If you are choosing a skid steer loader to load trucks, dump height is the spec that settles it, and on this class the answer is far more fixed than most buyers expect. Every one of the 11 skid steer loaders listed on DesiMachines dumps between 1,882 mm and 2,675 mm (6 ft 2 in to 8 ft 9 in), and nine of the eleven sit inside a band just 163 mm wide, so the machine you pick barely changes how high you can tip.

Skid steer dump height is the clear space left under the bucket when the loader arms are at full lift and the bucket is tipped all the way forward. It is the number your vehicle’s side rail has to pass under. Because the class is grouped so tightly, the useful question is not which skid steer dumps highest. It is whether a skid steer dumps high enough for the vehicle you actually load, and that is a question you answer with a tape measure at your own yard.

What does dump height mean on a skid steer loader?

Skid steer dump height is measured from the ground to the lowest point of the bucket’s cutting edge, with the loader arms raised as far as they go and the bucket rolled fully forward. Anything you load has to sit lower than that figure, or the bucket will strike it.

Two other numbers on the same spec sheet get confused with it, and the confusion costs people money.

Pin height is the height of the hinge pin where the bucket bolts onto the loader arms, measured at full lift. It is always higher than dump height because the bucket hangs below the pin. Across our 11 machines pin height runs 2,794 mm to 3,559 mm (9 ft 2 in to 11 ft 8 in). Advertisements often print pin height and call it “lift height”, which makes a machine sound as though it dumps about 800 mm higher than it really does. Read the label, not the number.

Loadover height is a third figure, and it is the one you should ignore when comparing brands. The reason is set out further down this guide.

How high does a skid steer loader dump in India?

All 11 skid steer loaders on our books publish a dump height, a dump reach and a dump angle in their own specification sheets. The table below sorts them by dump height, lowest first.

Table 1: Dump height, reach and angle across 11 skid steer loaders (figures as per the current September 2026 spec sheets)
Machine Operating weight Dump height Dump reach Dump angle Rollback at ground
Bobcat S70 1,291 kg 1,882 mm 458 mm 36° 24°
Bobcat S450 2,365 kg 2,157 mm 587 mm 40° 28°
Bull AV490 2,700 kg 2,160 mm 588 mm 42° Not listed
CAT 216B Series 3 2,581 kg 2,169 mm 505 mm 40° 26°
MANITOU 1340R 2,200 kg 2,197 mm 528 mm 42° 29°
L&T S315R 3,275 kg 2,270 mm 761 mm 40° 33°
ACE SS75 2,850 kg 2,290 mm 680 mm 40° 22°
Bobcat S590 3,069 kg 2,319 mm 828 mm 42° 30°
JCB SSL 135 2,950 kg 2,320 mm 590 mm 40° 30°
JCB SSL 155 3,050 kg 2,320 mm 590 mm 40° 30°
Bobcat S770 4,225 kg 2,675 mm 853 mm 37.9° 31°

Read down the dump height column and the pattern is obvious. Take away the smallest machine and the largest one, and the remaining nine run from 2,157 mm to 2,320 mm. That is a spread of 163 mm, about the width of your hand, across nine machines from seven different brands and across a weight range that more than doubles.

Will a skid steer loader load your tipper or your tractor trolley?

This is the question the spec exists to answer, and you can settle it in five minutes without trusting anybody’s brochure.

Take a tape to the vehicle you load most often. Measure from the ground to the top of the side rail, on the side the loader will work from, with the vehicle empty and standing on the same ground the loader will stand on. That is your target height. Then compare it against the dump height in the table, and leave yourself roughly a hand’s width of clearance so the operator is not scraping paint every cycle.

Three things change that measurement on a real site, and all three work against you. A loaded vehicle sits lower on its springs than an empty one. Soft or rutted ground drops the loader relative to the truck. And a bucket fitted with a bolt-on cutting edge or a toothbar hangs slightly lower than the bare bucket the spec sheet assumes.

If the number is tight, a tractor trolley or a low-side tipper is the sensible target for a skid steer, and a taller vehicle is a job for a bigger machine. Our guide to wheel loader dump height and reach covers the class that is built for tall tippers.

Looking at machines rather than specifications? Compare live skid steer loader models and talk to a dealer directly.

Why dump reach matters more than dump height on a skid steer

Dump reach is the horizontal distance from the front of the machine to the bucket’s cutting edge, measured at full lift with the bucket tipped forward. It tells you how far into the truck bed the material lands.

Put the two columns side by side and dump reach is where these machines genuinely differ. Across the nine mid-sized machines the dump height varies by about 8 percent. Dump reach across the same nine runs from 505 mm to 828 mm, a spread of roughly 64 percent. Across all 11 the reach figure runs 458 mm to 853 mm (18 in to 34 in), and it nearly doubles while the height barely moves.

That matters on a narrow site. Short reach means the operator has to drive the machine close enough that the tyres are almost touching the truck, then tip. Longer reach lets the load drop into the middle of the bed from further back, which is faster, safer and much kinder to the side rail. The Bobcat S590 at 828 mm and the L&T S315R at 761 mm reach noticeably further than the CAT 216B Series 3 at 505 mm, and they are not far apart on height.

So if two machines suit your capacity and your budget, compare the reach figure. It is the one that will change your working day.

What do dump angle and rollback tell you?

Dump angle is how far forward the bucket can tip at full lift. Ten of the 11 machines publish between 40° and 42°, with the Bobcat S70 at 36° and the Bobcat S770 at 37.9°. A steeper angle empties sticky material more cleanly, which matters if you handle wet clay, cow dung or damp sand rather than dry aggregate.

Rollback at ground is the opposite movement: how far the bucket tips backwards when it is down at ground level. It is what keeps a heaped load inside the bucket while you drive across rough ground. Ten of the 11 machines publish a figure and it runs 22° to 33°, with the L&T S315R highest at 33° and the ACE SS75 lowest at 22°. The Bull AV490 does not publish a rollback figure in either of its specification sheets, so ask the dealer for it in writing if you are comparing that machine.

Neither number will decide a purchase on its own. Together they tell you how much of each bucketful actually reaches the truck, which is a real cost over a year of work.

Why you should not compare “loadover height” across brands

All 11 machines publish a figure called loadover height, and it looks like a useful comparison. It is not, because the brands are plainly not measuring the same thing.

The test is simple. Compare each machine’s loadover height against its own pin height, which is the highest point the loader arms reach. On five machines the loadover figure sits above the machine’s own pin height, and on six it sits below it. A single measurement cannot be both above and below the top of the lift arms on machines of the same type and similar bucket sizes. Two different conventions are in use, and the spec sheets do not say which is which.

Because of that, a loadover figure of 4,220 mm on one machine and 2,840 mm on another does not mean the first one loads 1,380 mm higher. It means you are reading two different measurements printed under one name. We have flagged the inconsistency for review rather than guess at it.

Use dump height for comparison. It is defined the same way by everyone, it passes a basic physical check on all 11 machines (dump height is below pin height on every one of them), and it is the number that answers your actual question.

Does a heavier skid steer dump higher?

Barely. The Bobcat S70 weighs 1,291 kg (1.3 tonnes) and dumps at 1,882 mm. The Bobcat S770 weighs 4,225 kg (4.2 tonnes) and dumps at 2,675 mm. That is 3.3 times the machine for 1.4 times the dump height.

What the extra weight does buy is everything else on the sheet. Across those same two machines, rated operating capacity goes from 318 kg to 1,520 kg, tipping load from 642 kg to 3,039 kg, bucket capacity from 0.23 m³ to 0.63 m³, and hydraulic pump flow from 37 to 87.1 litres per minute.

One relationship holds exactly across the whole class, and it is worth knowing before a dealer explains it to you. Rated operating capacity is exactly half of tipping load on all 11 machines, to within a rounding error. That is the convention laid down in the SAE J818 standard for wheeled skid steer loaders, and our own listings confirm it machine by machine. Rated operating capacity is the safe working load; tipping load is the weight at which the machine starts to lift its rear wheels. Our guide to buying a used skid steer loader covers what to check when that plate is missing.

The practical rule: buy weight for capacity and for hydraulic flow, not for dump height. If dump height is your binding constraint, no skid steer in this class is going to rescue you.

Skid steer, backhoe or wheel loader: which one loads better?

Set the classes against each other and the skid steer’s position is clear. Our wheel loader dump height guide records small wheel loaders of 8 to 15 tonnes publishing 2,710 mm to 2,950 mm. The tallest-dumping skid steer we list reaches 2,675 mm, which sits just below where the wheel loader class begins. In other words, the entire skid steer class dumps lower than the entire small wheel loader class.

A backhoe loader clears more again from its front shovel, and the figures by model are set out in our guide to backhoe loader bucket capacity, dig depth and dump height. For tracked machines, excavator dumping height covers the same question.

None of that makes the skid steer the wrong machine. You buy one for width, not for height. These 11 machines measure 900 mm to 1,832 mm across the tyres, and the Bobcat S70 at 900 mm goes through a doorway that no wheel loader or backhoe will ever enter. A machine that can work inside a shed, a cattle yard or a narrow lane is doing a job the taller classes cannot reach at all. Our guide to skid steer versus backhoe loader works through which machine suits which site, and how skid steer loaders work explains the steering and controls.

Before you commit, compare live skid steer loader models and specifications and speak to a dealer about the bucket you actually need.

A note on the figures in this guide

Every dump height, dump reach, dump angle, rollback, weight, capacity and flow figure above comes from the specification sheets published on our own listings for the 11 skid steer loaders we carry, read from both of the specification stores behind those pages and cross-checked against each other. The two stores agreed on every figure quoted here.

Where a machine does not publish a figure, the table says so rather than filling the gap. The Bull AV490 publishes no rollback angle. Loadover height is published by all 11 but is deliberately not tabulated above, because the values follow two different measurement conventions and cannot be compared brand to brand.

Bucket size, tyre choice and any bolt-on cutting edge change what your machine does on the day, so confirm the figures for the exact variant you are buying. A useful companion is our guide to skid steer attachments, since the attachment on the front changes the geometry described here, and skid steer fuel and oil capacities covers the service side.

Prices, specifications and features are indicative, vary by variant, location and date, and should always be confirmed with the official OEM or authorised dealer before any purchase decision. DesiMachines is not liable for decisions taken on the basis of information that may have changed after publication.