Narrow access loaders

[Dbikeguy]

Struggling to find half decent staff here in Derbyshire, so looking at ways to speed jobs up with less of us…

 

We do a mix of tree work but slowly landscaping is taking over, garden rooms etc.

 

Cast worky quads look like they could be very useful, bucket for waste out and stone in, forks for carrying materials, grab for tree work etc

 

Anyone using such a thing?

 

[doobin]

You’ll never loose by replacing labour with a machine. I don’t use anything as small, but I liked the look of the giant 252D. The main criteria for me would be the ability to get the width down to 750mm with narrow wheels if needed- better to be able to get a smaller machine into every garden than have a larger machine you can’t use on some jobs. 

Wheels vs tracks- I’d try wheels. Yes you can’t lift as much, but small loaders (I have a multione) excel at repetitive lift cycles. Wheels make so much less mess compared to tracks in a garden. 

 

They seem to hold their money very well, so I say crack on and give one a go, let us know how you get on. 

[dumper]

Don’t discount power barrows wheeled or tracked, most little loaders are skid steer so wheels or tracks are not much different on grass I would look to wheels have a look at a kanga , try out as many as you can find look at hydraulic flow the more the better, a lot of the little narrow machines struggle to load a 3.5 truck so you might also need a low trailer

[woody paul]

Still got to lift it into powered barrow, places with narrow access we use trolley to get out wood in large lumps then pick up with tractor and timber trailer or just take small loader or digger and put it on truck. 

Edited September 19, 2021 by woody paul

[Dbikeguy]

You’ll never loose by replacing labour with a machine. I don’t use anything as small, but I liked the look of the giant 252D. The main criteria for me would be the ability to get the width down to 750mm with narrow wheels if needed- better to be able to get a smaller machine into every garden than have a larger machine you can’t use on some jobs. 

Wheels vs tracks- I’d try wheels. Yes you can’t lift as much, but small loaders (I have a multione) excel at repetitive lift cycles. Wheels make so much less mess compared to tracks in a garden. 
 
They seem to hold their money very well, so I say crack on and give one a go, let us know how you get on. 

width is what led me to things like the worky quad over a Avant rear steer type machine as they all seem to start at 1m wide which rules out half the clients i’ve had this year.
i’ve used mini diggers and tracked power barrows etc so used to the damage they cause.. so defo on wheels…

[Dbikeguy]

Don’t discount power barrows wheeled or tracked, most little loaders are skid steer so wheels or tracks are not much different on grass I would look to wheels have a look at a kanga , try out as many as you can find look at hydraulic flow the more the better, a lot of the little narrow machines struggle to load a 3.5 truck so you might also need a low trailer

I use power barrows where ever possible on jobs as they carry far more so rather than a fleet of wheel barrows it’s far more buckets in one and no effort to get waste out and skipped.

I like the multi attachment options of mower, flail etc making it a more useful tool.
With the bucket a mini digger can dig it out and pile it while another user moves it out to a pile/skip this improving work speed (no waiting to load a power barrow whilst it’s dumping

[dumper]

Get one on hire or demo the buckets are not that big on small skidsteer, the worky gets good write up you won’t regret trading labour for machinery. I keep some boards for turning on, skidsteer on wheels still makes a mess of lawns you can’t have too many toys!!

[doobin]

48 minutes ago, Dbikeguy said:

 

I use power barrows where ever possible on jobs as they carry far more so rather than a fleet of wheel barrows it’s far more buckets in one and no effort to get waste out and skipped.

I like the multi attachment options of mower, flail etc making it a more useful tool.
With the bucket a mini digger can dig it out and pile it while another user moves it out to a pile/skip this improving work speed (no waiting to load a power barrow whilst it’s dumping

 

For attachments you need flow- options in the higher hp range that can still shrink down width wise are limited. Giant 252D with the Kubota D722 seems the best on paper to me, but I got no further than pricing up. 
 

The multione has been a revelation to me as regards using it instead of a dumper. It’s amazing how much quicker it is to just rip or pull out the material into a windrow with the digger, then scoop with the loader. A 4-in-1 bucket is a must in my book. 
 

The nice thing about the setup you are considering is that it would all fit on trailer easily- micro digger plus micro loader. 

[carver83]

Also the Sherpa loaders "slightly" more compact and cheaper then the cast, hadn't had any hard use from mine yet but great for tidying yard and moving logs about and fits in the van.

[Stephen Blair]

What an amazing looking machine!