Gehl / Hydra Mac skid steer ... or Teach-A-Newbie

[vinito]

In a day or two I will be the proud owner of a little bitty skid steer. It's a Hydra Mac 8B, which I guess is the same as a Gehl 2500 I think?? I have a one acre lot and a bunch of work to do to it. Every time I walk around it I hear myself thinking "I could really use a loader for that" and a few weeks ago I kinda got the bug for real, so I started looking around. I didn't want to have to take out a loan to get a "nice" one, at least not at this point. But I found this little Hydra Mac on craigslist and checked it out earlier tonight. Even though it's just got that little 22hp engine in it, I was surprised at how well it moved around and the odd T-handle controls seem like they won't be all that bad to learn how to control the thing pretty well. I figure this will be a decent way to kind of try out just having my own loader (first ever for me), plus the small size makes it pretty easy to manage in terms of storage, fuel & fluids and even maintenance and such. Pretty painless. With my (relatively) small lot size, this machine kind of scales down to it. Sometimes small is a good fit. The thing is butt ugly and not in great condition, but the engine works OK without knocking or smoking, the hydraulics and controls work fine and seem balanced between left & right, and it comes with a smooth bucket in fair condition and a tooth bucket in excellent condition. It leaks hydraulic fluid and the hoses are in fair condition at best, but I am a machinist by trade and a halfway decent mechanic so I can chase down the inevitable issues that crop up and hopefully go through the thing a bit to nip a lot of potential problems before they crop up. I paid too much for it, but I probably didn't get hurt too bad. I expect I will probably get nickel-and-dimed on it for another $1K over the next few months, but that means it will be in better shape though right? So it's not all bad. Hopefully the engine and hydro system components will not eat themselves any time soon. It will just be handy having the thing here so I can use it any time I want to. Sometimes it would be nice just not to have to carry heavy things around so often. So that pretty much it for now. I'll post some pictures once I get it hauled home. Be warned, the thing looks awful. But at least it works OK. Not fantastic, but it is fully operable. ... While I was writing that I got a call from a friend who has his own loader and a heavy truck/trailer setup with chains & boomers - a loader delivery kit. Anyway, he just let me know that he will be able to do the deed tomorrow morning, so it seems to be working out pretty smoothly so far. If I believed in "signs", then that might be a good one. So I should be adding another post complete with a couple pictures tomorrow.

 

[vinito]

Apologies for the intentional double-post, but my formatting wasn't working so I thought I'd redo it so it looks as I intended (and wrote it) the first time. I finally figured out what was going on. Hopefully this will be easier on the eyes. So with too much ado already...
In a day or two I will be the proud owner of a little bitty skid steer. It's a Hydra Mac 8B, which I guess is the same as a Gehl 2500 I think??
I have a one acre lot and a bunch of work to do to it. Every time I walk around it I hear myself thinking "I could really use a loader for that" and a few weeks ago I kinda got the bug for real, so I started looking around. I didn't want to have to take out a loan to get a "nice" one, at least not at this point.
But I found this little Hydra Mac on craigslist and checked it out earlier tonight. Even though it's just got that little 22hp engine in it, I was surprised at how well it moved around and the odd T-handle controls seem like they won't be all that bad to learn how to control the thing pretty well. I figure this will be a decent way to kind of try out just having my own loader (first ever for me), plus the small size makes it pretty easy to manage in terms of storage, fuel & fluids and even maintenance and such. Pretty painless. With my (relatively) small lot size, this machine kind of scales down to it. Sometimes small is a good fit.
The thing is butt-ugly and not in great condition, but the engine works OK without knocking or smoking, the hydraulics and controls work fine and seem balanced between left & right, and it comes with a smooth bucket in fair condition and a tooth bucket in excellent condition. It leaks hydraulic fluid and the hoses are in fair condition at best, but I am a machinist by trade and a halfway decent mechanic so I can chase down the inevitable issues that crop up and hopefully go through the thing a bit to nip a lot of potential problems before they crop up.
I paid too much for it, but I probably didn't get hurt too bad. I expect I will probably get nickel-and-dimed on it for another $1K over the next few months, but that means it will be in better shape though right? So it's not all bad. Hopefully the engine and hydro system components will not eat themselves any time soon. It will just be handy having the thing here so I can use it any time I want to. Sometimes it would be nice just not to have to carry heavy things around so often.
So that pretty much it for now. I'll post some pictures once I get it hauled home. Be warned, the thing looks awful. But at least it works OK. Not fantastic, but it is fully operable.
...
While I was writing that I got a call from a friend who has his own loader and a heavy truck/trailer setup with chains & boomers - a loader delivery kit.
Anyway, he just let me know that he will be able to do the deed tomorrow morning, so it seems to be working out pretty smoothly so far. If I believed in "signs", then that might be a good one. So I should be adding another post complete with a couple pictures tomorrow.

 

[vinito]

Apologies for the intentional double-post, but my formatting wasn't working so I thought I'd redo it so it looks as I intended (and wrote it) the first time. I finally figured out what was going on. Hopefully this will be easier on the eyes. So with too much ado already...
In a day or two I will be the proud owner of a little bitty skid steer. It's a Hydra Mac 8B, which I guess is the same as a Gehl 2500 I think??
I have a one acre lot and a bunch of work to do to it. Every time I walk around it I hear myself thinking "I could really use a loader for that" and a few weeks ago I kinda got the bug for real, so I started looking around. I didn't want to have to take out a loan to get a "nice" one, at least not at this point.
But I found this little Hydra Mac on craigslist and checked it out earlier tonight. Even though it's just got that little 22hp engine in it, I was surprised at how well it moved around and the odd T-handle controls seem like they won't be all that bad to learn how to control the thing pretty well. I figure this will be a decent way to kind of try out just having my own loader (first ever for me), plus the small size makes it pretty easy to manage in terms of storage, fuel & fluids and even maintenance and such. Pretty painless. With my (relatively) small lot size, this machine kind of scales down to it. Sometimes small is a good fit.
The thing is butt-ugly and not in great condition, but the engine works OK without knocking or smoking, the hydraulics and controls work fine and seem balanced between left & right, and it comes with a smooth bucket in fair condition and a tooth bucket in excellent condition. It leaks hydraulic fluid and the hoses are in fair condition at best, but I am a machinist by trade and a halfway decent mechanic so I can chase down the inevitable issues that crop up and hopefully go through the thing a bit to nip a lot of potential problems before they crop up.
I paid too much for it, but I probably didn't get hurt too bad. I expect I will probably get nickel-and-dimed on it for another $1K over the next few months, but that means it will be in better shape though right? So it's not all bad. Hopefully the engine and hydro system components will not eat themselves any time soon. It will just be handy having the thing here so I can use it any time I want to. Sometimes it would be nice just not to have to carry heavy things around so often.
So that pretty much it for now. I'll post some pictures once I get it hauled home. Be warned, the thing looks awful. But at least it works OK. Not fantastic, but it is fully operable.
...
While I was writing that I got a call from a friend who has his own loader and a heavy truck/trailer setup with chains & boomers - a loader delivery kit.
Anyway, he just let me know that he will be able to do the deed tomorrow morning, so it seems to be working out pretty smoothly so far. If I believed in "signs", then that might be a good one. So I should be adding another post complete with a couple pictures tomorrow.

Holy crap, that looks gawd-awful too. Sorry. I think I give up now. If this post looks better, I don't know why. I wish I could edit a previous post. Maybe I can and I just haven't found it yet...
Well hopefully I'll get better over time.

 

[Tazza]

Holy crap, that looks gawd-awful too. Sorry. I think I give up now. If this post looks better, I don't know why. I wish I could edit a previous post. Maybe I can and I just haven't found it yet...
Well hopefully I'll get better over time.

Looking forward to seeing how you go with this machine.
Make sure you build a cage for it though, I have heard stories of people dying use to something landing on them. I have never had a machine roll or drop something on me, but i'm happy to know that if it was to happen, i have a cage to keep me safe.