New Holland’s skid-steer loaders are short, tough machines with wheels that turn on the spot by driving one side faster than the other. The L and LS series — models such as the L185, L250 and L555 — are the ones sold by the thousand to farms, yards and contractors. The film below shows an L185 at work.
New Holland skid-steer loaders at a glance
| Maker | New Holland |
|---|---|
| Type | skid-steer loader |
| Models covered | L185, L250, L555 and the LS series |
| How it steers | by driving the wheels on one side faster than the other |
| Why it matters | turns within its own length where a tractor cannot |
| Typical work | barns and yards, muck, gravel, pallets and bales |
| Company founded | 1895, New Holland, Pennsylvania |
| Group | CNH Industrial, after the 1999 Case merger |
| Technical data | not given in the sources used here |
| Example filmed | a diesel L185 skid loader |
The sources describe the company and its range, not the L and LS models; their technical data is left out because it is not in them.
History of the New Holland skid-steer loaders
A machine built around a small footprint
Skid-steer loaders were invented for jobs where a tractor will not fit: cleaning out a barn, grading a yard, moving pallets in a shed. The machine has no steering axle at all; it turns by running the wheels on one side faster than those on the other, which lets it spin in its own length. The operator sits inside the frame, between the wheels, with the arms lifting past his shoulders. Models such as the L185, L250 and L555 were New Holland’s entries in that market, and the LS series followed them.
Why farms bought them
For a livestock farm a skid-steer is the machine that does the jobs no one wants: scraping passages, loading muck, carrying feed, clearing snow. Attachments matter as much as the loader itself, and a skid-steer with a bucket, forks and a snow blade can replace a small tractor and a lot of hand work. That is why these machines are sold in numbers that dwarf those of the farm tractors of the same period.
The company around them
New Holland was founded in 1895 in Pennsylvania, became Sperry New Holland in 1947, was bought by Ford in 1986 and by Fiat in 1991, and merged with Case in 1999 to form CNH, now CNH Industrial. Compact loaders of this kind remain part of the range sold by its dealers. The sources used here do not give the technical data of the L and LS models, and this page does not invent it; the film below shows an L185 at work.
Design and features
- Skid steering: turns on the spot by varying wheel speed side to side.
- Compact footprint: works inside barns and yards where a tractor cannot go.
- Attachment platform: buckets, forks and blades do the work of several machines.
- Working survivor: the L185 in the film is still earning its keep.
New Holland skid-steer loaders versions
- New Holland L185: the model shown in the film.
- New Holland L250 and L555: larger models of the L series.
- New Holland LS series: the later generation of the same machines.
The compact tractors of the same years are on the New Holland TC page, and the backhoe loaders on the New Holland backhoe loaders page. More machines are in the New Holland section.
Video: New Holland L185 Diesel Skid Loader
Video by TheEBAuctions on YouTube.
Sources
- New Holland Agriculture, English Wikipedia: company history and ownership
- New Holland, Dutch Wikipedia: range and production sites
