ramp up the pile. Suggestion may be to see how much stacking there is to do. If it's one or two piles then Skid steer is maybe a better way to deal with it. Or if it's 20 lots then of course the larger loader is more efficent. There a some quite nice compact loaders larger than Skid steers size but smaller than ones normally seen at construction sites that have excellent feel and visability. This may be the way to go. As guido said, a little practice wouldn't hurt either. Bottom line, time is money. It's possible for the skid steer to do what the loader does, just a little longer to do it. But I can still understand the need of playing with a new "toy". Sometimes it's worth it!
If they are delivering it,and you have a lot of work,go with a samll wheel loader,you might only need it a day ,and skid steer 4 days to do the same job.I've moved piles once in my uncles 5 yd loader,there is no way a skid steer could ever stack this high or drive up near vertical piles.There are somethings skid steers just cant do,if the pile could be gradually inclined,then its possible,but we had only a small area to put a large amount of snow,so the pile was very steep.
The wheel loader will move more snow and stack it higher,the skidsteer will move the snow faster but in smaller quantities.The skidloader will manuvre around cars better and leave a better finished product.When we clean up lots we often use both because they don't do the same thing.If you have little experience with a wheel loader I suggest a larger skidloader with a light materials bucket, unless you need to have altitude on your pile. One smashed car can really eat into the profits for the day.
Thanks for the help fellas, I was wrong as there were no wheel loaders here for rent that were not already spoken for, so after 14 hours in a skid loader i got all my piles moved. Just as I was finishing about 2am Tues morning, the freezing drizzle started, go get the sand truck, get that done by 6am, started to snow, oh well who needs sleep anyway. LOL
I know you're already done, but I wuz going to suggest you rent a rubber-tired backhoe. They are not much more on a daily basis to rent, and will do three or four times the work. Also, we always send a plow truck with the B/H for support (fuel, tools, transport for coffee and pee breaks, etc). The truck will clean things up in half the time and let the B/H travel to the next job. We just did a 13 hour shift of this - it works well.
