When mother nature awakens from winter break, it is the perfect time to get your skid steer in high gear and ready for the upcoming landscaping tasks. With spring around the corner, land crews everywhere start planning spring projects and equipping skid loaders with the right tools and hydraulics to get the job done. Whether you are preparing your skid loader for land clearing, tilling, mulching, or planting, here are some tips when choosing the right skid steer attachments for spring and preparing for optimum hydraulic fluid power.
Considerations when Choosing Skid Steer Attachments
Pairing the best attachment with your skid steer is vital to completing landscaping work timely and efficiently. The versatility of skid loaders allows operators to switch from one attachment to another depending on the task at hand, whether clearing brush, removing tree stumps, tilling, or mulching. Skid loaders provide the ability for operators to quickly change from one attachment to another like an angle broom to clean an area, a stump grinder, or a landscape rake to level tilled land.
Skid loaders allow landscapers to take on more work by expanding their offerings when pairing skid steer equipment with the right attachments. Skid steer attachments today provide great versatility with plug-and-play options. You will want to consider if your attachment can be used across multiple carriers like track loaders or mini-excavators.
Plug and play functionality is great and can save you some aggravation, just be sure you understand lift capacity and standard flow versus high flow hydraulics. It can be worth your time to examine the benefits of the extra power boost that comes with high-flow hydraulics. High flow hydraulic capabilities can increase your productivity and overall return on investment.
When evaluating attachments for your skid loader, you want to consider the ultimate goal of that attachment. Just like when you buy a car, you know whether or not you need a seven passenger vehicle like a minivan or if you are looking for a two-seater sports car. Consider the main purpose of your skid loader and the attachment, and then think about how often you plan to use each attachment. If you are going to use a landscaping attachment on your skid loader less than half of your operating time, it might be beneficial to rent the attachment rather than purchase it. If you plan on using an attachment more than 50% of the time, however, it is probably a good investment to purchase it.
Popular Skid Loader Attachments for Spring
Pairing the right attachment with your skid steer is important to get the job done correctly and with maximum efficiency and safety. Some of the more popular skid steer attachments for use in the spring include the following:
Landscape rake – a landscape rake is a popular tool and a landscapers arsenal, with hardened teeth to withstand wear and tear and a cover that allows the operator to gather and easily dump materials for a clean, raked finish.
Rotary cutter – this attachment is used in agriculture, construction and more designed to clear brush, undergrowth, trails or construction sites.
Stump grinder – makes quick work of getting rid of stumps left behind from cut down trees. A stump grinder can reduce an entire tree stump to wood chips and take a stump to well below ground level.
Mulching head – a mulching attachment is one of the busiest attachments in the spring, designed to cut, clear and grind vegetation on skid steer equipment, excavators or forestry tractors.
Many mulching head attachments require high flow hydraulics. Contact the hydraulic specialists at Stucchi when preparing your mulching head attachment with your equipment for spring. It may be easier than you think to support high-flow mulching head attachments such as with our Saturn Block HD combined with our VEP threaded flat face quick couplers.
Learn more about how to prevent overheating when mulching, and let Stucchi help you get spring off to the best possible start with reliable hydraulic solutions.
Stucchi is recognized worldwide as a leading authority on hydraulic solutions, including custom designed hydraulics to meet your specific requirements. We are familiar with the challenges facing operators of skid steer equipment and attachments and offer expertise in maximizing your hydraulic fluid power. Contact us to ensure that your skid loaders are prepped and ready for spring with the right hydraulics to maximize productivity with your tools and attachments.
