Talk:Skid steer

There is a thing called a skid steer. Some folks might call it a skid steer loader or skid loader when they want to specify it has a front loader attachment on it. It doesn't have to have that kind of attachment on it though. Skid steer (reflecting how it steers) seems to be what it is most commonly called. So skid steer aught to be the Wikipedia article name for it. Bobcat and Caterpillar are two large companies that make these and both [1] [2] call them skid steer and or skid steer loader. National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools[3] calls it a skid steer. I don't work in this field myself. I'm just trying to find out what the thing is called so I can tell my preschooler. What do you think it is called? Why? Thanks! :-) --Roger Chrisman (talk) 06:05, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I agree with the names you use: the machine is called a skid-steer loader, or skid-steer for short. If that was all there was to it, there would be no problem.

However, "skid-steer" is not only used in that sense. Skid-steering is the method used for other rigid wheeled vehicles, for all tracked vehicles, and in some circumstances for normally-steered wheeled vehicles – tractors normally have a separate brake for each large drive wheel, for steering when the front-wheel steering is not adequate (in muddy ground when the wheels won't bite, or for corners sharper than the wheeled steering can do). "Skid-steer" can therefore mean several different things, and so a redirect to a single thing is not appropriate.

If what you want is the machine (as you did with your child), then a redirect from this page to the loader would be fine – but what if you are looking for the more general sense? You'd find yourself at the loader with no hint of how to get to what you really did want. This was what I was trying to deal with when I redirected the page to Skid, a disambiguation page where I put links both to the loader and to tracked vehicles.

I'm not really sure whether this is the best arrangement though, as it requires a diversion if you do want the loader. What about making Skid steer a disambiguation page, repeating the skid-steering bit of the Skid dab. Then if you wanted the loader you could go there, but if you were after something else you could go to that instead. What do you think? --Richard New Forest (talk) 08:38, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Skid steer as a disambiguation page sounds like a good idea to me. I'll leave that to you. Thanks for the thorough explanation, too. --Roger Chrisman (talk) 20:00, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK, will do.--Richard New Forest (talk) 21:21, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could we get a picture of a skid steer for this article? That's probably the most useful thing for people who come to this page. --Mr. Snow (talk) 23:17, 7 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]