Bought a $4,250 Mini Skid Steer from Ritchie Bros Auction 

😂 don't worry, I bought a 38" machine

Thanks for writing I was gonna say dame

@@iamahardscaper Definitely need a review on the 38" one, I'm looking for one myself lol

@@iamahardscaper Some people just dont learn it's still not a 36, good news is you can start moaning for another 11 minute video.

@@tonyval4135 haha 36 is just a rough estimate. we can get into 90% of backyards with a 38", the reason why i bought it. thanks for moaning in the comment 👍 imagine buying something and not being able to critique it...

That is great advice for sure! good to know it is doing well for you

Definitely!

the only difference is you will sell your kubota in 5 years for 25K, and this chinisse thing fall apart in 1 year. with that being said your machine will cost you less per year.

That scl1000 is worth the $$$

@@artemauziak6722surprising I have had mine for about 9 months……minor crap had to repair but easier than you think on this machine…..

@@artemauziak6722if he buys it for 50k, has it for 5 yrs, sells it for 25k, then his Kubota cost him 5k annually. This Chinese mini is less than 5k.

👍👍 figured that one 😂

Ah thank you! That makes sense

Did you win?

I did, bought another 😆

@@tindominguez1015 Yes

@@mikedesilets3324 nice, I’m jealous , how is it?

That is definitely a great set up, and yes completely understand the argument for excavators vs mini skids.

I can see that for sure. Yeah it came with a fuel filter and i already ordered another 2. good advice!

Absolutely. I purchased a very similar machine. Slightly smaller engine- and a single rather than a twin, but other than that, they are identical. The only two needle- style grease fittings on the machine are in areas a standard zurk would get broken sooner or later. Furthermore, when you get one of these machines, it comes with a little tool box containing a few consumables, like a filter, etc, and a grease gun for greasing needle-style fittings along with some grease. And you can use that style of tip to grease both needle-style and zurk fittings. Also, that type of grease tip is great for greasing broken zurks as well, so they're handy. I removed that tip from the gun and fit a zurk to the end that went into the gun so I can use it when I need to with my normal grease gun

this is great advice 👍

💯👍

I never ended up using this a whole lot. I bought a 38" AGT and it has been doing great. I'll have a video for that. This one though I've heard some good and bad. There is a comment somewhere here of someone that used theirs a lot and has had a really bad experience with it.

Yeah I was looking at some, thanks for the heads up 👍

ah interesting, i'll be on the lookout

Can you name some Chinese 3 pump models

💯

80” with the bucket on

Comment here with the length , as in 3 day I'm picking one up. Want to know if I have to haul a trailer up or 9hr drive

@@iamahardscaper thx 😊

Sorry me again.. truck box is 6.6ft , you said the total length is 80" that's 6.666inch if I curl up the bucket maybe it would fit.. and how wide is it

you could take the bucket off, but you still need to put it somewhere. best to just google the AGT LRT23, there is a page with all dimensions and especially the weight

Yeah, I know what I was getting into as mentioned. It wasn’t a lot of money to give it a go and the machine has done well so far.

lets put it to the test 👍

definitely, the last auction had the cheapest version going for $2k

Are the things I don’t like about it not a review of the machine?

@@iamahardscaperit looked like the machine did a fairly decent job , but if I’m to purchase one I’ll have to do a lil more research. Thanks for the video though 👍

decent, yes. But the main thing that I don't like about it is the tilt angle of the bucket. Makes it hard to dump all material especially if it is sticking in the bucket.

😮

Yeah i seen some go as high as 6k. I havent seen this model go for that low, only the 13hp ones and they have gone even lower than 3500. I got another one that is a 38" machine for 3500 and that was the lowest one at the auction.

yes, bought another one

@@iamahardscaper Location price?

💯💯

Yeah I’m stupid and figured that one out

oh boy, here they come

ah that is great to hear. I plan to pick one up in September

@@iamahardscaper I got mine in Lethbridge a month ago, winning bid was 2750$, lots of them went for that, Edmonton it was more expensive. Its a fine unit, really powerful, slow track speed but again a lot of power. The hydraulics have no restrictors, so if you're light on the touch, not problem, but if she'll buck if you add too much, I ran the thing at minimum engine speed for my whole excavation of a retaining wall, other then adding some throttle to use the front plow to move dirt\gravel around.

That doesn’t change the width of the machine

i appreciate the feedback!

Yes, the bucket is small for a 43” machine. Should be deeper with more capacity. A 36” machine doesn’t mean a smaller bucket. Just means it is it has less width

I'll have to take a look at it again, but from what i remember the radiator would have to come out to access the battery and the sides don't lift up.

@@iamahardscaper I don't have your exact model but i'm betting if you raise the hood and while facing the hydraulic radiator grab the right edge and lift it will rise up and you can pivot it to the left out of the way.

ahh gotchya, i will check it out. thanks for the heads up!

I’ll sell it and hand dig everything

Thank you. Yup 👍

@@iamahardscaper same here. Im also running the same line of business. Usually im extremely busy right now but this year has been tuff to get clients. Any advice brother?

Definitely most people are feeling the same. Door to door when you are on a project because you can literally point to the project you are working on. Google and Facebook ads have worked well for me but that takes capital. We did a 3 part marketing series on the How to Hardscape Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/3qADobD2qS1Jc7z1ChVCep?si=Oik4KXQLThO-akiiWt13YA

I went to the Ritchie bros open house for the upcoming auction and there was one machine that had a small bucket like that but the machine was still 40+” wide. There were a few that were 38 or 39”. But most are 43”

Oh looking at the KTT23 online, I didn’t see those at the open house. But definitely looks to be a 32” machine along with the bucket. Description tag says 39” though

how are you liking the KTT23? I need to go pick mine up next week and I am thinking of selling this one so that I have a narrower machine

I’m pretty up north 😄. Depends how up north you are talking

For sure! great advice 👍

When you say grease them - do you mean the bearings or the area where the track touches them?

That bad eh??

@iamahardscaper I was 100 percent for these machines when they started coming into the u.s. after having mine about 6 months and using it for about 60 hours, I wish I never bought it. It's ok if you work on hard pack smooth dirt or smooth floor. Anything with ruts or rocks or in the woods i literally can not use it So when I first bought it new, I had carb and fuel issues, this was common among them. I did multiple carb cleanings, changed fuel filters, drained the fuel tank, and put an electronic fuel pump on it as I found the vacuum pump wasn't strong enough to pull fuel from the tank. This isn't too big of a deal to me for a 5k machine, I could deal with that. After putting some hours on it, i noticed the sprocket would hit the metal in front of it, the piece (undercarriage) that holds the middle idler wheels and has the slack adjustment in it for the tracks. I found out it was a common issue that the bolts holding this undercarriage to the machine work loose. When this happens, it doesn't matter how much you tension the tracks with grease. They will not tighten enough, and you will have issues with the sprocket hitting and binding. You need to pull the track off, pry the u dercarriage to slide it forward, and re torque the bolts. I've done this already, but i think i need to do it again. Its like they oblonged the bolt holes, so no matter how tight you put them, they will finally work their way back. This would have been another issue i would have been ok with on a 5k machine. The tracks keep stretching. It's making the track issues worse. One of the steel sections in the track has finally broken. It's hanging in there, but it's broke. It really needs new tracks, I think the oem are super thin. I'm not okay with this on a 5k machine or not. Tracks shouldn't be junk in 50 hours. It's not even a matter of tread depth. They are just thin junk. Another thing I'm not okay with is the undercarriage itself. They have the rear drive sprocket to center idler wheels and the main idler up front. It's not enough to keep the tracks on. If you hit a bump or rock on, let's say, the right side of the tracks, the sprocket wants to walk out of the tracks. Sometimes, you are lucky, and it just binds. Sometimes, the track pops off, and you don't even feel it. The rear center idler wheel is also not close enough to the rear sprocket to help align the track to the sprocket. This would have helped with this issue. I was debating adding another idler wheel in there myself, but I don't want to throw the money I to this machine as it seems one idler cost 200 bucks. I know this doesn't affect all of them, but mine came with bad paint prep, and I have 1/5 of my paint flaking off the machine at 50 hours. The thing that makes me dislike the machine the most is that they don't come with triple gear hydrualic pumps. The entire hydraulic design is dumb. Pump 1 powers left, drive motor, and lift arms up and down. Pump 2 powers right drive motor, bucket curl in and out, and quxillary hydraulics. This makes the machine worthless for anything other than stationary attachments. It works fine for a grapple, 4in1 bucket, or augur. But you can not use a brush hog or trencher on it. I mean, you could, but it's terrible. You don't have enough hydrualic flow on pump 2 to power the right drive motor at the same time as your auxillary attachment. So you dog the right drive motor, you can barely move the right drive motor. It probably would kf cost them another 100 bucks to put a triple gear pump at the factory, and I would have gladly paid for it I debated fixing the issues. The track fix would cost about 500 for a new set of tracks. 400 for 2 center idler wheels on the undercarriage plus my fab to make that even work. And a triple gear pump with plumbing would cost another 8 to 900 easily. For 1,800 more to fix a 5k machine, I'd rather sell it and spend 8k on a machine that already has high tracks with more center idler wheels. And a triple gear pump from the factory. Even if they have the crappy thin trqcks with the extra wheels and high sprocket, you shouldn't need to tension it as tight to keep it on, so they should last longer. Imo these should stop being sold in the u.s as they are unusable after some hours are put on them. I don't think all Chinese mini skids are bad, I think they make some good ones, but these are garbage. If I were you, I'd sell it while it's still in good shape and invest in something slightly better.

wow thank you for the well thought out message! I appreciate that a lot.

I have the same machine and I did a bunch of research prior to buying mine. I ended up getting mine for $2600. Mine is a 23hp tho and I am almost certain his is the 2024 model with the 13hp B&S or Rato. I replaced all fluids, complete oil change, and removed the tracks and went through the whole under carriage. Greased everything and TIG welded the grease zerts to the pressure nut. That way the grease would not leak out of the tensioners. I actually read the manual and have completed the start up check and assessed any issues like adjusting the tensioners. First 100 hours I had to do that a lot bit I am at 170 hours and the last 60ish hours all I needed to do is ad fuel and I did another oil change.

@jo_nathan_nation6544 if your talking about mine, it has the 23hp* rato

Thanks for the great advice!…

@iamahardscaper if you have auction around your area. It helps to look at and see.first hand get better idea of what's different. Lol I always look at how easy it is to check oil. I bought the diggit 850 for my needs. Bucket a little narrow then yours but it's deeper and lifts around 6ft up. And support to lift 800 pounds

yeah, as mentioned in the video this was just on a whim and for fun. It is such a small amount of money for this piece of equipment that it didnt matter whether or not it worked for me because I can just sell it for more than what I paid. I actually ended up going to the last auction and bought another one. so there will be more videos on these machines

I think there was something positive on there. Can’t remember though 😂 I’d say I bought a new one that is 38” and I like it

@@iamahardscaper there ya go! It wasn’t that hard was it? Jk I just bought one and all I see are ‘problems with my Chinese mini skid’ videos! Has me worried

I have heard of many problems. But also have heard a few good stories. Just seems that you need to put some work into the machine, so expect that. The new one I got I just dropped it off at an engine repair place and just asked them to change all fluids, fix a couple things, and it has been going great. I’ll be releasing that video Monday

😂 before I bought it I did not know it was 43”. It was a last minute purchase. Worth the money spent, but there are still many problems with the machine

💯💯

Not right now

@@iamahardscaper Does it have 3 value 3 pump? I'm starting to educate myself of these skid steers lol

Haha I don’t know. Asking that tells me you know more than I do. But I think 2 pump

🙏

Thanks for the review Mike! I feel you regarding access, here in the east end of Toronto sometimes a wheelbarrow doesn’t fit between the houses to access the backyard!

Definitely! I need a 36” machine for my projects

Haha a mini skid shaped object I like that. Yeah, but it was too soft

If you search AGT LRT23 you should get the page with at least some details on the machine

It most likely has 2.

2

@@iamahardscaper Pulled the trigger on a Derette 430T, looks like a solid machine. Got the Honda engine upgrade 1/2 price. :O)

congrats!

Where did you purchase Derette from? Directly from China? Or someone here in the states? .​@@TimJoiner-e7s