FAQ’s

Frequently Asked Questions About The Cattail Skidsteer Towable Tool Carrier

 

Q. Why not just put a hitch or ball on the back of my skid steer?

A. That defeats the very purpose of what a skid steer does for you. What makes the skid steer so productive is the ability to hook and unhook from attachments with the quick attach system common to all of today's skid steers. Further, you can’t use the lift arms of the skid steer to dump anything; you can’t spin around and push your load when you are hooked to a hitch at the back of the skid steer; and it puts to much weight on the back wheels of the skid steer……..those reasons and quite a few more.

Q. OK, just what does this Cattail do for me ?

A. It allows you to do multiple tasks and jobs with a skid steer that you weren’t able to do before. For example, you can pull up to a pile of material…sand, manure, wood chips, lumber, brick, corn, hay, pallets, pipe, logs, trash,  just about anything….and load it, and drive away. It allows you to do these tasks with one man and one machine…a skid steer and a Cattail. It doesn’t take a truck and driver plus another forklift or wheel loader or whatever and an operator for that as well. It takes about 30 seconds to unhook from the Cattail quick attach, hook up to a bucket or fork that is easily carried on the front of a Cattail, load your load, and reattach…instead of making two or three or ten trips, you make one trip………so the labor saving is huge….assuming your time is worth something.

Q. That isn’t enough…what else does it do for me ?

A. It cuts the investment in other kinds of equipment, for example, you probably won’t need a large wheel loader on site since you can haul a lot more with a Cattail and dump hopper option. You can probably use lower grade labor to run a skid steer as opposed to a large loader. You can definitely go places with a Cattail and skid steer that you can’t with a wheel loader. The dollars invested to move a ton of material are way less than, for example, a wheel loader or farm tractor. And on the subject of a farm tractor…you wouldn’t buy one unless you could use both the front and back of that farm tractor….bucket on the front and three point and/or PTO on the back…….well, now you can use both ends of a skid steer as well…with a Cattail.

Q. I still don’t see it…

A. That would be the correct choice of words for sure…With the Cattails spin-around-under-the-towbar concept you can always see where you are going. Whether you are pushing or pulling the unit you always have clear vision to where you place your load and more importantly where other personnel are at. There is a safety aspect to the product besides just the increased productivity of your skid steer.

Q. So the quick attach part of this Cattail is a standard match up…

A. Yup. And so are the flat faced couplers on the hydraulic hoses…..all standard.

Q. What’s with all the iron on the front, those two hubs and all that….what’s it all for……

A. That “gudgeon” (according to Webster that means a “metal pivot at the end of a shaft”) is really the heart of the Cattail system. Because the skid steer itself can tilt the quick attach wedge plate, it adds another “plane” to the geometry of whatever you hook on to it. You can’t just use a ball and socket like a fifth wheel hitch in a pick up truck; that only “rolls” about 20 degrees. The Cattail system has to operate in about 9 different axis and still keep the top tow bar upright; and it has to be extremely heavy duty to withstand the twisting and turning and pulling forces of the skid steer itself.

Q. So does every skid steer work on this…

A. Skid steers and track loaders over 70 horsepower; basically large frame skid steers and track loaders.

Q. Where do I get parts and service manuals for a Cattail…

A. Call us or email us; we have lots of both.

Q. Do I have to get off the skid steer to hook on to the Cattail…

A. Not if you have hydraulically operated quick attach lock pins; otherwise you will have to lock the pins manually.

Q. If this thing is such a great addition to the skid steer world, why didn’t any of the major skid steer makers come out with something like this before?

A. That’s a valid question and one we can’t really answer. There have been several companies that have made simple frame hitches that bolt to the back of a skid steer. Even some skid steer manufacturers themselves have made some type of rear mounted attachments. So in terms of towing something with a skid steer, well, that really isn’t new. What is new is that you can utilize the very feature of a skid steer that has made the skid steer industry what it is today…and that feature is the quick attach system. That is where the Cattail creates such high value in terms of productivity for the user….quick in, quick out….clear vision in all directions….the ability to detach and reattach without leaving the seat of the skid steer…. the versatility of being able to haul bulkier loads, in a wider variety of applications.

Q. How much does a Cattail cost…

A. The MSRP for all the equipment is listed on the Cattail website.

Q. How come the Cattail company got into this business of a skid steer towable tool carrier…

A. Our company has a long history in the manufacturing business to begin with, in fact nearly 40 years. We think we are pretty good at what we do, that we build good products, put a lot of thought into them before we build them, keep a dependable staff and provide the equipment at a fair price . As far as the skid steer business we don’t make attachments for the front of the machine, just the towable Cattail. On that subject our company designed and developed one of the smallest skid steers in the business, for one of the largest skid steer manufacturers in the business—and we even manufactured those machines with their name for them. No other company has built complete machines for them in their 50 year history..except us, and we’re proud of that. We think it says something about us as a company.

Q. Tell me some more, I ain’t buyin’ this Cattail concept quite yet…

A. With a Cattail system, incorporating the quick attach system, you can use the boom arms of the skidloader to level or set your load as you travel. You can use the skid steers hydraulic system, by running the hoses to the back of the  towbar, to operate all sorts of devices at the rear of the machine. And in most terrain, you can use the loaders boom arms to dump or place your load, if need be. You can’t do any of that by just mounting some ball on the back end of the skid steer.

Q. But if I want to go from job to job, across town or across the state, then what…

A. Then go. You can drive the skid steer that is hooked to the Cattail right up on a highway type fifth wheel trailer. And we assume your next question is why can’t we pull the Cattail itself directly behind, say, a pick up truck. Because…the Cattail is an off highway tool, it has an exceptionally heavy axle with big tires to carry large loads in deep mud, frozen muck, sopping manure, salty brine, acidic bog pits, and a whole host of other applications;  and the axle has no brakes, no highway type tail or turn signal lights and no break-away battery.

Q. Do you have any caps to give away…

A. No, not really, but we do have Cattail Tee shirts, jackets, sweatshirts and caps for sale on the website which we sell at our cost.

Q. What is it that I have to buy, how much equipment do I need from Cattail…

A. As much or as little as possible. We sell base units, that is the front mating frame and top towbar, all alone. Some customers will bolt up this equipment to some implement they have already. Other users get the whole thing, base unit, hydraulic kits, carts, axles, beds, bodies, tanks, whatever they think will help them do their jobs better.

Q. Back to the question of whether the Cattail pays or not, does it really pay off or is it just one more negative cash flow item for me…

A. It pays. And it pays off quickly. You can run the basic arithmetic yourself, at what you think your labor costs, at what you can finance the machine for with your lender or ours, what value you put on operator safety, how much work you think you may have for it, what work you might be able to pick up that you don’t have now, all those issues fall in to the category of “does this thing pay me to own it”. The bottom line is that you can finance the unit for around a couple hundred bucks a month for a nicely equipped unit, and if your labor is worth anything at all you will only need to save around 8 minutes a day in time to make it pay. That’s 2/3 of an hour a week……..it pays to have a Cattail.

Q. Where is the serial number located…

A. It is a welded on number located on the mating attachment framework, on the right side/ inside spindle clamp tube.

Q. How else, other than labor, would this Cattail save me any money…

A. There are a lot of examples but one interesting example is what it saves, indirectly, on other equipment. Take your average construction site-nothing but mud and ruts and low spots. One twisted off drive shaft on a  dump truck, one inside-dual flat tire, one tipped over pallet, one backed over tradesman…..those are the kinds of irritating costs that eat up a jobs profit….and they are exactly the kinds of costs that can be reduced by using something like a Cattail….a Cattail built for extreme duty job sites, a Cattail built so you can see where you are going, a Cattail built for the kind of abuse todays’ laborers can dish out.

Q. Is this Cattail mostly a construction industry machine…

A. No not exactly, but because there is a lot of hired labor in that business there is a requirement that the machine be exceptionally easy to use and understand and service. A very large number of users are in the farm belt, but those users are primarily individual farmers and will probably be the only one using the machine. The Cattail had to be manufactured in such a way that the most abusive and unforgiving customers would be satisfied with its performance and reliability and that kind of use usually comes from the rental yards in the construction equipment business. That’s the reality and we may not be everything to everybody but we are pretty darn realistic when it comes to the equipments design.

Q. I can’t quite get my arms around where exactly this machine would fit into my business…

A. It will and there are very, very few pieces of machinery in this specialized world that will actually grow and grow in terms of different applications for it in your business. Things that you never thought of doing with your skid steer become ever more apparent as time goes by. Carrying 18 foot long lumber bundles lengthwise with a Cattail instead of teetering sidewise (and dumping them) at the front of your skid steer probably never occurred to you; hauling four big round bales on a Cattail instead of one at a time come livestock feeding probably wasn’t your plan in the past; there are literally thousands of new tasks you can now do with a Cattail and skid steer that you couldn’t before.

Q. Back to the front of the unit---what about the visibility and access to the skid steer…

A. Good questions. As far as accessibility the unit has step points, serrated foot ledges and grab handles to make ingress and egress to the skid steer cab easy and comfortable. As far as the visibility issue, the unit is made with a 6 inch square tube, that’s the part that comes down in front and we have had no complaints about visibility at all. It certainly has better vision characteristics than, say, the discharge spout of a snow blower or post pounder or something like that.

Q. How big is it, I mean how is it to handle…

A. We have several different configurations of carts and beds, for example. You can equip a unit with a bed that is 8 feet wide or equip it with a bed that is only 6 feet wide, which is the width of many large frame skid steers. There are low profile carts that may allow loading up other equipment on to the flat bed, like mini excavators. There is just a wide range of attachments that can be bolted up to the base unit. With the spin around operating feature it is so much easier to move than, say, a farm type tractor.

Q. I have an idea for something that would mount on a Cattail, are you interested in hearing about it…

A. Always interested, but we always have to take precautions. It is best if you submit your idea through your legal adviser.

 

Please feel free to contact us at any time.

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Patents pending worldwide.

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10341 18th Ave. NE
Bottineau, ND 58318 USA
Phone: 701.263.4179 | Fax 701.228.2348 | Email

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