Skid steers on the European used market.

Rated capacity, and wheels against tracks

Skid steers are bought by rated operating capacity, the safe working load the machine will lift, and by whether they run on wheels or tracks.

Small machines under 700 kg rated capacity suit indoor work, landscaping and tight access. The mid class, roughly 700 to 1,000 kg, is the volume of the European market, the size hire fleets and groundwork crews standardise on. Above 1,000 kg are the large-frame machines for heavy material handling and demolition feed.

The wheels-or-tracks choice decides as much as size. Wheeled skid steers are cheaper to buy and run, and fine on hard standing. Compact track loaders cost more, float on soft and wet ground, and have taken a large share of the market, because most sites are not hard standing.

What buyers in this class actually do with the machine

The skid steer earns its place as an attachment carrier. Buyers run buckets, forks, sweepers, breakers, augers, planers and grapples off one machine, and the attachment list often matters more than the loader.

Groundwork and landscaping crews are the largest market, using the machine for muck-shifting, levelling and loading. Demolition contractors run track loaders into rubble. Agricultural and yard buyers favour wheeled machines for sweeping and bale work. Hire fleets buy the mid class because it suits the widest job range.

What a listing will not tell you is whether the machine ran clean pallet work or fed a breaker into concrete every day.

What matters most when buying used

Hours alone mislead on a skid steer. The machine is small, cheap to run hard, and often pushed well past comfortable load.

Three things to check before the headline figure. The lift-arm and pivot pins first: play here is common and points to a hard life. Tyres or tracks second. Skid-steer tyres scrub heavily, and a track set on a compact loader runs 2,000 to 4,000 euros. Auxiliary hydraulics third, because most attachments depend on them, so confirm flow, couplers and a clean circuit. Check the chaincase or the final drives for leaks.

Confirm which attachments are included. A machine sold bare is worth less than a listing photo with a bucket on it suggests.

Where the European market is right now

Skid-steer supply in Europe is steady and broad, deepest in the Netherlands, Germany and France, fed by a constant hire-fleet replacement cycle.

Bobcat, Caterpillar, JCB and Case lead the listings, with Kubota and the compact specialists behind. Compact track loaders now hold a large share and price above equivalent wheeled machines. The mid-capacity class is the most liquid and the most keenly priced.