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To buy or not to buy? That is the question

In today’s economy, versatility is the key. Whether you decide to purchase or rent a piece of equipment, or simply add attachments to make the equipment you already own more versatile, the most important thing to remember is weighing your decision against the services you are able to offer your clients. Having a full fleet of nice equipment will get you nowhere if you don’t really need it or if it’s more cost-effective to rent it when you need it.

A good way to help determine if you need to purchase a dedicated machine is to try renting it first. Renting can help you decide if and what you should buy. It allows you to try different brands and build your customer base before you put out the money for brand new equipment.

Something else to consider when deciding on whether to purchase a dedicated piece of equipment is time management. Besides the per-day or per-hour rate of renting, you have the cost of transportation to get the equipment,and the time to go pick it up. Having to seek availability on a day or time when most rental facilities are closed can become a problem for you and your clients. There are times when it really pays to have a piece of equipment that is dedicated to doing one job. Having the equipment readily available is a huge perk.

While power attachments allow you to cut costs and train your employees more efficiently, weighing the costs of renting or purchasing can make all the difference in winning or losing. For the landscape contractor with an array of different jobs on his agenda, it’s a no-brainer that attachments are simply the way to go. Attachments can be a smart way to get more jobs done and to build profits in all four seasons. But one thing is always sure: you need to approach it strategically and do your homework.

Attachments and beyond

Skid steer loaders aren’t the only power tools that come with attachments. The capabilities are almost endless for power tools, and investing in attachments can mean a whole new world of business and profit. Chainsaws can offer pruners for getting those hard-to-reach tree limbs and branches, multi-drills for power drilling wood, ice or dirt, or firewood cutters to cut down wood without grounding the chain, while also ‘holding’ the wood in place. Trimmers offer even more attachments, like bed redefiners for mulching or flowerbed edging, blowers for leaf blowing, paddles for grass and sod cleaning, and thatchers and sweepers, just to name a few.

You can get pretty much any piece of equipment to do more than it is currently doing for you by adding attachments.

While there isn’t much new being offered per se, manufacturers have been making strides in improving the existing attachments. With higher hydraulic flow, the loader can provide more performance to power high-flow, high-performance attachments, increasing productivity and enabling the attachment to perform work more efficiently and more quickly.

For instance, a high-flow trencher or auger attachment coupled to a high flow-equipped loader will run at a faster speed. It will have plenty of torque to avoid stalling in highly compacted materials.

“We’ve been increasing the hydraulic flow to our attachments, which make them work more powerfully, like a dedicated machine,” Borenstein said. “That’s the biggest change we’ve been working on with the newer machines. It makes the attachments dig faster or blow snow farther at a much stronger rate.”

With the right tools, landscape contractors and professionals can exponentially expand their business volume by offering extra services to clients. Acquiring attachments for your existing equipment allows you to increase your capabilities and, in turn, your revenue. Now, not only can you get your work done more efficiently, you can also virtually eliminate any off-seasons. Let’s take a look at one of the most popular and versatile machines and its attachments, the skid steer loader.

The skid steer loader may be the most versatile landscaping machine in your arsenal. A light and compact machine, it offers a wide array of tool attachments that allow landscape contractors to work throughout the seasons.

The conventional bucket of many skid loaders can be replaced with a variety of specialized buckets or attachments, many powered by the loader’s hydraulic system. These include backhoe, hydraulic breaker, pallet forks, angle broom, sweeper, auger, mower, snow blower, stump grinder, tree spade, trencher, dumping hopper, ripper, tillers, grapple, tilt, roller, snow blade, wheel saw, cement mixer, and wood chipper machine.

Some models of skid steer even have an automatic attachment changer mechanism. This allows a driver to change between a variety of terrain handling, shaping, and leveling tools without having to leave the machine, by using a hydraulic control mechanism to latch onto the attachments. Hydraulic supply lines to power attachments may be routed so that the couplings are located near the cab, and the driver does not need to leave the machine to connect or disconnect those supply lines.

Not everywhere can be like Florida or California, where the grass grows green all year round. so in the history of landscape maintenance, winter has been known to cause hard times for contractors. some had turned to prayers to survive. some collected unemployment, saved money, signed up for an equal payment plan with customers, or took a vacation. a few gave up entirely, becoming ski instructors and building snowmen with their family.

But the ones who were really smart made their business go year-round. Relax—they didn’t contact a witch doctor and dance naked on a mountaintop to get the weather gods in their favor. It was much simpler: they got attachments.

Many of you already know this. You already use at least one power tool to single-handedly tackle a slew of jobs with the help of power attachments. You de-thatch and aerate lawns in the spring, cut turf and collect clippings all summer, pick up leaves and debris in the fall, and then clear snow from walks and drives in the winter—all with one power unit and the versatile attachments available.

Multipurpose (4-in-1) buckets have become popular skid-steer attachments. As their name implies, these buckets can perform multiple functions because the bottom and sides of the bucket separate from the back.

“Contractors can accomplish more tasks with one attachment when they rely on a multipurpose bucket,” agrees David Steger, Takeuchi-US product and training manager. “When a skid steer is equipped with a 4-in-1 bucket, contractors don’t have to change attachments or haul additional attachments around with their machine. This saves time, space on the trailer and ultimately money.”

Application is Key to Selection

Before selecting a multipurpose bucket, ask yourself two very important questions: what tasks do you need to perform, and what size bucket will those tasks require?

“If excavating and moving dirt is your main application, a general-purpose bucket may be sufficient,” says Steger. “However, if you are performing clean-up, general utility construction, residential construction or any other application where you are moving dirt and debris, a 4-in-1 bucket becomes advantageous.”

“If the contractor needs to perform multiple jobs, such as those tasks found on a demolition project, a multipurpose bucket is a good choice,” says Graham. “A multipurpose bucket will allow the operator to grab larger material and doze smaller material during cleanup, all with one attachment.”

Because of their clam-style design, multipurpose buckets can operate like a grapple to pick up materials that can’t be handled with a standard bucket. The serrated grapple edges are effective for moving logs, beams, concrete chunks or other bulky materials.

“Skid steers with 4-in-1 buckets are able to dig and grab material with the same attachment,” says Steger. “Grabbing material is the 4-in-1 bucket’s biggest advantage.”