If there is one piece of heavy equipment that revels in the wintry conditions, it has to be the skid steer loader. Being light weight (yet still considered heavy equipment), they can scoot around on top of the ice and snow with little difficulty. Every home needs one at this time of year since they make such light work of clearing driveways of ice and snow.

It’s not just the ice and snow where they come in handy. Clearing up debris on building sites, working with landscapers to turn empty spaces into wonderful gardens and doing general duties in and around construction yards is all in a day’s work for these little beasts. It’s amusing to see a skid steer loader carrying a large wheel to a dozer when they need replacing.

Working a skid steer loader is a lot of fun. If you don’t mind being seen operating one of these little muscle machines (and you shouldn’t), then they can be the perfect job for those that have a bright sense of humor. The work is never boring, the action can be fast although safety is still a primary issue, and the variety of work on offer never ending. You just never know what sort of task you are going to be asked to do next.

What sort of training do you need to operate a skid steer loader? Any heavy equipment training program that offers a variety of equipment to train on is a good start. Training on a normal loader certainly helps. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can provide that variety in your training including hands on experience in equipment like loaders and excavators. If you like the idea of zipping around on a skid steer loader – contact us now to find out when our next heavy equipment training program commences.

Small environmentally friendly machines like bobcats and skid steer loaders are becoming very popular. There is a good reason for this too. Being small, they cause far less damage to the ground. They also tend to create less in the way of pollution and use far less fuel. There are many models available that operate using liquid gas rather than diesel fuel.

Where skid steer loaders really win is in their maneuverability. Running on tracks, they can turn the full 360 degrees on the spot and squeeze through fairly narrow gaps. This versatility and maneuverability has made them very popular in areas such as landscaping and for jobs such as cleaning up in tight areas around newly constructed buildings.

What has made the skid steer loader even more popular has been the introduction of so many different tools. In the past, the skid steer was just a loader. It could dig and it could be used as a small bulldozer, but the implementation of a variety of tools has made the skid steer a small jack-of-all-trades. Some of these attachments include:

Bucket – digging, moving, lifting, and loading
Augers – digging holes
Pallet Fork – lifting, loading, and moving loaded pallets.
Grapple – lifting, holding, and placing.
Blade – leveling and grading dirt, rock, sand and other materials.
Breaker – break up concrete, stone and asphalt
Tiller – level or till the earth.
Cement Mixer – mix, transport, and dump concrete
Stump Grinder – grinding stumps into wood chips
Snow Blade – plowing snow

That is quite a range of tools which, in the right hands, makes a skid steer loader extremely versatile and useful in many situations. Ownership of either a skid steer loader or a bobcat is often the easiest way into running your own business.

How do you become a skid steer loader operator? The best place to start is with a heavy equipment operator training program. This will teach how to operate a range of equipment including a skid steer loader. The broader knowledge base will help you become a far better operator in the long run with a better understanding of soil types and the limitations for a skid steer loader. ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools can provide you with the opportunity to start a career as a skid steer loader and perhaps start your own landscaping business.

Skid steer loaders are one of the most versatile pieces of equipment in use. Once thought of more as a landscaping tool, they are starting to make their presence felt in construction. The skid steer loader is probably the one piece of heavy equipment that proves that size doesn’t matter, or that smaller can be better.

As you can see from this picture, skid steer loaders are not simply loaders. This machine has been fitted with a breaker designed a little like a large jackhammer. Its job is to break up any hard surface. This includes rock, concrete and packed earth. There are so many different types of attachments that it would take ten blog posts just to cover the more common types.

The list of attachments for a skid steer loader include

• Backhoe and mini backhoe
• Auger
• Bucket
• Crane boom
• Grading rake
• Post hole digger
• Trencher
• and Grappler

How To Have A Happy And Long Career As A Skid Steer Loader

This second picture shows a skid steer loader fitted with a grappler. You can see how easy it can move large objects like rocks away from a work area.

Skid steer loader training is more than just learning how to drive the loader component. You need to learn how to change attachments and how these attachments operate. There are also maintenance issues with each attachment in use. Most training programs cover the basics of attachments, the balance of your training being done on the job.

If you’re interested in a career operating a skid steer loader then the best advice I can offer is to find employment after your training that will expose you to a variety of attachments. Developing skills in the operation of a variety of skid steer attachments will make your future employment more attractive. Having operators that are multi-skilled is becoming important in our modern work forces. If you can promote yourself as a multi-skilled skid steer loader operator, you will have a long and happy career.