Opico Skidster or sherpa mini loaders

[woody paul]

Much easier forward, walking up with a foot on each ramp behind the machine as doobin says

Not the way to load, as said weight is above you and if something goes wrong your under it. 

 

 

[PatrickFirwood]

2 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Sorted!

 

What do your ramps lock in to to preventing them from sliding off?

[Mark Bolam]

Pins drop through holes in the ramp ends and through holes drilled in the bed.

[Mark Bolam]

49 minutes ago, woody paul said:

Much easier forward, walking up with a foot on each ramp behind the machine as doobin says

Not the way to load, as said weight is above you and if something goes wrong your under it. 

 

 

True, but it feels far more likely that something will go wrong if you reverse load it!

 

You aren’t meant to be stood on the machine when either loading or unloading, forwards or backwards.

[doobin]

I bet everyone on here tracks a tracked chipper up a ramp standing behind it without thinking about it?

 

The thing is, mini loaders are a lot more twitchy than a tracked chipper. The 13hp models can also run out of steam loading in reverse up a ramp with a heavy operator on them. That's then super dangerous because if you stall it you have no engine braking and it will run away back down the ramp.

 

Ideally you would use long ramps on a low trailer. For the more adventurous who wish to load into a transit- standing behind it is the most controlled method in my experience.

[woody paul]

Small loaders like you are talking about plus avant, Tobroco are rear heavy so that is why you should load backwards. Tracked chipper is more balanced then any loader. 

 

[Mark Bolam]

Paul, send me a video of you reverse loading your wheeled stand on mini loader up ramps into a truck so I can see how to do it please.

Ta.

[doobin]

11 hours ago, woody paul said:

Small loaders like you are talking about plus avant, Tobroco are rear heavy so that is why you should load backwards. Tracked chipper is more balanced then any loader. 

 

Agree re avant, but we are talking about pedestrian mini skid steers. Where the operator is the counterweight. Remove the operator and they are front heavy.

Edited Friday at 06:59 by doobin

[Blah]

Back to oil change on the Sherpa. Anybody work out a good method to catch the oil out of the drain plug (which sits literally about a fag paper above the Sherpa floor) without making an almighty mess and half the oil going underneath the counterweight? Obvs the counterweight is heavy and an arse to remove.

 

Also, what's the spec of the hydraulic filter that wants replacing every 6 months according to the manual? And where to get one?

[Blah]

On 17/01/2025 at 06:58, doobin said:

Agree re avant, but we are talking about pedestrian mini skid steers. Where the operator is the counterweight. Remove the operator and they are front heavy.

Also really depends on if you have an attachment on, and which one. I load mine forward on an ifor flatbed trailer with 8' ramps. I stand on the back more often than not. Sometimes raise the grapple to move the weight further out and make it more front heavy. 

 

I would only contemplate reversing it up without an attachment on.