The past decade has seen compact track loaders (CTLs) eat into the market share held by skid steer loaders in the US, before overtaking sales of their wheeled counterparts completely. In 2012, there were 36,125 skid steer loaders sold in North America, compared to 21,500 sales of compact track loaders. By 2022, that number had jumped to 93,000 compact track loader sales, compared to 30,000 skid steer sales.
Off-Highway Research put this down to CTLs exerting a lot less ground pressure, thanks to their tracks, allowing operators to operate in much poorer ground conditions.
Source: International Construction: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: Since CTL units don’t disturb soft ground as do skid steer loaders, it readily opens CTLs up to more applications, such as landscaping on terrain that has already been established and needs to be maintained. The article also looks at reasons why Backhoe Loaders have declined in the USA. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
