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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tmurch11" data-source="post: 139001" data-attributes="member: 25901">Hello,I'm hoping to pick the brains of you more experienced skidsteer guys. I'm looking for a skidsteer, preferably a CTL or MTL, for home use. My background with skidsteers is pretty limited. I used my grandpa's old Melroe 600 a bit growing up, and I've been using S205 and T590 rental machines from the local hardware store. Between the two, I greatly prefer tracks to minimize damage to the road surface, and I'm a fan of pilot controls over hand/foot. I'm not sure what year emissions control features came into play at the 60-75hp range, but I'd prefer to find something pre-emissions. I'm looking for a machine to do snow removal, lift logs onto a sawmill, and be able to handle odd chores like spreading new gravel. I live on five rocky and heavily timbered acres in NE Minnesota, so most of the machines time would be spent on the gravel driveway/road/mill pad. I have room to park a machine in the garage but the door height is a bit over 6'6". The rental T590 actually fit in just fine. I think I'd need a machine capable of lifting around 1,800# at the heaviest, but more often around 700-1000#. There aren't really trees heavier than white pine up here. I've seen a few CAT 247Bs and 247B2/3s for sale in the area. Would this be a good option for a lighter use, home-owner machine? My concern is the lifting capacity is pretty much at my heaviest requirements. Can these machines be pushed to lift that much occasionally? Does the radial lift of a 247B make loading logs challenging?I'm also looking at T190s and T590s. They would lift more, but the CTL undercarriage seems a bit rougher and leaves more impact. Thanks for your help!</blockquote>

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