Skid steers and compact track loaders do a bit of everything around Fort St. John — snow clearing in town, dirt work on lot builds, feeding and cleaning on farms, brushing and mulching on rural properties. Because they're small enough to trailer, people often assume a breakdown means loading it up and hauling it in. That's frequently unnecessary and always a lost half-day.
Most skid steer faults are hydraulic, electrical, or safety-interlock related, and all three are field-serviceable. We come to the machine with hose and fittings, diagnostic tools, fluids and electrical supplies, work through the actual cause, and get it running where it sits. When a repair really does need shop conditions, you get told that up front rather than after an afternoon of billable time.
On compact machines, a no-start or no-move is often a safety interlock rather than a mechanical failure — seat switch, seat bar, door sensor or park brake circuit. Beyond that it's batteries, starters, fuel or hydrostatic issues. We check the cheap and common causes before the expensive ones.
Hose failures at the loader arms and quick-couplers, leaking lift or tilt cylinders, and a bucket that won't hold position. Hose gets built and installed on-site, and cylinder leaks get diagnosed as seals versus rod damage.
An attachment that won't run, runs slowly, or runs only one direction usually traces to couplers, the auxiliary circuit, case drain issues, or an electrical control fault — not the attachment itself. Testing pressure and flow at the couplers settles it quickly.
Pulling to one side, uneven drive speed, or a machine that won't drive at all. Causes range from hydrostatic pump or motor wear to control linkage and electrical drive signals, plus track tension on rubber-track machines.
Compact machines pack radiators and coolers into tight spaces, and they plug with dust, chaff and mulch fast. Overheating on a skid steer is very often airflow-related before it's a component failure.
Corroded connectors, chafed harnesses in the loader arm loom, failed relays, dead displays and non-responsive control handles. Wet, dirty work is hard on compact machine wiring.
Skid steer calls are usually quick, and often the machine is somewhere easy to reach — a yard, an acreage, a job site in town.
Make, model, wheels or tracks, and exactly what it will and won't do. Whether it starts, moves, and lifts narrows things fast.
We often ask a couple of quick questions on the phone that rule the safety circuit in or out before anyone drives anywhere.
Hose, fittings, hydraulic and engine oil, filters, electrical supplies and diagnostic tools all on board.
Pressure and flow testing on the hydraulic side, circuit testing on the electrical side. No parts get thrown at a symptom.
Drive, lift, tilt and auxiliary all get tested with the attachment you actually use before we leave.
Wheeled skid steers and compact track loaders from all the common makes, plus the attachments that go on them.
Skid steer service covers Fort St. John and out to Charlie Lake, Taylor, Montney, Buick, Hudson's Hope, Dawson Creek and Chetwynd — acreages, farms, job sites and contractor yards. See the full service area.
A trailer, a truck, a driver and half a day usually exceed the cost of the repair itself — especially for hose and electrical faults.
Some problems only appear under load, in cold, or with a specific attachment on. Diagnosing at the job site catches those.
If a machine has a failure that genuinely warrants shop work or an internal hydrostatic rebuild, you'll be told plainly instead of billed to find out slowly.
Possibly, but far more often it's the safety interlock circuit: seat switch, seat bar, or a control lockout. Those are cheap and common failures. We check them before assuming a hydrostatic problem.
Yes. Bring the attachment out or leave it hooked up, and we can test flow and pressure at the couplers to determine whether the fault is in the machine, the couplers, or the attachment.
Track tension adjustment, roller and idler inspection and undercarriage assessment are field work. Track replacement is possible on-site with the right setup, and we'll tell you what your machine and site allow.
Yes, that's routine. Compact machines on acreages and hobby farms make up a good share of these calls.
Yes — oil and filter changes, hydraulic filters, greasing, coolant and belt checks, all done on-site so the machine doesn't leave the property.
Not normal, but very common. Mulching and brushing plug coolers with debris quickly. Cleaning the cooling package properly usually fixes it, and if it doesn't, the next checks are the fan drive, thermostat and hydraulic oil cooler.
More answers on the general service FAQ.
Call and describe what the machine will and won't do. Most compact equipment faults are fixable on-site the same visit.
Wheel loaders and backhoes serviced in the field.
Excavator hydraulics, diesel and electrical work on-site.
Tractors and farm machinery repaired in the yard or field.
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