I have run many skids over the past few years in commercial construction and need to get one for a new house that I am setting, an old one that I am tearing down plus outbuildings. It will also be used to clear a 1300 foot driveway of snow, feed heavy round bales, grade etc plus run a backhoe attachment and auger that my dad has for his NH LX885. I have pretty much narrowed it down to a NH L175 through L185 or a Deere 325. Here are my concerns: 1. First and foremost I love the deals that are around me on the L175's and I have been looking for some time. Money is tight for us and the deals, condition and age are better but they are only 17.2 GPM and 2550 psi and I am worried that that is running on the low end and I might be limited for attachments etc. The others I am looking at start at 19.5 and 3050 PSI...is this enough difference in the real world to notice or am I just splitting hairs and forget about it. 2. I am in love with the capacity of my dad's LX885 and it seems like a perfect balance plus it is stable, smooth and handles round bales with ease. The L175 is shorter, has 200 less capacity (2000lbs) and 2000 less breakout force (4312) then either my dads LX885 or the newer L180. Is this going to be a problem for 15-1600 lb round bales if I chose to go with a 175. I know it is rated at 2000 and I am talking about a 1600 lb bale but I understand sometimes the figures can be misleading. When I drove the 175 it seemed pretty dang powerful when shoving into the pile of dirt but I was not able to pick anything near the weight of a round bale. Will I feel lacking going from a large frame to a small? 3. I have good dealer support for both in the rural area I will be in and like the Deere on specs and power a ton but the one thing that drives me nuts is when the bucket is all the way down and tipped all the way back on the unit I just drove on Friday it took very little uneven terrain or bumps to have the bucket slamming into the ground and dragging all over. I had a feeling it was the bucket that was paired with the unit but who knows. 4. General opinion between the two makers and my choices. I need to get something fairly soon to work the weekends out there for demolition and cleanup for the summer build. I am stuck here, any help is really appreciated.
17 gpm is a pretty standard flow rate for machines. For eveything you listed, you do not need highflow. Buy a snowblower speced to your hydraulics, it will work fine. Highflow has nothing to do with lifting capibilties. Stuff like backhoes and augers do not run on highflow. Planners and forestry cutters are really the only place you need highflow. Brush hogs when propperly speced to the machine work fine on stad flow. Personally, I'm not fan of NH skidsteers. I like Deere machines, but they did have injector pump problems that can damage the engine block.
Personally I would go with the 19.5 gpm and 3000+ psi. 3K psi seems to have been the industry standard for sometime now. My 1800 series CASE machines were 2500 psi. Most current attachments are meant to run with the 3K psi in mind. Maybe it doesnt matter for what you want to do, but if attachment performance is important than I would always opt for more flow.
The difference between a bucket of dirt and a round bale is where the center of gravity is. The round bale C of G will be about 2-1/2' to 3' from the attachment point and the bucket C of G is about 15" out. A large round bale requires a higher lift capacity, not for the hyraulics, but for wheel base and stability. Otherwise, the machines you are interested in will do almost all of what you want. Lastly, hydraulic snow blowers can use a lot of hydraulic capacity. I have about 29 gpm available and it works well. Most people I know with standard flow machines and hydraulic snow blowers end up changing to a higher flow (something in excess of 24 gpm) machine. In some cases a higher flow pump can be retrofitted to older machines. Check cost and availability before making you choice.
ask your Dad if he can assist by lending you his machine
the reason i am buying is because he cannot go a day without using his and cannot lend it, plus I need something for storms and such. My driveway is 1500 feet long.
Your L175 NH will do all of that. I have a LS150 and it runs a backhoe, or a auger, even a log splitter If the overall deal is better on the 175 I would go for it.
Reassuring Danny Steel, thanks. I am heading out of town this weekend to drive one and supposedly the owner has some heavy bales to pick. A very fair price from an elderly one owner gentleman and I think it has been gently used for its already low hours. I did not think these things would be so scarce....I have been checking craigslist and machinery trader every day for months and there has only been a couple of L175's through L185's added in that time. Heck, the one I will be looking at is not even listed yet.
I finally had a chance to go out and pick some heavy bales on a 175 and though it did do it and had plenty of lifting power it was too easy for me to put it on the front two on level ground so I am just going to have to buck up and get into the larger framed units. I am not really restricted on space where i am using it so the extra length should not cause a problem but rather just have the added benefit of better stability. I really wanted that unit to work as it was a great price on a super freaking clean unit but I just felt like I was settling too much. Thanks for the input all.
Larger NH or larger Deere?
I would prefer the Holland's but will take a Deere for sure. These things are slim pickings on the used market around here. I have looked for about two months and only had one or two new options pop up within 600 miles of Denver south of 1200 hours.
Weight kit on a L175 will darn near put you at the lift capacity of a LX885. Brian
I picked some large bales with the 175 with weights and it is no where near as stable as the 885 with weights. I am sure a lot of that has to do with the longer wheelbase and extra weight. The 175 felt like it had a ton of power for its size but not the stability to match. I am just used to the larger frame machines capacity and would feel like I was settling for anything less. I started on smaller machines in the construction field 15 years ago (mostly case) and did a ton with them but it is all relative to me and at this point a I do feel a 175 is a step back from what I have become so used to. If there was not going to be the exposure to near max items or I had a need for a little shorter machine then I would have snatched that one up for sure. I can see why so many really like the 175...honestly the thing that stood out more than anything else was the air seat, man what a dream compared to pops machine where you almost need a kidney belt on a long day in a rough field.
When i went from a small frame to a large frame machine i couln't belive the differance in staybility,many times while i could lift aload with the smaller machine if you were not smooth or ran over a rock with the back wheel things got very exciting in a hurry. I don't miss that at all with the larg frame machine lol.