Theocus

3 year warranty!!!! brilliant, serious contender for my next machine. Just needs to be a 7-8 inch machine!

Have a look at the Dalen from Marshall Engineering. Takes upto 20 inches and is built simply and strong. Looked at a lot of others on the market, although cheaper and appear a good concept etc the Dalens along with the Posch are hard to beat.

Maybe give them a call to discuss the issues, but the predator 350 is a laski machine, so it can be seen in various versions from Greenmech, Predator and a few others which i forget. Its a bomb proof design, i have the 450 and i too have found these faults with mine. The rubbers will fall off and tear due to the nature of how they are worked, i have now replaced mine with chains. The throttle will work loose but should just be an adjustment or the tightening of a nut (i may be wrong but on the basis of the 450 it should be!). My exhaust has also snapped 3 times at the manifold. An easy fix with a welder but as you say at 30 hours this shouldnt happen and maybe an additional bracket may be needed somewhere. The multitip is aggressive but very good at what it does. Im sure you will get a good response from the boys at Predator.

I have had these boots for years, i find if i wear ski socks i get cold feet, again i guess they make my feet too snug and therefore they get cold. But..... if i have a thinner pair of good socks my feet get toasty, its an oddity but it works. I even have the insulated tongue out as well!

I have just bought one today and now just read this thread!!!! going to inspect mine for burrs and wearing defect as it going to be used on Poison Ivy. You guys got me all paranoid now!!!!

try cliff at Boxer Uk, he might be able to help with a skid steer.

For sure, the little skidsteers are not the quickest machines, i think the Vermeer ones are about the fastest available. As you say, every machine has its niche.

Apologies, my last reply said "but prob can lift as much" i missed off the T, skidsteers cant lift as much. Kimtree, you live in OZ where you have proper size vehicles and a lot more room!!!! My boxer can fit in the back of my Iveco Daily and the stumpy next to it. but dont expect to have any chip in the back!!!!!!

I'm not sure of what the fear is of destroying lawns with a skidsteer. An articulated loader cannot do zero turn or have the manoverability of a skidsteer. The ground pressure is about 3 psi so it makes very little impact on a lawn. Sure do doughnuts all day long and your client won't be happy with you, but use a couple of boards on your turning points and hey presto, easy life. Skid steers are very compact in comparison to articulated loaders but prob can lift as much. It's amazing where you will get with zero turn and I'm sure in the wrong hand wheels will make a mess too! I have never had a client complain about our machine on the lawn to this day!!!

Just having a bucket is very restrictive. We have a grapple bucket for ours and when we move big sections the pallet forks are very useful.

Here's ours again assisting with some processing!!!! Home made griddle to sort out the logs from the kindling!!! Really handy bits of kit.

just found a couple more skid steer work pics from years ago. This hedge was about 60m long and predominently thorn and brambles. We had it nailed by lunch and were planting a new beech hedge in the arvo! Great bits of kit these Boxer skid steers

The winch is obviously hydraulic. Its capacity is approx 4 tonnes which obviously is too much as the skidsteer weighs only 1 tonne!! the rollers on the boxer are on bearings and the adjustment is on a spring, to tension the tracks you wind out the springs and they tensions themselves, to take them off you wind in the spring! simple design.

That would be a second hand price. New they are 14 I think. Mine is the middle of the range version . Well done Jon for spotting my spoof picture!!! We got something a little bigger to move that!!!

That is a bad site. Boxers second hand are a rare thing indeed. Expect to pay anything from 8-10k for one i guess depending on condition. In comparison to a tractor and i guess you mean like a kubota or something small. With out trying one myself, the advantages of the skid steer is the zero turn which is very very handy rather than forward and back into a position like a wheeled machine, its abilty to lift about 600-800kg weight on the front depending on the model is brilliant. Traction is very good and it can push along big logs of over a tonne more. The attachments are also endless, we have a grinder, pallet forks, winch and grapple. I cannot rate these machine high enough, they just make sense.

Cheers Jon, its always worth trying to see what she can carry!!!! Took 3 of us to pull it!!!!

This is the trolley truck having a bit of a hard time!!! didnt go on the public highway luckily this day!!! Just under 500kg too!!!

Just to wet your appetite and open up your mind to what you can do with one of these things!!! Life just becomes much much easier!

Yep, we pull just about everything with that skid steer. It will tow the Vermeer about all day long. We even feed the Vermeer with it if I'm feeling lazy!!

Definitely, my old Timberwolf was like that! some days i dream of a machine that doesn't take 3 people to push it, i borrow a 25hp 5" timber wolf on occasion and its brilliant, but it just doesn't eat wood like the 200 does.!!!

Okay okay, i should of said, if you need to fix it one day then as its made from predominately good quality steel then you may choose to use a welder or possibly a hammer!!!! My old Vermeer 620i with 2500 hrs needed some welder TLC!!!

We have the BC200 which isnt made any more but is a 7.5 inch machine. We chose Vermeer as they are very solid and handle material very very well. They are a little heavy but you would expect that from a machine not designed either to a budget or weight restriction. I cannot say we have had a trouble free ordeal with the machine but for the whole its been a very good workhorse. We have tried many others including bandit, jenson, timberwolf, Greenmech etc and in the 7.5 inch catogery the Vermeer has produced better results than its competitors. This again with a smaller engine but a large mass fly wheel and running gear and pumps from the BC1000 it has been better against others even in side by side comparisons. I would indeed say that a lighter 6" machine you should look at Jenson/greenmech or timberwolf. 7.5" look at a second hand Vermeer or Bandit and larger than that well i would Demo again bandit or Vermeer. Great thing is you can fix both with a welder or a hammer!

Here are a few pics from today, we were winching out dead elms from a hedgerow, instead of ruining the existing thorn hedge we mearly put the winch above the hedgeline and pulled tem straight out! Brilliant bits of kit. The uses are endless with these machines, and the winch you cannot buy but you can make yourself like i did!

Aint it cool!!! i love projects. Makes sure you get plenty of pics of your build on here. For all to follow! Chargeur Frontal Plus

im intrigued too, i have the boxer but i want to know what that is going to be?