Skid Steer
Buy and sell skid steers in Panama.
Plenty of people here call any skid steer a bobcat, whoever built it, so a Cat, Case, John Deere or Komatsu machine is often advertised under that name. Skid steers are listed here new and pre-owned: wheeled machines for concrete yards and demolition clean-up, tracked loaders for soft ground and farm work, and the attachments that hang on the front, from a plain bucket to a brush cutter. On a lot that has gone back to scrub, or a corral that needs scraping out, the attachment and the hydraulics that drive it decide more than the badge does.
Wheels or tracks under a skid steer:
that is the first choice, and the ground makes it. A wheeled skid steer costs less to buy and to run, and is the usual machine for demolition clean-up and loading spoil. It struggles on soft, wet ground, where it digs itself in, and on hard surfaces turning on the spot scrubs the tyres away. A compact track loader, the tracked version, spreads its weight, keeps working on a muddy farm track or a freshly cleared lot and pushes harder, but rubber tracks cut on rebar and broken rock and cost far more to replace than tyres. The second split is the lift arms. Radial lift swings the arms in an arc from one pivot: simple, strong low down, good for digging, grading and pushing. Vertical lift raises the load almost straight up and reaches further at full height, which is what you want for tipping into a high-sided truck or stacking pallets. For real digging, an excavator does in an hour what a skid steer scratches at all day; across open pasture, a tractor with a front loader covers the ground faster.
Skid steer attachments and the hydraulic flow behind them:
most attachments made in the last twenty years hang on the universal quick-attach plate, so a bucket from one brand fits another. Check that the plate really matches and that the locking wedges seat fully. Then look at the auxiliary hydraulics. Standard flow runs a post-hole auger, a grapple, a sweeper or a small hammer. A brush cutter or mulcher for clearing overgrown scrub, or a cold planer for asphalt, wants high flow, which only some machines carry from the factory; on a standard-flow machine it turns slowly and runs hot. Try the controls before you commit. Older machines run on hand levers and foot pedals, newer ones on joysticks, many switchable between ISO and H patterns, and an operator raised on one will not want the other.
Where a used skid steer hides its wear:
on a wheeled machine, start with the chaincases, the sealed boxes on each side that carry the drive chains. Ask when the oil was last changed. A clunk when it changes direction, or metal glitter in the oil, means slack chains or worn sprockets. On a tracked loader, look at the rollers, idlers and sprockets as well as the rubber: cracks across the lugs or steel cords showing mean a new pair is close. Raise the arms with a loaded bucket and rock it. Knocking at the lift-arm pivots or the quick-attach pins is wear, and cracks or fresh welds around the pivots mean it has been overloaded. Leave the bucket up for a few minutes; if it sinks, the cylinder seals are going. Drive it into a pile: a healthy machine pushes evenly, and one side that stalls points to a tired drive motor or pump. A skid steer that cleared brush or scraped out poultry sheds and corrals pulls chaff and dust into the radiator and oil cooler, so check the fins and watch the temperature after half an hour’s work. Last, lift the seat bar: arms and drive should lock, and a bypassed interlock tells you how the machine was treated.
What a skid steer buyer in David asks before the trailer leaves:
make, model, year and hours, then wheels or tracks, radial or vertical lift, standard or high flow and the control pattern. Photograph the tyre tread or the track lugs straight on, the quick-attach plate, and every attachment going with it, since a working brush cutter or auger adds real money. Film it lifting a full bucket to height and holding it there, pushing into a pile and turning on the spot both ways. Then say where it stands and whether it sits on its own trailer. A skid steer is too heavy for the light trailer behind a family pickup, and a buyer in Chiriquí will want to know exactly what to tow to La Chorrera before setting off.