Compact Equipment Magazine
Business and Software
May Publisher’s Message: Send Us Your Letters

May Publisher’s Message: Send Us Your Letters

By Keith Gribbins May 19, 2016 View Profile

Write or E-mail Us Your Insights, and We’ll Get Them into the Mag

We want to hear more from our readers in 2016. That means you — clever contractor, successful dealer and famous equipment manufacturer — reading this publisher’s column right now. I want to hear your ideas, insights and even complaints over the rest of 2016. Consider these questions. What do you want to read about more in the pages of Compact Equipment? What issues need more coverage? What brands do you love to own and operate? What grievances do you have with our coverage? Hey, do you want to be involved in a story? In 2016, we’re definitely aiming to double 1) our readership interaction and 2) our coverage of contractors who use small machinery and tool carriers to run their construction, landscape, ag and rental operations. We appreciate letters like these.

Use Skid Steers in the Snow, Not Tracks

Just got done reading your article on track tools [March 2016 issue]. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to use a rubber tracked skid steer with a snow blower, but I found it very frustrating. It was like wearing roller blades and trying to push an immovable object. Because of the displacement of the weight of the machine across such a large area, I could never get enough traction and would have to continually back up and take a run. And that was with using a snow blower. I can’t imagine using a snow blade with a rubber tracked skid steer. I did some looking on the internet, and I’m not alone. Tracked skid steers [called compact track loaders] provide great flotation, but are horrible for traction with snow. Plus it’s quite the rough ride. Stay with the rubber tires and point load the weight of the machine down through the tires. Tell a rancher that you want to replace his skinny snow tires on his feed truck with big flotation tires, and he would chase you off the property.

Patrick Nistler | Grouser Products Inc. | West Fargo, N.D.

Tier 4 Kind’a Sucks

I truly enjoy the magazine and the online articles that your publication provides. That being said and done, I have a small suggestion. I enjoyed reading the [online] article on the Tier 4 JCB engines. Although I have a good working knowledge of the mechanical operations of engines, etc., there does come a time when the acronyms used are beyond the readers’ ability to know what they represent and even more does not provide a reasonable understanding of how those abbreviations function. Example: SCR as stated in the article on JCB Tier 4. Perhaps it would be good for an abbreviations or an acronyms page that provides an explanation of its meaning with an explanation of how that SCR operates or maybe a hyperlink to its information. Hope you do not mind the comments. By the way, Tier 4 and this new technology sucks. We just purchased new equipment all with under 100 hours of operation, and we returned it to the manufacturer because the new technology was dangerous, undependable and was proving to be outrageous in operational costs and repair.

John C. Betka | Up Sky Ranch | Walkerville, Mont.

Please keep the letters coming.