The Bobcat S70: The Smallest Skid Steer in the Lineup Nobody Spotlights

The Bobcat S70: The Smallest Skid Steer in the Lineup Nobody Spotlights

We've written about the Bobcat S66 more than once, including a three-way shootout against the CAT 226D3 and Kubota SSV65. What we haven't covered is the machine sitting one size class below it: the S70. It's easy to overlook — nobody's chasing a record-setting spec sheet with a sub-3,000-lb skid steer — but for the specific jobs this machine is built for, that's exactly the point.

The S70, By the Numbers

The S70 is Bobcat's smallest current wheeled skid steer. Operating weight comes in at just 2,892 lbs, rated operating capacity (ROC) is 760 lbs, and tipping load is 1,520 lbs. It runs a 23.5-horsepower diesel engine and measures 36 inches wide overall with a bucket attached — narrow enough to fit through most standard gates and interior doorways that would stop a larger machine cold.

It uses a radius lift path rather than a vertical one, meaning the bucket follows an arcing path as it rises instead of climbing straight up. That's a deliberate tradeoff: radius-lift machines give up some reach at full height in exchange for better mid-range reach, which makes them genuinely better suited to backfilling, grading, and dumping into a truck or trailer at moderate height than to stacking material high.

How It Stacks Up Against the S66

The S66 is already the small-frame option in most conversations about Bobcat skid steers, but the S70 sits a full class below it. Where the S66 class competes directly against machines like the Kubota SSV65 and CAT 226D3 on genuine jobsite productivity, the S70 isn't trying to compete on raw output at all. It's built for a narrower lane: jobs where machine width and weight matter more than bucket capacity or breakout force. If you need a machine that can do real site work at a small-frame size, the S66 class is almost certainly the better call — the S70 earns its place specifically when access, not output, is the binding constraint.

Who This Machine Is Actually Built For

The S70's real customer base is narrower by design, but it's a real and recurring one:

• Nursery and greenhouse operators moving material through doorways and aisles too tight for a standard-frame skid steer

• Interior demolition and renovation contractors who need a powered loader that fits through a residential or commercial doorway

• Fencing and small landscaping crews working narrow residential side yards and gated backyards

• Turf and sports-field maintenance crews needing a lightweight machine that won't tear up finished turf

• Rental houses and small equipment dealers stocking an entry-level unit for first-time renters and homeowners

The Bob-Tach System Still Applies at This Size

One thing Bobcat doesn't cut on a small-frame machine like the S70: attachment compatibility. The S70 still uses Bobcat's standard Bob-Tach universal attachment mounting system, which means it can run the same family of buckets, pallet forks, augers, and sweepers that fit Bobcat's larger skid steers — scaled down to a size the S70 can actually lift and carry. For a nursery or fencing contractor, that matters in practice: one machine with a bucket for material handling in the morning and forks for unloading pallets of fence posts in the afternoon covers more of a workday than a single-purpose tool would.

It's also worth being honest about where the S70 runs out of road. Because ROC is capped at 760 lbs, this isn't the machine for moving pallets of block, bagged concrete, or anything approaching a full pallet of masonry material — that work belongs to the S66 class and up. The S70's attachment versatility is real, but it's bounded by a weight capacity that's intentionally modest.

Parts, Service, and Resale at the Bottom of the Lineup

A legitimate concern with any entry-level machine is whether it gets treated as an afterthought on the service side. That's not really the case with the S70 — because it shares Bobcat's dealer network, Bob-Tach attachment system, and most of its hydraulic and engine service architecture with the rest of the lineup, a Bobcat dealer technician working on an S70 isn't doing anything fundamentally different than servicing an S66 or S76-2. Parts availability tracks the same dealer network nationwide, which matters if your business is running this machine daily rather than occasionally.

Resale on a machine this small moves differently than on a full-size skid steer — the buyer pool is narrower (nurseries, rental yards, homeowners, and small contractors specifically looking for a compact, narrow-access unit), but it's also a steady pool, because very few manufacturers build anything this small and this capable at the same time. A well-maintained S70 with service records isn't a hard sell when it's time to move it along, even if it takes slightly longer to find the right buyer than a mainstream mid-size machine would.

Common Bob-Tach attachments contractors run on an S70-class machine include a standard material bucket, pallet forks for unloading delivery trucks, a landscape rake for finish grading, an auger for post holes, and a broom attachment for cleanup on finished hardscape or turf — a genuinely useful spread of jobs for one small, maneuverable machine, even with the ROC ceiling factored in.

A Seasonal Note for Florida and Gulf Coast Operators

For nursery and landscape operators in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, the S70's narrow footprint is worth a specific mention: greenhouse rows, container-yard aisles, and gated residential side yards in dense coastal developments are often built to dimensions that simply don't accommodate a standard-frame skid steer. A machine this size extends what a crew can do mechanically in spaces that would otherwise mean hand-loading material — a real labor-cost and time savings during Florida's peak spring planting season specifically.

Rent vs. Own on a Machine This Small

It's tempting to assume a machine this small isn't worth owning — that renting one occasionally makes more sense than financing it. For a true one-off job, that's fair. But for a nursery, nursery supplier, fencing contractor, or renovation company that runs this exact size and this exact access profile on a recurring basis, the math flips the same way it does for any other equipment class: a rental is never on-site the morning you need it unless you booked ahead, and every rental dollar builds zero equity. If narrow-access work is a standing part of your business rather than an occasional exception, owning the machine outright usually wins over time.

Why Businesses Finance a Machine This Inexpensive At All

It's a fair question: why finance a machine this small instead of just paying cash outright? For a lot of our customers, the answer is cash-flow discipline, not affordability. Tying up working capital in a fully-paid small machine means that cash isn't available for payroll, materials, or the next piece of equipment a growing business needs. Structuring a loan or lease against an inexpensive machine like the S70 keeps the business's cash flexible while still building equity in the equipment — the same logic that applies to a $200,000 excavator applies here, just at a smaller scale.

This is also a common first financed purchase for a brand-new nursery, landscaping, or fencing business that hasn't built up a credit history yet. Because the dollar amount involved is relatively low, it's often an easier approval than jumping straight into financing a full-size excavator or wheel loader — which makes the S70, or a machine like it, a practical way for a new business to start building a track record with a lender before scaling up to larger equipment purchases down the road.

Financing the Smallest Machine in a Fleet

Because the S70 sits at the very bottom of Bobcat's lineup on cost, it's also one of the more accessible entry points into equipment ownership — a useful first machine for a new landscaping or fencing business building credit, or a low-cost addition to a fleet that already owns larger Bobcat equipment. BFC works with startups and established businesses nationwide, any credit profile, to structure financing or leasing around exactly this kind of purchase. Visit our skid steer financing programs page to see how we structure deals across Bobcat's full skid steer range, from the S70 up through the S76-2 Pro flagship.

The Bottom Line on Bobcat's Smallest Machine

The S70 will never be the headline machine in a fleet, and it's not meant to be. Its entire value proposition is being small enough, light enough, and narrow enough to get into spaces a standard-frame skid steer simply can't reach — and for the trades that genuinely run into that constraint week after week, that's worth real money. If your business doesn't regularly hit that access ceiling, the S66 class and up remains the better default. If it does, the S70 is one of the few machines on the market purpose-built to solve exactly that problem.

Ready to Finance a Bobcat Skid Steer?

Whether you need the narrow-access S70 or a larger machine for daily site production, BFC Equipment Loans structures financing and leasing for construction equipment nationwide — startups and established businesses, any credit profile. Visit our home page to learn more about how we work, apply for equipment financing to get started today, browse our equipment for sale and buy/sell marketplace for machines ready to finance now, or subscribe to our blog for more equipment spotlights and financing insights.