doobin

But you mentioned the Sherpa and WorkyyQuad, which are the same class as the Opico! If transport or space are not an issue then you could get a proper compact loader, not a pedestrian loader. A secondhand Avant or similar.

So easy. You just push down with the bucket, and the front comes up. Keep pushing and the back platform comes into contact with the ground, keep pushing and then that lifts up too! 17mm socket and a medium extension bar on a battery impact gun and you'll change them all in under five minutes.

Secondhand Opico, currently between 4 to 6k?

What John said... You'll barely notice the extra tailswing, you will notice the easier reversing. Main issue with bigger trailers is if they are wider- we amassed probably five tyre kills over a couple of years with the widest Ifor plant trailer, since switched to a GX1054 and good as gold. Having a clumsy c**/t retire probably helped also.

Yes. Just like you would loading a tracked chipper into a trailer.

About the long and short of it as far as I'm concerned. The only pincer type I might consider is a lightweight Intermecatto mounted along the same plane as the face plate, so that I can carry things like strainer posts (or bits of butt) vertically, but still be able to load them onto a truck. People always try to use these loaders like you would an Avant. Two people on the back, etc. They're not for that- you still have to cut things up, but you don't have to carry the lumps afterwards. Lightweight, but quick, repetitive cycles and nobody getting tired.

As you mainly want to lift, it's no contest, get a loader. Tractor loaders are just a total pain, and unless your work was more like 75% field work and 25% loader duties, I wouldn't even consider a compact tractor for garden tree work, especially one that kind of size. Turning circles are rubbish too. That said, I don't buy all the arguments for running a variety of attachments that could go behind a tractor on a loader either. Double the price for each attachement, and all the losses of hydraulic drive rather than straight PTO. There's even flail collectors for loaders- a total gimmick and incredibly overpriced. Buy the loader first, then use the profits to get yourself a nice hydrostatic compact tractor. Or, you could always get yourself a cheap International or something to run a processor and help out with the odd fieldwork job.

Grapple bucket keeps the weight well back so can lift more, and is ideal for fluffy stuff like grinding arisings. My grapple bucket has removable sides so grabbing longer logs etc is easy. I can see how one without removable sides would be limited use. Doesn’t matter how much of a bigger lump you can fit through a gap with a pincer, there’s a very low limit to how many kgs these loaders can lift before tipping. I can see the attraction for branches and brash, but as said earlier I don’t work that way.

That’s because the counterweight is the heaviest bit on an articulated loader. On a pedestrian loader the driver is the counterweight- this particular style of counterweight is very variable, often twitchy and prone to instinctively jumping off if things go pear shaped! Therefore it’s best to remove it entirely from the equation and to know that the bucket is keeping the machine balanced the way it needs to be up the ramps. You just walk up behind it, like you would a tracked chipper.

Personally no. You have more control over any machine if you are not standing on it whilst loading, and if you were standing on it then you are the only thing stopping it tipping over forwards. Much easier to just step off and walk it up. Basically, don't worry about transporting it, it's so easy.

Honeslty mate, loading it is a piece of cake. Just stand at the back of it rather than on it to keep the weight nose heavy and start onto the ramps. Then drop the bucket a touch (from where it was high to clear them at the start) to keep balanced and up you go. Because its wheeled rather than tracked the breakover point doesn't make you shit yourself. Also, with the grab bucket, you can just put the bucket cheeks on and then pull three pins and the grab bit with the ram removes (on the Sherpa one at least). Only thing is, if you are narrow width you will really want the high capacity bucket to shift enough at once- I've got one on order having seen how well it handles a full bucket of the 112cm variety.

No, just a grapple bucket. I'm mainly groundworks, if I do domestic arb I like the mini chipper right next to the tree and then carry the chip out and tip into truck. Just can't see the point in dragging branches down the house to the chipper, leaving crap everywhere and smashing things up. Keep the mess next to the drop zone and have an easy clear up. If the job is that big that you need a Heziohack parked in the driveway then odds are you've got room for a larger loader anyhow. The 76cm grapple bucket with the sides removed is the perfect weapon for moving 70cm chunks of butt. Also, why do you assume my grab would be blue?

Go for it mate, it's almost even more of a relevation for me than the Multione was. The Multione saves a lot of machine time- this thing saves actual labour! It runs the grab just fine, obviously. I've tried it with a pecker (hired) but wasn't impressed. Not an ideal job- it was a attacking a wall with the breaker horizontal up a slight incline, so in order to make the pecker work you had to keep pushing it into the wall. Drive motors rob the flow, so pecker barely worked. However, this would be exactly the same if you tried to do the same with a micro digger- the difference is with a micro digger you can use the arm to push which uses a lot less flow. I'm sure the Sherpa would be fine breaking vertically. With an auger, well, it's going to be the same as the micro digger, 20 litres a minute. It'll be way better than by hand, and ideal for certain jobs. But I didn't buy it to run attachments, I bought it to lift and shift repeatedly, which it excels at. Re stumpgrinder- even if you go for the diesel or twin cylinder petrol options, flow isn't much better. 25 or 28 l/min is nothing when it comes to stumpgrinders- still a waste of time. You never see people running stump grinders on 1.8t mini diggers do you? Even on 2.7t diggers with 50l/min it's widely accepted that they are a poor compromise. So I don't see the point in paying a lot extra for the different engines. If you really want to run attachments with flow, the only mini skid model to consider is the Giant 252 which is a marvel of compactness- they've squeezed a Kubota D902 with 33l/min flow into a machine just 780mm wide. However it was a fair bit more money (£18k bare machine) and at 810kg it's starting to become a bit cumbersome to shift about. And still not really enough flow to do anythign with. But if you don't have an articulated loader, and want just one machine to do it all- got to be worth a look. Only way to go for loader stump grinder is an engine mounted next to the stump grinder attachment, which I will get around to one day.

I'd really disagree that they are more refined. Personal choice yes (you probably bought the model I didn't take! 🤣) but in terms of refinement they are pretty much the same. There's only much refinement on such a little emachine- both buck you around, the Worky just has some padding and worklights 🤣 I was led to believe that Sherpa made their own attachments. Anyhow, it's like Multione vs Avant. Color doesn't matter, it's the concept that's important. Here's some pics from that rebar job I mentioned earlier. I'm back in the office already rather than dragging rebar and humping blocks through the mud- result. Pretty incredible how much time was saved today, on a job you wouldn't really think 'loader' when you plan it.

Tecnically it should burn less I thought? As the less ethanol content the more calories? I have to sort the ride on carb rubbers soon, no doubt caused by E5 let alone E10. We are lucky in that we have a Shell nearby, so have switched to their Supreme option which in our area is still zero ethanol (although legally has to be marked E5 at the pump)

Demo the Sherpa first, I wasn't buying on price at all but it's slightly cheaper and I found it to handle better for me. It's also got a good pedigree (internal demolition on the continent) and you wouldn't believe how well built the attachments are too. Mine is the yellow 'smal' rather than the red 'Agri'. Electric start and better drive motors, pushed better than the Cast I found. Assuming you are looking at the petrol model, don't waste your time with a stumpgrinder. 13hp is tedious on a pedestrian grinder, never mind after hydraulic losses.

I can answer all that for you. Just buy it. I've got a ballache of a job coming up- rebar some footings with mesh and starter bars round the back of a yard. The Sherpa will fit in the back of the truck, then drag the rebar sheets and lengths 100 yards up a hill to the footings, then carry the bandsaw and all the tools the same. Then I'll use it to run split concrete blocks to use as spacers from the pallets twenty yards away uhpill, over a set of alloy ramps (which we will have brought to unload anyway) to right where they are needed at the end of the 20m footings, the only access to which is over the trench. That's what it's about, saving labour. You wouldn't have bought the loader just for this, but now I have it... It's just like an extra employee that sits at the yard all day and only costs £250 per month for five years (so probably £50 a month over it's lifespane once finance is paid) plus a couple of beers (petrol) every day he works A third bloke on this job would be occupied all day just moving materials. Also loking forward to trying my new Makita rebar tying gun out- had it a few months and hired it out twice but not had call to use it personally

They also don't lift high enough to clear a Transit tipper, which is no good in my line of work. What spurred your move from micro machines to the big uns you run now? It's incredible looking back through this thread to see how far everyone has come.

The diesel model is considerably wider than the petrol. It’s also heavier. You’ll use about ten litres of petrol in a hard ish day. Five if stop/start.

@AHPPdoes this- he said earlier in the thread that he doesn’t get much subbing though, mainly his own work. I sub out with mine but mainly groundworks and most often alongside another machine. Just done a day locally with 1.9t digger, multione to handle bulk bags and crates of stone that were delivered, tracked 1.8t dumper to take muck out as it was a bit soft and then swapped that for Sherpa to move type 1 in and place it precisely in the path bases. A bit of a tackle fest but it was very local so why not- I went back to the yard for lunch and swapped over then. A lorry load of old concrete paths lifted out with the pallet tines, patio base dug out, 12t of type 1 un-bagged and taken in exactly where it was needed, four crates of slabs moved in and positioned for easy access and eight ton bags of sand plus a pallet of cement positioned ready to mix. All done and machines taken off site in a day. £500 plus vat and worth every penny, it would have taken two men and a digger and dumper at least two days. Messing about breaking up the paths, bucketing them out and then tracking outside to load the dumper with stone. A loader is just so much more efficient.

Fully agree. Australia is once more the worlds largest prison.

Just buy new gear mate, if you need it you need it reliable.People will pay silly money second hand for the 020 in particular.

Sorry bro, I’m ‘self unemployable’ 🤣 Oh, and it ain’t your chipper, it’s Glendale’s.

Kerb weight is 570kgs. I guess the bucket must be extra, they are around 80kgs. The bucket grab comes with removable cheeks to make it more of a bucket when you need, but I've ordered the high capacity 75cm bucket as well as the 76cm bucket grab and the wide bucket that I already have. Sounds like you'll have a sweet setup there with that truck and a trailer! If you went curved ramps they might even clear the headboard of the trailer into the back of the truck. Certainly worth investivating.

You're not going to overload the axle weights any which way with a 500kg loader. But loading backwards, if for some reason you step off the platform the loader will roll over itself forwards. Loading forwards, standing behind it is much safer.