Skid steer loaders have become one of the most popular machines on a building site and it all comes down to costs. Skid steer loaders are much cheaper to purchase, easier to maintain, and only require half the fuel compared to their larger cousins. Add to this a skid steer loader’s versatility and its ability to maneuver in tight spots and you have the perfect construction site work horse.

With the current economy still tight, construction businesses are looking at ways to cut costs while still getting the job done – on time, safely, and under budget. Skid steer loaders can certainly help businesses cut costs. More importantly, they are able do most of the work that other machinery, such as wheel loaders, do. The downside is, being smaller, their scoops cannot carry as much. However, being nimble little beasts, they can still load a truck with sand or gravel at the same speed, or faster, than a wheel loader. They can certainly nip around a construction site with more ease, laden or unladen.

Talk to operators of skid steer loaders and they will admit they are fun machines. However, whilst they may look like toys, the work they do is serious. Learning to operate heavy equipment is not that difficult today. Good training organizations can train you to operate a range of machinery in as little as three weeks. At the completion of your heavy equipment training, you will have the skills required to seek entry level employment as a heavy equipment operator. Whilst skid steer loaders may look like little toys, they are still considered to be heavy equipment. They certainly are the work horse of any construction site.

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.

Bulldozers are often considered the work horses on a construction site but it is the loader that has to transfer the looser material to trucks. Front-end loader with either wheels or tracks with the former type articulated for better handling. Loader don’t just load despite their name, they can dig and as well load material.

Front end loaders are can be found in a range of bucket sizes and operational weights. Don’t consider them as small machinery, many are quite large and very powerful and can be found on construction sites, road works, plant loading, shipping and mine face excavation.

Getting started as a frond end loader is not that difficult. The number one requirement these days is quality training followed closely by experience. However, you will never get the experience without having first completed the training.

Loader have a variety of different types of buckets, the common two being the scoop, a wide square bucket that tilts to capture the dirt or to dig out an area; and the clam shell type of bucket that opens to grab whatever you are working on in its jaws.

Related loaders include the bobcat, skid steer loader and the backhoe, a combination of a loader and an excavator. The skills required to operate a backhoe are simply those of a loader and those of an excavator. Basic training is often undertaken on wheel loader as this provides most of the skills required to operate all variations. Wheel loader training itself is generally a component of a larger heavy equipment training program. If your looking for a career as a loader operator, check ATS for the latest course information and start dates for wheel loader training.

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.