WHEEL LOADERS

Wheel loaders are a vital part of most construction fleets. They can be used for digging, scooping, and hauling, giving them plenty of power and reliability.

A Wheel Loader is comprised of a large bucket in the front with arms running from each side of a central cab. They're commonly used for jobs which require a significant amount of material to be moved. This makes them popular for:

• Quarries and Gravel Pits
• Landscaping Businesses
• Stockpile Yards
• Larger Scale Construction
• Mining

Wheel loaders are available in lots of different sizes. We find that people mostly choose small loaders – with around 50 to 80 horsepower (hp) and an operating capacity of between 2,000 to 5,000 lbs – or a mid-range wheel loader – one with between 100 and 300 hp and an operating capacity of up to 30,000 or higher.

High end wheel loaders do exist, but they are massive machines that are used for large-scale operations such as mining. A large wheel loader can have an engine between 500 and 1,5000 hp and they have operating capacities in the tons – handling between 20 and 40 tons in a single scoop. A good mid-size loader can do the job in most situations.

The actual physical size of your wheel loader may prove to be a limitation; if you require it to fit into a garage or into a narrow passage, then you should know the size limits before purchasing a specific model.

A full-size wheel loader can handle a variety of different jobs thanks to the wide range of attachments. A bucket is the most common and popular choice. These are available as small and tough rock buckets up to big buckets for scooping light fill.

You can attach more than just buckets to a wheel loader though. They are popular in scrap yards. Here they are attached with grapples for lifting heavy bundles of junk. They are also used in lumber yards where they make short work of moving logs.

If you expect you’ll regularly be changing your attachments, then having a quick coupler makes it easier to make the changes. However, couplers could also reduce the overall capacity of a machine, as well as the breakout force, so it wouldn’t be worth getting if you don’t have a lot of attachments.

The Wheel Loader may be the right tool for your job, but there are many others which might be more ideal.

If you're only looking to move small amounts of material then a skid steer might be an appropriate tool. It's a much smaller piece of machinery but features a similar front-bucket setup and is a lot of fun to drive.

If you need to move a lot of material but also want to extend your reach or dig trenches, then a backhoe loader is likely your best bet. This machine features a front bucket and central cab which looks almost identical to a small wheel loader. It features an additional tool on the back however, a long-armed smaller sized bucket designed for trench digging or excavating material.