Tips on Buying Used. and Not Taking a $$$ Beating...

[WesternMN]

Hey everybody, I'm looking to buy a used machine for light use around a small farm. Moving snow in winter, moving some 1,000 pound feed totes, a few round bales and general light loader work. Maybe some light to moderate dirt work next summer as well. right now the top contender is an S185. I think it's big enough to do anything I'll need and my truck and trailer will haul it easily. I'm certainly open to other machine suggestions at this point as well. I will probably put less than 100 hours on this machine in a year and will probably only keep it for a year or two. How do skid loaders hold their value? Is there any buying advice you might offer that will help keep me from losing a pile of money if I do decide to sell it within a year or two?

 

[Tazza]

An S185 will easily handle the 1000 lb lifts, it is a vertical lift machine, so there are more wear points.
Skid steers seem to hold their value pretty well, even the older ones still have a place moving snow or dirt on private property.

 

[farmshop]

An S185 will easily handle the 1000 lb lifts, it is a vertical lift machine, so there are more wear points.
Skid steers seem to hold their value pretty well, even the older ones still have a place moving snow or dirt on private property.

Used loaders hold there value pretty well as long as you don't beat the crap out of them and keep the paint looking good. We always try to sell loaders with good or else new tires. Even cheap new tires seem to turn buyers on. It seems like 2000 hours is kind of a number that scares people. Although we have never gotten rid of a machine with less than 7000. It seems that between 4000 and 5000 hydraulic leaks will show up from fatigue