Skid Steer Loader Attachments
The new vertical-lift linkage uses two extra links on each side.
Next, let's take a look at some of the tools that these loader arms
can hold.
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Angle Blade
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Auger
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Broom
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Cold planer
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Dirt Bucket
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Hydraulic Hammer
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Industrial Grapple Bk.
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Industrial Grapple Fk.
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Landscape Rake
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Landscape Tiller
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Light Material Bucket
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Material Arm
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Multi Bucket
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Pallet Fork
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Stump Grinder
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Trencher
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Utility Bucket
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Utility Fork
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Utility Grapple Bucket
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Vibratory Compactor
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Hydraulic Rotary Cutter
The Loader
The business end of the skid steer loader is the loader arms. These
arms and their associated hydraulics are designed to hold a variety of
implements, not just buckets. The lifting capability of the arms is carefully
matched with the rest of the machine so that the operator lifts the load,
not the machine.
Most Caterpillar Skid Steer Loaders and Multi Terrain Loaders use a
lift-arm design called radial lift. These lift arms are connected
to the machine with a single pin on each side. The pins allow the bucket
to follow an arc as it rises. As the bucket starts to rise, it first moves
out, away from the machine. After it gets higher than the height of the
mounting pin, it moves in closer to the machine.
The bucket sits close to the machine when it is in the down position
to make the machine more stable and compact when moving loads around. As
the bucket is raised, it moves away from the machine and then straight
up. This gives the machine extra reach, making it easier to dump a load
into the middle of a truck or place a pallet into a deep shelf, which is
why Caterpillar recently released a skid steer loader with a new vertical-lift
linkage. On a vertical-lift machine, the bucket starts in close -- the
same as it does on a radial-lift machine. But by the time the bucket gets
to about the operator's eye level, it has moved away from the machine by
about 2 feet (0.6 m). From there, the bucket goes almost straight up until
it reaches its maximum height of 128 inches (325 cm).
Photo courtesy Caterpillar
Two different linkages
and the arcs they follow
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