Opico Skidster or sherpa mini loaders

[deezyboy]

I have an opico skidster and it’s pretty ancient (comes with cool retro 80’s decals) I ebayed it on a whim locally for 3.5k and it came with a range of attachments which are handy but I must admit that I’ve never used. Post auger, cement mixer, fencing tools, log splitter came with it but I need to replace the ram seals. 

Being only a metre wide, yeah it’s no avant but it only comes out she shred rarely when we have a large takedown or drag but it saves the day. Bought a log grab from kelfri which works but has broken several times due to cheap metal, and the actual grab itself bent last week after a solid day of grabbing and carrying brash piles stacked with a tree shear to the chipper. I have the long ‘dangling’ grab which is handy as you can manually rotate it depending on what you need and I also have the upclose, ‘fixed’ grab for what I call ‘Vermeer style’ grabbing, which I mainly use for grabbing and ripping out hedge removals etc once cut.

the ram seals went on the kelfri grab which is by far the weakest component of the entire machine, the actual machine will lift anything with enough guys stood on the back for ballast, and with a Honda Diesel engine, it’s smokey but does the trick. 

Also used it to empty out horse stables etc with the buckets (muck grab is on the Christmas list)  

like someone above said, it’s no avant but it doesn’t cost me a monthly finance bill and when it comes out on a job we are always pretty surprised and the guys are much appreciative of it loading the wood for them.

[deezyboy]

[Coletti]

Does that fixed style grab rotate at all?

[swinny]

9 hours ago, deezyboy said:

9 hours ago, deezyboy said:

I have an opico skidster and it’s pretty ancient (comes with cool retro 80’s decals) I ebayed it on a whim locally for 3.5k and it came with a range of attachments which are handy but I must admit that I’ve never used. Post auger, cement mixer, fencing tools, log splitter came with it but I need to replace the ram seals. 

Being only a metre wide, yeah it’s no avant but it only comes out she shred rarely when we have a large takedown or drag but it saves the day. Bought a log grab from kelfri which works but has broken several times due to cheap metal, and the actual grab itself bent last week after a solid day of grabbing and carrying brash piles stacked with a tree shear to the chipper. I have the long ‘dangling’ grab which is handy as you can manually rotate it depending on what you need and I also have the upclose, ‘fixed’ grab for what I call ‘Vermeer style’ grabbing, which I mainly use for grabbing and ripping out hedge removals etc once cut.

the ram seals went on the kelfri grab which is by far the weakest component of the entire machine, the actual machine will lift anything with enough guys stood on the back for ballast, and with a Honda Diesel engine, it’s smokey but does the trick. 

Also used it to empty out horse stables etc with the buckets (muck grab is on the Christmas list)  

like someone above said, it’s no avant but it doesn’t cost me a monthly finance bill and when it comes out on a job we are always pretty surprised and the guys are much appreciative of it loading the wood for them.

 

That would fit the bill for me perfect deezyboy! All I need. Just wish I could find a Nice one now at a reasonable price.

[craigblues]

Did you have any luck finding one?

[swinny]

21 minutes ago, craigblues said:

Did you have any luck finding one?

I was looking... There was a really rough one at 3500 plus vat then a lot cleaner one around 7500.00

 

Bought a mini digger and grab in the end. Lot better for me

[craigblues]

54 minutes ago, swinny said:

I was looking... There was a really rough one at 3500 plus vat then a lot cleaner one around 7500.00

 

Bought a mini digger and grab in the end. Lot better for me

Out of interest, where did you see them? I’m on the look out at moment. Lots of dodgy ads on eBay.

[doobin]

Just reviving this thread as I'm about to pull the trigger on a Sherpa 100.

[dumper]

3 hours ago, doobin said:

Just reviving this thread as I'm about to pull the trigger on a Sherpa 100.

Another loader!  Can you get the avant multione buckets to fit?

 

 

 

 

[doobin]

1 hour ago, dumper said:

Another loader!  Can you get the avant multione buckets to fit?

 

 

 

 

You can with the cast loader as the headstock is the same. However all that would really work would be something like the leveller, as anything else would be most of your payload gone in just the bucket! I had the cast on demo and it worked well with the multione leveller. 
 

this is for narrow access, so starting with a 76cm grapple bucket. Will probably manufacture a larger bucket for when it’s on the wider wheels. Coming with grass tyres and a set of narrow tyres. Gonna make my own backplate to fit the multione pallet forks as the 600 long forks these mini loaders come with are only really fit for busting out the middle of a pallet!