ASV Forestry Skid steer pushed to the limits in swamps, mud and woods

[Music] Never stop. Forget it. If I want it, got to make to myself a promise. I won't quit. Keep going till I got it. I won't give up till I'm on top. Yo, no. I ain't the type to give up. If I do something, man, I do it till I get what I want. I turn a business out of nothing into something I love. I got a poker face, but honestly I'm not one to blow. I flip a switch, never miss, man. I always stay up into this. You guys know my love hate, well, mostly hate relationship with my TX PT50. In fact, there was no love. No, there was some love when I finally got rid of that machine. Well, ASB actually reached out to me and when I talked to him on the phone, I was convinced that it was worth checking them out deeper. You see, they actually listened to some of the complaints and some of the issues that people were experiencing and they made changes. When I heard that a company was listening, watching, and and responding to the feedback, that actually got me pretty excited to start working with them again. And today, you're going to see the ASV 120 in action. This is literally probably the workhorse of all skid loaders out there. I'm getting paid $0 to make this video. So, I'm doing this on my own. But I will tell you that the ASV120, well, you know, I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to show you. Let's start doing some stuff with it. We got Rean and Buck, right? Yes. These are the guys. So, this story actually starts, Rean, when you reached out to me and said, "Hey, you know, I seen what I seen the video you made in the past and ASV has kind of changed their story." and you started to explain to me how you guys have listened, but what's the actual story with ASV? ASV, then it was TX, now it's ASV again. I mean, I don't really know. I'm kind of confused on what's going Can one of you guys kind of explain what's going on with the company? ASV started in 1983. Back then, we started with our very first product, the track truck, and then brought it into the '90s, uh, where we introduced our first loader, uh, with posy track technology. um and really gained a lot of traction in the market. You know, in the in the 80s and 90s, I mean, we really were the first compact track loader to market in the US. I would say by the mid to late 90s and into the early 2000s, we're definitely known as an industry leader in performance. ASV started out, I mean, you originated focusing less on price and more on developing the technology, but then you got bought out by Trax. Yeah. In uh roughly 2007, Terra bought ASV. So we uh began marketing products only underneath the TX brand name. So uh so no more ASV, we were solely TX. There may be price orientated development, right? That uh would lead to products maybe you're willing to sacrifice performance and bring out a product that was more price competitive. Uh and so in 2015 we relaunched the ASV brand name. Uh and now last year in 2017 uh we became a public company again. It also allowed us to release the ASV brand again. And when we did that or before we did that, we actually redesigned our product line from bottom to top. What could we do from a performance standpoint, from a reliability standpoint to make sure that they were, you know, the products we wanted to have our name on? In 2015, do you feel that ASV took another turn and instead of concentrating on being price competitive, went focused refocused back on quality when you completely redesigned the machines? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that is what we're about is trying to be the premium performance, premium reliability product on the market. So, we're not going to be the cheapest product, but we want to make sure that you get return on investment, so we're the best product in the end. Okay. So, I want to say right now because I didn't know this story and maybe some of you guys did, but I didn't. And what I would what I heard was I heard good things and bad things about all the machinery all the way in between. So, we had, you know, the good things about some of the great components in the early years and then of course I bought during the TX years and a lot of guys know my story. Um, but then it was ASV again and then all of a sudden I'm listening and I'm hearing guys start to actually brag about ASV again. But now we're looking at an RT120 with a forestry kit. I wanted to actually maximize the performance on quick attach extreme mulure and their forestry kit and that's why I hooked up with these guys because after looking at the specs and realizing that this is kind of like your baby, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it it was tough, you know, when you first had your video come out a couple years ago about that TX PT50. I mean, that that that hurt us. We felt terrible about that because, you know, ASV is about power and performance now. And so I think this will be a good opportunity uh taking the RT-120F out here. Uh it is a huge power monster and it it will do amazing things for for these attachments. So we we want you guys to be able to see that. Holy crap, that's a heavy door. So yeah, this is level two rock spots. Uh but actually ASV goes in above and beyond what the actual standards are for a forestry machine. Uh so we're making sure if you know flying object is is coming at that machine, you know, you're you're protected. Not everyone does that. [Music] Okay. So how do you release the pressure to hook up an attachment? Right here. Okay. So that button releases the pressure on the entire bank, correct? So you don't have to do anything inside the cab? No, sir. Can the machine be running? Yep. You can have it running. It be just the same. It just ties all those back to tank. [Music] Yeah. [Music] So guys, right here is where I got stuck. I couldn't get any further than this spot. This point. So earlier in the day, I attempted to drive my Bobcat skid loader with tires through this exact spot and got completely stuck. The only way, in fact, I was able to get out is I had on a pair of forks. I had to stick them in the ground and then push my way out. So, let's see how this ASV does. right there. One of the difficult things to tell in this video is what the ground is like that we're actually working on. In fact, if you look closely in some of the scenes that we shot, the water is right next to where we are. And there would be no way that we could get a tired machine into any of this ground at all. But this ASV handles it. I mean, it's kind of nuts. One of the things I noticed right away is that the ASV120 has actually electronic over hydraulic controls. And what that typically means is that you've got a little bit of lag time when you're trying to operate the machine. But I didn't actually feel that lag time. In fact, this machine felt more nimble than any electronic overhydraulic controlled skid loader that I've driven. Now, most guys that have driven hydraulically controlled skid loaders know that it's an instantaneous response. And if you didn't realize that this was not that kind of machine, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And for this monstrous machine that comes in at almost 12,000 lbs, tops out at 120 horsepower, it felt like a much smaller, much nimler, lighter. here. Nothing stops that thing. I'm sitting up in my deer stand and he's going in spaces places that we've never been able to take get anything in. It's not just the mulching head that's so effective. It's the machine just able to get in and out. No hesitation, no lack of power. It just goes. [Music] Look at it. It's out right now in a spot that we've never been able to get to. That's 120 horsepower machine that I don't know probably weighs about 8 to 10 ton. And that's swamp. That's swamp and it's just like nothing. So everything I ever said bad about TX is exactly the opposite of ASV. At least since they retook the company back over. All right, guys. If I could say anything about this machine is that it has been reworked. It's nothing compared to what I'm used to running with my TX machine from years past. This is a completely changed beast from top to bottom. I feel comfortable and I'm actually thinking about going out and maybe buying one because these things are that good. I'd love to take this thing out and test it over the winter and see how it does in snow. And I know out on my job sites that ground clearance and that track, the weight dispersal, it would definitely be a benefit. I don't know what you guys think about them, but some of you guys have been running the new ASVs since 2015. I want to hear about those machines in particular because that's where the the company changed and that's where they're starting to move forward.