Guide to Attachments for Compact Construction Equipment

Guide to Attachments for Compact Construction Equipment

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Owning compact equipment is a wise investment given how versatile, durable and efficient it is. To get the most out of your compact track loader, skid steer loader or mini excavator, you need the right compact equipment attachments for the job. With the essential accessories, you can turn your compact machine into a multi-purpose workhorse with solutions for every job you might take on.

In this guide to compact equipment attachments, we’ll explain some of the popular work tools operators use, including compact track loader attachments, skid street attachments and mini excavator attachments.

Compact Track Loader Attachments

Compact track loaders are gaining traction on job sites around the world thanks to their multi-terrain benefits. A compact track loader offers many of the same benefits as skid steer loaders, but they’re designed for rugged, unstable and uneven terrain. Unlike a skid steer loader, a compact track loader can traverse easily across mud, sand and other unstable ground thanks to its wider distribution of weight and tracks that cover more surface area.

Compact Track Loader Attachments

Because of this design, compact track loaders may work on construction lots, agricultural lands and landscaping jobs. With plenty of attachments, compact track loaders cover lots of ground, from clearing and prepping lots to handling material to digging trenches. Here are some compact track loader attachments to consider:

1. Backhoes

Most people reserve backhoes for tractors, but thanks to Caterpillar® engineering, the backhoe work tool is available for your compact track loader. Attaching a backhoe arm to your compact track loader gives you a range of functionality. Whether you’re digging trenches and foundations, drilling, hammering or moving material, a backhoe arm has many compatible tools, including a backhoe bucket.

Since the backhoe arm attachment gives you the capabilities of an excavator, it’s considered a staple for any compact track loader operator. Backhoe arm attachments are also available for skid steer loaders.

2. Bale Spears and Grabs

When using a compact track loader for agricultural purposes, bale spears and bale grabs are a must. Bale spears allow you to pierce, lift and move hay bales in round or square configurations. Bale grabs tighten around round hay bales, securing them for transport. Cat® bale spear and bale grab attachments are available for your compact track loader or skid steer loader.

3. Blades

Blades for compact track loaders are expertly engineered to withstand tough cutting and material moving conditions. Blades allow you to push and slice through piled soil, debris and other material, optimizing your lot clearing efforts. Caterpillar offers two main blade options for your compact equipment. Both angle and dozer blades shear through material, forcing it up over the blade so it spreads out evenly. Both options offer a 30-degree angle for more efficient and precise pushing.

4. Brushcutters

When you need to clear-cut lots to get ready for construction or maintain overgrowth around a field, Cat brushcutter attachments for compact track loaders can efficiently eliminate brush. Cat brushcutters range in widths from 60 inches to 78 inches, giving you several options to meet your needs.

Be sure to ask your Holt of California product expert for assistance matching the correct brushcutter model with your compact equipment model. Cat brushcutters are also available for your Cat skid steer loader.

5. Buckets

If you own a compact track loader, a general-purpose or material handling bucket is a must-have. Buckets are extremely versatile, and when you’re building your service fleet, a bucket can help you accomplish a variety of construction, landscaping and agricultural tasks. With a bucket, you can lift and move dirt and material, grade and level terrain and even push around brush and rubble in a pinch. Caterpillar manufactures anextensive inventory of buckets for compact loaders with different specializations.

6. Mulchers

Cat mulcher attachments are an essential work tool for your compact track loader operating in construction and landscaping. When you’ve got dense brush, shrubs and saplings to clear, mulchers help you effortlessly knock them down and convert them into mulch. Cat mulchers are high-performance work tools built with durable, fixed teeth that chop and grind overgrowth, spitting it out into fine mulch. Mulchers are available for both compact track loaders and skid steer loaders.

7. Rakes

Cut back on manual labor and improve productivity with Cat rakes for landscaping. Caterpillar manufactures a range of rake attachments, including grapple rakes, landscape rakes and power box rakes for your compact track loader.

Rakes are designed to run along the ground, picking up and collecting debris and material that doesn’t belong. Cat rake attachments help you smooth out and flatten terrain, preparing it for further care and conditioning. They are perfectly suited for commercial lawn care, sports fields or landscape restoration.

8. Saws

The Cat saw work tool is a continuous drive circular saw that attaches to your compact track loader and operates by a direct drive hydraulic motor. Wheel saws range in width from 3 inches to 8 inches and saw at a depth of 18 inches to 24 inches. Operators can also adjust the saw direction from side to side by up to 22 inches. Cat wheel saw attachments are compatible with other compact loaders like skid steer loaders and compact wheel loaders.

9. Stump Grinders

Stump grinders are powerful work tool attachments for compact track loaders that grind down leftover stumps into mere dust. Stump grinders help landscape contractors perform general maintenance by eliminating stumps and preparing the lot for seeding and planting. They’re also essential when clearing lots for construction and eliminating hazards.

Stump grinder attachments saw down hardwood and softwood stumps using precision-controlled back-and-forth movements to grind the material until it’s flat with the ground. Stump grinders are also compatible with skid steer loaders and other compact equipment.

10. Tillers

For landscape and agricultural ventures, Cat tiller attachments break up soil and help stabilize, level and finish terrain. They’re also useful for adding and mixing compost, fertilizer and other lawn care products into the soil. The tiller’s rotating rows of metal tines pierce deep into the soil, digging up and turning over clumps of earth for aeration and making the soil easier to manipulate. Tillers are essential work tools for finishing new landscape projects or for maintaining existing lawn care projects.

11. Trenchers

Convert your compact track loader into a digging machine with a trencher work tool attachment. Designed to dig long, narrow trenches, Cat trenchers are ideal for commercial landscaping and agricultural purposes or infrastructure projects.

Trenchers saw into the earth using a chain of teeth that slice a smooth, straight line ready for pipe laying or electrical line installations. Trenchers are also ideal for laying irrigation systems for lawn care, sports fields or golf course development. Trencher attachment dig depths range from 36 inches to 60 inches. The attached side auger moves material away from the trench as you dig it up, helping you achieve optimal efficiency. Cat trenchers also attach to compact skid steer loaders.

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Compact Skid Steer Attachments

Compact Skid Steer Attachments: Buckets, Brooms, Forks, and Snow Tools

Compact track loaders and skid steer loaders can handle most of the same attachments, including many of those listed above. But often, skid steers are used more in building supply yards, warehousing or other industrial capacities where there are harder surfaces like asphalt or concrete. As a result, you may find the following skid steer attachments will be versatile to your needs:

1. Buckets

Skid steer loader bucket attachments are an essential work tool, giving you a range of functionality from safely lifting and moving material to clearing and hauling away debris. In winter months, you can use your skid steer loader bucket attachment to scoop up snow and pile it out of the way. If you’ve got a simple landscape project, use your bucket to carry and place sand, gravel or other material. Caterpillar manufactures a range of specialized buckets for your skid steer loader, including general-purpose, grapple and mixing buckets.

2. Brooms

Keep your work site clean with Cat broom attachments for skid steer loaders. Cat broom attachments include angle, pickup and utility brooms for a variety of sweeping capabilities:

  • Angle brooms: Cat angle brooms sweep debris ahead while allowing you to angle your work tool to the left and right of center. This angling ability optimizes your sweeping efforts and ensures even wear of the bristles throughout the attachment’s lifetime.

  • Pickup and utility brooms: Cat pickup and utility broom attachments give you the ability to pick up and dispose of dust and debris. These models employ a wide-sweeping front brush as well as a smaller gutter brush for maneuvering tight against walls. They’re also equipped with a water tanker to keep down the dust as you sweep roadways and job sites.

Certain broom attachment models can also be fitted with a snow kit for more versatility from this work tool. Additionally, some Cat broom attachment models are compatible with a compact track loader, among other types of loaders and equipment.

3. Forks

For safe and efficient material handling, use a skid steer fork attachment to move and lift your palletized or secured loads. The durable tines of the Cat pallet fork attachment are adjustable in width to fit the size of the load you’re carrying. Additionally, the forks are secured onto a heavy-duty carriage with a metal mesh pattern, allowing the operator better visibility through the work tool when loading palletized goods. The tall carriage height also ensures the loads can rest securely as they’re being lifted.

4. Snow Tools

Get year-round service out of your skid steer loader with the range of snow work tool attachments available from Caterpillar. Starting with snow blowers, perform easy winter cleanup by breaking up compact snow and blowing it away to clear driveways, walkways and parking lots.

Snowplow attachments also help with your snow removal needs. Designed for yards, driveways and other lighter, residential and commercial capacities, snow plows scrape away snow and ice, allowing you to push it into a pile and out of the way. The Cat snow push attachment is a heavy-duty snow moving work tool designed to clear large parking lots and other large surfaces in fewer passes. Cat snow removal work tools are compatible with skid steer loaders and other compact equipment.

Mini Excavator Attachments

Cat mini excavators are small but heavy-duty pieces of construction equipment that perform well on job sites. Designed to maneuver in tighter spaces, Cat mini excavators have a tight radius, but with the same stick and boom functionality you need. With many work tools to choose from, you can extend the versatility of your compact excavator with these mini excavator attachments:

1. Augers

Augers are hydraulic mini excavator attachments used for drilling holes of all varieties. Cat auger attachments for mini excavators are expertly engineered to drill straight into the ground using ideal levels of torque and speed. The auger work tool digs deep into the earth, excavating the dirt and preparing the soil for foundation footings, tree plantings, fences or any other project.

Augers work on a range of soil types from compact, rocky ground to soft or loose earth. Cat auger attachments are also universally compatible with other construction equipment, including skid steer loaders and compact track loaders.

2. Buckets

One of the most essential accessories you can use with a Caterpillar mini excavator is the bucket. Cat buckets for compact excavators range in capacity from general-duty to heavy-duty buckets and feature specialized functions from grading to digging to ditch cleaning.

Equipped with the right bucket, mini excavators become the workhorse of the job site, digging up and moving earth, debris and other material for optimum productivity and performance. Some models of heavy-duty Cat bucket attachments are also designed to be compatible with thumb accessories, giving you even more control and functionality.

3. Rippers

The Cat ripper attachment for mini excavators is a singular claw that pierces through material, breaking it up for excavation, loading and hauling. Rippers are ideal for landscaping capacities where you need to break up hard earth, and they’re also useful in winter months when you need to break through frozen, ice-covered ground.

Cat rippers are designed to attach to Cat thumb accessories, giving you additional precision and movement.

4. Thumbs

One of the most useful attachments for mini excavators is the Cat thumb attachment. As the name suggests, the thumb attachment gives you incredible dexterity, allowing you to pick up cut brush and logs, boulders, trash or construction materials with precision. Thumbs are designed to work with other attachments, including various types of buckets and rippers.

Find Quality Work Tool Attachments at Holt of California

Find Quality Work Tool Attachments at Holt of California. Shop compact equipment attachments at Holt of California, and find high-performing work tools for your construction equipment.Extend the capabilities of your compact construction equipment with work tools from Holt of California. With an extensive inventory of compact equipment attachments, you’re sure to find the right tool for the job. Whether you’re looking to add versatility to your compact track loader, skid steer loader or mini excavator, we offer solutions to a range of tasks to improve productivity, reduce work time and increase overall performance.

Shop compact equipment attachments at Holt of California, and find high-performing work tools for your construction equipment. For more information on selecting the right compact equipment attachments, contact us today to speak with a product specialist.

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