- Hey everyone, my name is Matt.
Welcome to my backyard.
So I have been meaning to
do a video on this guy here.
My mini skid steer for a while.
Actually since I got it,
I said I was going to
do a video talking about
why I got this kind of style of machine
and why now was why I bought one
or I guess that was six months ago.
But I think it's gonna work
out a little better now
because I have six months of
use with this thing so we can,
well I can share a little
bit more about my experience
with all of that.
I do have to do some stacking stuff today,
so I'm going to take care of that.
It is probably one of the last,
like really cold mornings
here in Minnesota
before we hit some serious spring weather.
So the ground is still frozen.
I don't have to worry
about tearing up my lawn.
Like I normally would
doing something like this in the spring.
So I'm gonna do some
stacking while I talk about
why I got this machine
or this style of machine
and what kinda progressed me to this point
of actually buying one.
And then after that
I'll talk about the machines specifically.
So if you only care about
the specific details
of the machine,
I'll leave you a link in
the description to the time
where you can skip to a just
hear both the machine itself.
So I have been putting off some stacking
and reorganizing pretty much all winter.
I have this Elm log here,
which I cut back in the fall
that's been sitting on here
that needs to be stacked for real
and I also need to reorganize things
and restack a few things.
Now that I've sold
through a lot of the slabs
in these stacks.
So this stack for example,
is quite a bit shorter
than it was originally.
Here's how it used to look.
This maple log has a
decrease in size quite a bit
compared to how it used to be.
I only have three slabs left from that log
and back around here, this
one is about half gone.
So my plan today is to
reorganize a little bit.
So these ones are eight
footers, this is 10.
And then the one that back there is six.
This guy that's gonna be stacked is
I think what eight and change.
So I'm probably gonna end up putting
this guy here on this stack
and maybe moving this stuff somewhere.
I don't know yet.
I'll figure it out as I go.
But, as I get going here, stacking,
let me tell you about why I
waited so long to buy machine.
(laughs)
So I thought I'd start off by
telling you a little bit about
my history as far as the
lumber side of my business goes
and the story of progression there,
which has eventually led me to the point
of owning a machine like this.
So I started selling lumber
about eight years ago.
I was selling stuff that
I was drying myself.
So I was buying lumber in
bulk from a local mill,
drying it myself, and then
turn around and selling it.
And I was also selling lumber
that was producing myself.
So I started doing that
and I quickly realized
I needed an actual place
to store all this dried lumber.
So that is when I built my shed.
I started selling lumber
and about a month I invested the time
and money into building a
shed so I could warehouse
all of this inventory that was having.
Inside the shed I put a pallet rack
and with that rack as well as
some of the vertical storage
in there, I could inventory
about 1500 board feet at a time
that I could sell through.
So at that time,
my biggest source of leads
for sales was Craigslist.
I had a Craigslist ad that I maintained
and I generated leads from there.
Now the primary customer
that I had then was mostly hobbyists
and smaller shops, you know, one man shops
that might be doing furniture
building on the side
or as a small business.
And because of that, most
people wanted to come by
and see lumber in the evenings.
I found that was my sort of niche I guess,
that separated me from some
of the other sources locally
that only were open during
normal business hours,
which worked out really well for me too
because I had a full time day job
so I had most of the showings
for the lumber on evenings
and weekends and that
worked up pretty nice
as I could book a bunch of people at night
and they can come through
and pick up their boards
and then go make something
out of those boards.
I did that for a few years
and after a little bit I
got laid off from my job
and I decided that I wanted
to start making videos online full time.
Now, I didn't really have
a whole lot of income
from this business at the time,
so I still maintained
my lumber sales as a way
to help me through that time
and help produce some revenue
so that I could actually live.
Now that year was also
the year my son was born.
So anyone with kids understands
that once you start having kids
you have a lot less free time to do
all these other little things.
So the downside to the lumber sales game
is the fact that it is
very time consuming.
It's very time intensive to
actually make all these sales
because it is a sales job.
You need to follow up with all
these leads, get them here,
get them on their appointment
and hopefully they buy something.
That's the other thing you consider too
as you're doing these sales
'cause a lot of times
some might only come by
and buy maybe one or
two boards. (chuckles)
They might not buy any boards
and those appointments each
take about half hour to an hour.
So I started having less
and less time for this
and especially less and less
time on evenings and weekends
because that became my
basically dedicated family time.
I started to scale back
and eventually make my lumber
sales a lot more passive
than they used to be.
So I wouldn't really try to
keep things in inventory.
I wouldn't really worry about having stuff
here all the time for people to look at,
I wouldn't worry about
actually listing things
and trying to get them to sell
if people came to me from
my existing customer base
or came to me because I knew
that I had sold lumber in the past,
then I would show them the wood. (laughs)
But yeah, I wouldn't
actively try and go off their
and move these things because
it was a time intensive
and I was busy focusing on
other things in the business.
So then a few years later
I built my bandsaw mill in the backyard
and I had a lot more lumber
that I was producing myself.
So I would dry what I had and
then I would have it for sale.
I might announced that I
had some wood available
on Instagram for instance,
and I was sell through a lot of it
and then that was inventory for the rest
and it would sort of trickle
out until I sold everything
that was there.
So that was fine and all.
But again, it was fairly time consuming
to actually process all this
woods, stack it, inventory it.
And then eventually
find buyers and sell it.
So as I was doing that, I
was also thinking about ways
to make the sales process
more efficient for me.
So I started to offer pre-orders
since I was especially
mostly just cutting slabs
that people are mostly interested in.
So the pre-order model actually
worked out really nicely.
That way, the person who
was watching me cut the wood
and really wanted that
slab can guarantee you
that they can get it.
And then they were just fine with waiting
for it to be ready to go.
And whenever it was dried and ready
they can come pick it up.
And then that way I'm not
speculatively drying things
and hoping that they'll sell.
And I'll jump forward to
last year my buddy Eric
and I started working
together on several projects
and one of the things that
he has is a vacuum kiln.
The beautiful thing about that machine
is it really reduces the drying time
and makes the lumber sales
process even more compressed,
even more so than
conventional kiln drying.
So this allowed me to take
the pre-order concept to
sort of the next level, where
if someone is interested
in a particular piece of wood,
I can have a dried and to them
within let's say a month
depending on the schedule things
that Eric has to run through his kiln
and my schedule of being able
to get this piece of wood
over to him to dry.
So the nice thing about that model is then
I don't have to actually
inventory dried wood.
That is the biggest problem
with the whole saw mill thing
is that once you dry some wood,
you have to have somewhere
for it to sit in inventory.
And that inventory spot
really should be a temperature
and humidity controlled environment
because, this is (chuckles)
one of the funny things about
people's misunderstanding
about wood and drying
just because something was
kiln dried to six or 8%
or whatever they tell you,
the moment that goes into
an uncontrolled condition
like a storage shed,
that is essentially being stored outdoors
and you're gonna be picking
up moisture the whole time.
So your wood that was dried to 68%
sitting in someone's
shed is gonna be at 12%
within a few months. (laughs)
So you essentially undo
the kiln drying process
or the final drying process.
Now the one thing that
this model does mean
for me as a producer,
is that it becomes a
little less on my time
and becomes a little more
of a priority of things
that need to get done.
So I need a faster way
of handling material
onto and off of my trailer
to be held over to be dried.
And that's really where the
purchase of the machine came in.
So not exactly my best stack job.
These were a little bit goofy
because of the different lengths
and where I needed to start
and stop on the bases or whatever.
So I think that's gonna
be about it for today.
It is a scale, a little muddy.
I didn't really think about the whole
subtle melt the ground kinda thing,
even though it's a 28
degrees Fahrenheit right now.
So I think I'll wait till the morning
to finish putting all the
stuff back with the mini skid.
You can see I started to
dig into the top layer
because it is melting
(chuckles) in the sun.
So I will see you in the morning.
Good morning everyone.
Happy Saturday day.
It is a beautiful morning.
It's 26 degrees.
The birds are chirping
and it feels amazing.
It's always funny in the spring
when you're like 26 or 30
or whatever, it feels warm.
If it was like in the fall,
this would be absolutely freezing.
But I'm still used to the
extreme cold and this is warm.
Anyway, I'm gonna get back to work.
So you saw me pull these out.
These are already sold.
They're gonna go in the pile
that's gonna go over to the vacuum kiln
and I think I might end
up putting everything
that was on this deck back
where it was on top of this log.
So this stack is gonna get pretty tall
and I'll have this open for
longer stuff in the future.
I'm just gonna leave that
log alone back there.
But I do need to pull these ramps out.
These are the ramps that
came with my old trailer.
They're gonna go with the old trailer
when that one leaves here.
So I'm gonna get back to work
and you can get back to listening to
whatever I was telling you about
before I so rudely interrupted myself.
So one of the areas
that I'm not particularly
worried about efficiency
is the stacking process
because that is basically
my recreation time.
I can stack at my own pace,
I can make my videos
and be happy doing it.
And I don't have to
really worry a whole lot.
But when someone wants to buy
a slab as halfway down a stack
and I gotta get that slab out of there,
get the other slab stack back there
and get that slab on a
trailer and outta here,
I'm not really making a video about that
so I can't justify a couple
hours pulling out a slab.
So with all that,
now I'm really looking
for some (static) allow me
to move things around, you know slabs
and some thousand pound things.
The things that take the longest
to move around more efficiently.
Again, I didn't really
care for this in the past
because I have plenty of
ways to move things around
in my time.
I could stack things really
easily with my trailer
that worked out flawlessly and perfectly.
That's one of the things that
try to show on this channel
is moving things and
doing things in creative
and unique ways to make some
seemingly impossible tasks,
pretty approachable.
So even for, stacking slabs like this,
this is something that my dad
and I would do it together
for these slabs that
aren't super big like this.
It would be a fun way for us
to spend a couple hours together
just rearranging the backyard
moving some slabs around
and bringing things into the house to dry.
So when he came to visit,
he would have a sort of guaranteed father
and son time that we both really enjoyed.
So with this evolving business model,
I needed something that would be able
to help me out immediately
and not have to worry about
waiting for another
person to come help me.
That's sort of the other reason
why I've never really had a need
or a reason to buy a machine
'cause the amount of time
this thing will sit idle.
Because I don't do this every day.
I might need to move something
only a couple times a month, if that.
So with a machine,
I knew it was just gonna be
sitting around a lot of time
and machines that sit around a lot
are not usually all that
reliable. (chuckles)
So you ended up cussing,
trying to get to start,
when you should be working.
So that brings me to my sort of
ideas I was thinking about what to buy.
So I had never really given
a whole lot of thought
to these mini skid series
'cause I didn't really know
a whole lot about them.
I knew I did not want a full size tractor
that was just too big
for the space I'm in.
A full skid steer also is too big.
So I started looking seriously
at these mini skid steers
and I was actually really
surprised with what they can do.
So first off, just like the
tractors and skid steers,
they are very versatile
because they have a lot
of different attachments
you can put on them.
I knew that if I were to get a machine,
I need to get enough attachments
and can have enough things
for this machine to be doing
so it does not sit idle all the time.
Otherwise it would.
I also needed something
small and maneuverable.
I'm on a quarter acre.
The driveway that I work
in is about 30 by 30
and when you have trailers and wood
and logs in the space already,
you don't have a whole lot
of room to drive around
in a machine.
So something like a full size tractor,
which is at least 12 feet long,
would not work at all here
because you wouldn't be
able to go anywhere with it.
Now this machine would also
need to be stored in my shed,
so I need to have this
thing actually fit in there.
So these mini skid steers,
they are a versatile,
they're maneuverable and
they will fit in my shed,
which is a nice combo.
And another really great
thing for me at least
with the mini skid steers is the fact
that you're riding on
them, standing behind them.
So for moving around on
palatalized things like I am,
moving around slabs,
you're getting on and off machine a lot.
That's gonna be a lot more convenient
than tryna climb in and
out of a normal skid steer.
(skid steer engine roaring)
All right, so that should (clears throat)
clean things up a little bit back there.
It's nice. (laughs)
The lawn's a little torn up, but yeah,
at least I don't wanna have
any super big deep ruts
like I would if it was super wet up.
So let's talk about the machine.
So first I thought we'd
just run through stats
in the machine and then we'll walk around
and talk about this particular machine
as well as take a look at the attachments
that I got with it.
Okay, so this is a Vermeer S 800 TX.
This happens to be a 2013 model.
They, discontinued this particularly one
and they've kind of changed
their product line a little bit,
but this would be like
a, probably a mid range,
mid size mini skid steer.
In the more recent years
these has become more popular
and they've gotten bigger,
which is interesting in itself.
So the total length of
the machine from back here
to upfront here to attachment plate
it's gonna be seven feet.
The track width is 40 inches.
So pretty narrow track.
And the empty weight of is
thing as it sits right now
is right around 3000 pounds.
The rated lift capacity
on this is 840 pounds.
So that is the rating on that
it's kind of interesting,
so it's a little bit of a
fun math going on there.
So that rating is gonna be
with a 175 pound operator.
And of course as rating
is gonna depend on like
what kinda load you're actually picking up
'cause if you have a load
that is sticking out past the machine,
that's gonna have a lot
more leverage on you.
Than if it was really
close up to the machines.
So 840 pounds is rated at a
35% of the toll tipping load,
which is 2,900 pounds on this machine.
Now inside of here you have
a 35 horsepower Kubota,
I think it's a V 1505 diesel engine.
The fuel tanks are back here,
so you have two seven
and a half gallon tanks
which are linked.
So you have 15 gallons
of total fuel capacity.
And here's my favorite
feature of this machine.
Dual cup holders. (laughs)
So up here on the controls
we have a sorta two joysticks set up
with this little handhold things.
So you can rest your palm there
and operate the joysticks.
You have the motion
control of the machine,
and then you have the boom
control machine over here.
These are the levers for the high flow
and low flow hydraulic auxiliaries,
whichever attached and you have hooked up
if it's using hydraulics.
Over here you have your glow plug button
for preheating the engine.
And you also have a 12 volt
power outlet over there
for plugging in your cell phone.
Keys on this side.
(skid steer engine roaring)
The only kinda weird thing
that takes some getting used to
is reverse on here.
So it is inverse.
So if I pull this back
and then go this way,
the machine is gonna go that way.
But, it doesn't really take a
whole lot of getting used to
this raise your bucket up and down
and then you've got to
throttle over there.
(skid steer engine roaring)
So as far as access goes,
I've actually been pretty surprised with
how easy it is to get to
the thing that needed to
be at to maintain stuff.
So this pops open, you have
your fuel box right here
and you got filter there and
cooler there for the radiator.
(metal clunking)
That's kinda nice to get
those pads too so yeah,
when you're bouncing around on there,
it doesn't hurt too much. (laughs)
Now over here on the engine,
it's also really easy to
get at and get access to.
So I can pull the hood off.
And then what's nice is these
side panels come right out.
Except I think I have boomed
down too far for this.
Yeah, let's pick that up a little bit.
(skid steer engine roaring)
(metal clunking)
all right, there you go.
So both panels on both sides come out.
So that gives you access to
the engine on three sides.
So here is the exhaust side, is the leaf
and this is the, I guess
you call it the fuel side.
So there's all the fuel
components down in there
and your air intake and stuff
like that is over here too.
But you can see with
this setup now you have
pretty decent access to the engine
if you need to actually work on it.
Now for transport,
you have a D-ring in the
front to help secure it
as well as two a chain slots back in here
at the rear of the machine.
Right in here, so you
can hook a chain in there
and secure it.
There's also a lift
point up here on the boom
in case you want to use a
crane and lift this thing
and bring it somewhere.
So the next, let's talk
about the machine itself
and the specific condition of this thing.
So as I mentioned, it's a 2013.
This is a used machine.
I bought it with the 1144 hours on it
and it has 1164 hours on it now.
So I've put 20 hours
on it in the six months
that I've had it.
As far as fuel usage goes, I
have used about, probably about
almost 15 gallons at this point.
Let me point out some of the
things that are wrong. (laughs)
'Cause it is used.
So of course has the type of
kinda wear and use issues.
You got paint problems
and a few wear spots here on
the platform where you stand.
You got my son who likes
to write all over my stuff.
(laughs)
The only real,
I guess problem with this thing
is that at one point someone
who owned this pushed a little
too far and damaged the boom.
So you can see there is this plate here
that's been welded on as a repair
and this has been welded
back together here
and they have a welded both sides,
although they didn't put
a plate to fix this side
or reinforce it, but I'm not
really too worried about it.
I don't plan to push this thing too far.
And this is probably at
least, this side at least,
this is stronger than ever was before.
Now I've had one problem I've had to fix,
which we'll talk about in a second.
And I have one ongoing problem
that I do need to maybe address
if I really feel like it.
And it has to do with the fuel tanks.
The tanks are linked by a tube
and that tube tees off into the engine.
There must be a blockage on that side
because the machine only seems
to be drinking from this tank.
So in the middle of winter
as I was using the machine,
the fuel gauge is on that side.
So it says I have about
a half a tank of fuel.
And what ended up happening was
this tank was drained completely
and ended up running the engine dry,
which if you haven't never
run a diesel engine dry,
it's not as easy as just
putting diesel back in
and it starts back up again. (chuckles)
But, it's not a huge concern to me
because I can just open
this thing up and look in it
and I don't put that many hours on it.
So it's not a huge deal.
This thing's still half full,
but something weird is
going on those tubes
where they're not linked
up completely or something.
So that's just a small, minor issue.
Now, the only mechanical
problem I've had is with
that guy there, the fuel shutoff solenoid.
So luckily enough for me,
I was a snow blowing
my neighbor's driveway.
The machine just cut out
and I wasn't really sure
what was wrong with it.
It kept blowing the fuse and
this thing was connected to.
And luckily enough,
my neighbor whose driveway's
thing was stuck in,
works with a guy who is
familiar with these engines
and he says probably that thing.
So at least it's a very easy fix.
There's just two bolts on
there and this component's $50.
So really quick and easy fix
and haven't had any problems since.
So I should be good with my
a replacement guy in there.
Let me put this guy back together
and then I can go through the attachments
that I got as well.
(metal clunking)
(skid steer engine roaring)
so this first two attachments are
what the previous owner
had with the machine.
I did buy the machine from a dealer,
so this was a trade-in that
they had at some point.
So the previous owner used
the machine for concrete work.
So, you got some good amount of concrete
just chilling in this bucket
that I could probably clean up
at some point, but the bucket
isn't in super great shape.
You can see they were using
it without a cutting edge.
So the front edge there
is pretty well worn.
But, luckily enough for me,
I don't really care that
much about the bucket.
I don't do dirt work.
I'm using it as basically
the glorified wheelbarrow
so I can move firewood with it
or sawdust or things like that.
I'm not digging or really
do anything crazy with it.
So for my uses, this is fine.
I wasn't really even looking
for a bucket originally,
but I'm glad that it
kinda came with this one
because it's been pretty handy.
So the other attachments
that came with the machine
since concrete work, is
this side demolition hammer
or a breaker or hydraulic jack hammer.
I have been meaning to sell this
since I bought the machine to
help recoup some of my costs
since I absolutely do not
have an actual need for this.
But I don't know.
It's still cool though. (laughs)
If I needed to break up
some concrete, I'd be set.
So second most used accessory,
which you already see me use
are the 4.2 inch pallet forks.
I bought these new from the
dealer with the machine.
Basic forks, nothing crazy there.
Okay, I'm gonna grab my
most used attachments.
(skid steer engine roaring)
So this is a 48 inch snowblower by FFC.
So this is the one thing I bought
that would guarantee more
hours get put onto the machine.
It's kind of funny that
you gotta spend more money
to like actually use something.
But, this has been amazing.
At first when I saw like the
price tag on these things,
I was really surprised
and shocked to be honest.
But then I got the thing
and I saw it in person
and I realized like, this
is no joke snowblower,
this is some serious stuff.
So the sides are made out of
quarter inch plate impeller,
the fins on their three eights.
This is also three eights.
And the whatever, the augers are quarter.
So it's a beast of a snowblower
and it does amazing work.
So this set up here
has made my snow blowing
a lot more enjoyable
and a lot more productive.
So in the same time I can do,
twice as many driveways as I could before.
So that's been really nice.
I can add a few more neighbors
to my route. (laughs)
So what's really nice about this thing
is that since it's hydraulic,
I never have to worry about
shear pins ever again. (laughs)
It has an over pressure valve on it.
So if I do get something
caught in the impeller,
it just won't work anymore.
And you can just reverse it.
And that could help to dislodge
something that you get stuck in there
Although, the first time I did use it,
I got a block of wood stuck in there,
right in the impeller, right in here.
And I couldn't get it out even in reverse.
So that was fun.
But other than that,
the times where things
haven't gotten stuck,
a full two-by-six goes through there.
It doesn't make it through
one piece, but it eats it.
(laughs)
The, shoe controls are all up here.
So if you're wondering
what this box is on here,
these are the shoe controls.
So those are electronic
controls for the hydraulics.
The shoe controls our hydraulics,
but then you have electronic control.
So this will make the shoe go up and down
and this actually turns left and right.
So it's been a pretty darn amazing.
And look at the step.
That's a step and in case
you're wondering on the weights
of that snowblower,
it's a bit over 700 pounds
and you can see how well the
machine can handle a load,
that's that heavy.
One addition that I made to the machine
was to add this light bar on here
because I always seem to ended
up snow blowing at night.
I never actually ended up snow
blowing at night this year.
So I haven't actually
used that light at all.
But it's a fairly easy thing to add.
So these are just the bolts
that are tapping into this plate here
as the light bar from Harbor freight.
And for comparison's sake,
there's my old snowblower,
a 30 inch cut with a little
bit of vigor. (laughs)
(skid steer engine roaring)
And I also have this grapple
for moving around small logs.
It's one of the more annoying
things to actually move around
and load onto the saw mill
or just move around is just smaller rounds
that weigh several hundred pounds.
It's not something that's a lot of fun,
especially if it's like a
weird crotch or something,
with this you can just
come by and pick it up
and get it out of the way.
And for loading small
logs onto the saw mill,
it's not something that I typically do
'cause I don't a whole lot of small stuff,
but this would be able to pick up
and load some smaller logs
that would be kind of annoying
and tedious to pick up.
Another task that I
consider for this thing,
which, has been really nice is
for moving like the slab wood
or those big off cuts.
So stuff like this, it's kinda awkward.
I mean you can move around with forks,
but it's a lot easier
if you can just grab it
with the grapple and just
movement wherever you need to.
So for a lot of the off cuts and stuff,
they get kinda heavy.
This would be really convenient
for moving things around.
This is probably the least use attachment
I have at this point
just because I haven't been
cutting any small stuff
and I haven't really doing
a whole lot of saw milling.
And besides that thing which
I have literally never used.
(laughs)
Now the last attachment
is this receiver plate.
So the attachment is
just literally a plate
with a receiver in it
and I just added one of these
multi ball hitch things.
This allows me to move around
my trailers around the yard
or if I need to hook something
I guess they could do that.
But that's also been really nice
being able to just kinda
shuttle the trailers around,
get them out of the way, get
them where they need to go,
even if they have a log on them.
It's super convenient
and it's a lot nicer than
having to use the truck.
So this machine makes a lot of this stuff
actually a lot more fun
because I'll be honest,
this is a lot of fun to drive
around and do stuff with.
There is I guess only one thing
that I don't really
like about this machine
and that it seems to be made for,
let's say like a normal
size person. (laughs)
So I'm not very big.
I'm not heavy, I'm not tall.
This thing is definitely
designed for someone
who, well for sure is taller than me.
So I'm 5.6 these boots wanna make
me look a little bit
taller 5.7 or something,
and I'm not tall enough to really see down
and see what I'm doing.
So for instance, when
I'm using the bucket,
I don't have a line of
sight on the cutting edge
of that bucket if I'm standing here.
I gotta be up in the air a
bit before I can see that.
So if you're like six feet tall or taller,
it's not gonna be a problem.
But if you're shorter like me,
you're gonna have pretty bad visibility
as far as the bucket goes.
The other one's not too bad,
about the bucket is where I really see it.
And because I don't use a bucket
ever, I don't really care.
Of course my lightweight
makes me not a great
counter-balance either.
So as things get a little bit heavier,
this thing does tend to have
a little more bounce to it
because I'm 50 pounds less than
what the operator rated thing is.
So I think I'm gonna make some
weight kits for this thing
just to bring up the weight a little bit
and get that counterbalance up.
Let's touch on pricing real quick.
So the machine package
that I bought was with the,
I guess the package on the lot
was the skid loader with
the bucket and the breaker
and that was, I got that as $17,000.
I personally liked the idea
of buying one from a dealer
just because they kinda
see this stuff all the time
and they can go through it
and do a little bit of a
tune ups on it if it needs it
and at least be able
to point out any issues
that might be wrong with it.
The only nice thing about buying
the whole machine from a dealer
is that you can kinda bundle
on your other attachments
and you can potentially
save some money there
buying it all at once
versus buying the machine
and buying an attachment
and buying another
attachment down the road,
or something like that.
So you have a little
more negotiation power
as your price tag, your total
ticket price tag goes up.
So the grapple, that
one's got an MSRP of 3000.
I think I ended up paying around
two and a half thousand for it.
The snowblower is the most expensive
and most ridiculous thing I ever bought.
But I'm so glad that I did
'cause this thing represents
majority of the hours on here.
This thing has a retail price of $6,800.
And I was able to get it just under six
so you can save some money there.
But this is like, that's a
big investment right there.
And then the pallet forks, you know,
pallet forks and buckets are pretty cheap.
Those are like five or 600 bucks.
So I mean if you don't have those,
that's not a huge deal in
the grand scheme of things.
The receiver plate thing
I got that afterwards.
I got it from palletforks.com I think.
It's like tied attachments.
It's $107 delivered to my door.
I was like, "Oh, I can
make my own little plate
and put a receiver on it."
I'm like, I looked it up and I'm like,
"I can't even make this for that little,"
so for 107 bucks for the receiver plate,
and then I got that ball
thing at Harbor freight,
I think for like $30
or something like that.
But yeah, that's the pricing.
So you can do the math and add
up the outdoor price for me,
plus sales tax, it was
not a cheap investment,
but I'm to that point
now where it makes sense.
And I guess lastly,
why did I buy a Vermeer
and not some other brand?
Well that just comes down to the fact
that I was looking for a used machine
and there aren't a whole lot
of these mini skid steers
out there for sale.
If I was looking for like
a full size skid steer,
everyone, their mom has one of those,
they've been made for 50
years or something like that.
There's a lot of those machines out there
that are used and for sale.
These mini skid steers are newer,
so there isn't a whole lot of
them out there, to buy used.
So I was really limited
to the actual selection
of what I could actually buy,
which was available for sale.
So I was really limited to
only a handful of options
of ones I could actually buy.
This one just happened to fit the bill
of being rough for the right size
and had depreciated enough
to be at a price point
that I felt comfortable buying.
So I hope this video helped
to kind of share my perspective on things,
why this is sort of the
best solution for me
and has been working really well
and why I haven't bothered
going down this road until now.
If you are in the market
or you're looking at
getting a mini skid steer
if I didn't answer something
you're curious about,
feel free to leave me a comment
and I will try and answer
to the best of my ability
being someone who is not
necessarily an expert
in mini skid steers, (laughs)
but that's gonna do it
for this one, I think.
Thank you as always for watching.
I greatly appreciate,
if you have any questions or comments on
what I already said
about mini skid steers,
the sawmill, the lumber thing,
anything back in the shop,
please feel free. Leave
me a comment, as always,
I'd be happy answering any
questions you might have.
And until next time, happy woodworking.
