"...in today's rapidly evolving world it is not enough to be technically proficient. You must be able to anticipate the future."

This quote is taken from the Web site of Caldwell Tree Care of Roswell, Georgia. Three years ago, company president and owner Kevin Caldwell saw his future when Ditch Witch of Georgia sales representative Mike O'Neill gave Caldwell a demonstration of the then-brand-new Ditch Witch® SK500 mini skid steer.

"At the time, Kevin was considering another smaller piece of equipment to rent," says O'Neill, who has been Caldwell's sales rep for more than six years. "Once he saw everything the SK500 could do, his decision was real easy."

Caldwell bought the SK500 and four compact utility attachments for his line of work: a grapple fork, trencher, bucket and auger. He has since added a Ditch Witch multitask tool and log splitter to his inventory of attachments. The SK500 is capable of running more than 70 compact utility attachments.

Because Caldwell Tree Care specializes in the care and removal of large trees, a compact utility machine like the SK500 might seem like an unusual choice of equipment. Before the SK500, the company's fleet consisted of standard-size heavy-duty equipment, including three full-size skid steers. But the SK500 has proven itself invaluable for several reasons.

"We used to haul our logs and debris on a ball cart and by hand," says Caldwell, who started his company 13 years ago and now employs 22 people. "We tried to use a full-size skid steer for hauling, but they don't maneuver in tight areas like the SK500. Once we started using the SK500 for some of these manual labor jobs, we had a lot fewer back injuries and our men were nowhere near as tired as they used to be. So now they are more alert to being safe on the job."

Caldwell says that his crew also uses the SK500 for irrigation and drainage projects, building dry creek beds for water runoff, planting trees, and aerating tree roots. Since purchasing his SK500, Caldwell and his crew have put more hours (about 800, he estimates) on the mini than any of his full-sized skid steers. "I am certain that with the use of the SK500, we have had a gain in efficiency of at least 500 percent."

The SK500 was the first Ditch Witch compact utility machine, and it made an impact on the landscape, utility, and underground construction industries in a hurry. Its 24-horsepower engine, long tracks, and small footprint create an ideal combination of power, maneuverability and stability. Rated at 500 pounds operating capacity (35 percent of tipping capacity), the SK500 features the highest dump height, dump angle, and hinge pin height in its class. The family of Ditch Witch compact utility equipment has grown considerably since the SK500, and now includes a wide range of mini excavators, two excavator-tool carriers (combination backhoe loader, mini excavator, and mini skid steer), and three other mini skid steers, including the recently released SK650.

When the SK650 hit the market, Mike O'Neill assumed that because Caldwell liked his SK500 so much, he would be particularly interested in the SK650, a diesel-powered platform unit with a 650-pound rated operating capacity. O'Neill assumed correctly. As with the SK500 three years ago, Caldwell was sold on the SK650 from his first encounter.

"[Caldwell Tree Care] had a job way off the road in an affluent part of Atlanta, and the customer wanted as little disturbance as possible to his property," says O'Neill. "It was a good opportunity for Kevin to test-drive an SK650."

The project involved removing two large trees— each about 30-36 inches in diameter and 90-100 feet tall—from a large residential property fronted by a pristine forest. The residence was 400-500 feet off the main road. "After the trees were cut down, we used the SK500 and SK650, with our grapple attachments, to haul the wood back to our trucks," says Caldwell. "In the old days of hauling everything by ball cart, this job would have taken a week and a half to two weeks. With the SK500 and SK650, we did the entire job in a day and a half."

Caldwell says the new SK650 "is like an SK500 on steroids. It is strong, strong, strong." The SK650 is, in fact, the most powerful mini skid steer in its class, with a 31-horsepower diesel engine and 20 net horsepower to the attachment, enabling it to outperform other comparable machines, even riding units. The SK650 is a platform unit, which keeps the operator out of mud and debris and minimizes fatigue. Among its many other features is a 7.5-gallon fuel tank, mounted on the exterior, that enables the unit to operate for several hours without refueling—a handy benefit when the job is in a remote location, as many of Caldwell Tree Care's jobs are.

"This machine will not be a secret very long in the tree industry," says Caldwell. "The diesel engine with the extra fuel will help."

Caldwell sees a new SK650 in his immediate future, perhaps as soon as this fall. As for further down the road, he expects that it will almost certainly involve whatever the Ditch Witch organization comes up with next.