How Much Does a Skid Steer Weigh?

Skid steer weight chart by model

Operating weight is the loader ready to dig: fluids, a 165 lb operator and its standard bucket. Rated operating capacity is how much the loader is rated to lift in the bucket, and it is what most buyers use to call a machine small, medium or large frame.

From each maker's US spec page or spec sheet, checked November 2026. Height is Bobcat's overall height, Cat's top of cab and CASE's top of ROPS. CASE rates capacity at 50% of tipping load; Bobcat and Cat do not state the basis. Counterweights, cabs, tires and attachments change every figure.

What size skid steer do you have?

Skid steers are grouped by how much they lift, and weight climbs with that rating. In this chart the small frame loaders lift about 1,400 to 1,600 lbs and weigh 5,370 to 5,849 lbs, the mid-size group lifts 2,100 to 2,900 lbs at 6,970 to 8,296 lbs, and the large frame Case SV340B and Bobcat S86-2 lift 3,400 and 3,500 lbs at 9,100 and 10,098 lbs.

Across this chart a loader weighs 2.7 to 3.9 times its rated capacity, with the bigger frames at the low end, so the capacity on the decal is a fair guide to where an unlisted model sits.

Do older skid steers weigh more?

Often they do, and the same model name can hide a different machine. Bobcat's S66 and S76, which the current S66-2 and S76-2 replaced, are both heavier on Bobcat's own pages, with no change in rated capacity. A used loader should be weighed or checked against the serial plate rather than taken from a current brochure.

Operating weight vs shipping weight

Shipping weight leaves out the operator and usually some fuel, and on CASE machines the gap is 300 to 550 lbs. CASE lists the SR160B at 5,645 lbs operating and 5,210 lbs shipping, the SR210B at 6,970 and 6,670 lbs, and the SV340B at 9,100 and 8,557 lbs.

Attachments go the other way. CASE's optional buckets for these loaders weigh 300 to 728 lbs, and pallet forks, grapples, augers or a breaker add their own weight when they ride on the same trailer.

Skid steer vs compact track loader weight

Track loaders weigh more than wheeled skid steers of a similar size, because the undercarriage replaces four tires. Cat lists its 299D3 compact track loader at 11,464 lbs and Bobcat its T770 at 10,515 lbs, both heavier than the 10,098 lb S86-2, the heaviest skid steer in the chart.

How is a skid steer hauled?

By weight, a skid steer is light freight for a truck: even the S86-2 is about an eighth of the 80,000 lbs federal gross limit, and no loader in the chart is wider than 78 in with its bucket, well inside the 8 ft 6 in legal width. On a flatbed with a deck near 58 in high, the tallest machine here stands about 11 ft 9 in, under the usual 13 ft 6 in height limit, so a skid steer moves without an oversize or overweight permit.

Three Bobcat S76-2 loaders weigh 24,042 lbs together and take roughly 36 ft of deck with their buckets on, so one 48 ft flatbed or step deck can carry a small fleet. A single machine often goes as a partial load on a trailer already headed the same way.

Towing one yourself has its own limits. Under 49 CFR 383.91, a combination rated at 26,001 lbs or more that pulls a trailer rated over 10,000 lbs is a Class A vehicle, so a large frame loader on a heavy equipment trailer behind a pickup can put a commercial driver into CDL territory. Machines of 10,000 lbs or more, like the S86-2, also fall under the heavy equipment tie-down rule in 49 CFR 393.130: at least four tie-downs, with the bucket lowered and secured.