A hydraulic drum cement mixer attachment turns your skid steer into a self-contained concrete mixing unit — load dry materials, add water, mix while you drive to the pour location. It's genuinely useful in the right context. But it's also easy to buy one for the wrong job and be disappointed. Here's what you need to know before spending $3,000–8,000 CAD.
The drum mounts to your skid steer's quick-attach plate like any other attachment. A hydraulic motor — driven by your machine's auxiliary hydraulics — rotates the drum at mixing speed (typically 0–30 RPM depending on the model). Internal paddles or fins fold and tumble the contents as the drum spins. When you're ready to pour, you tilt the machine forward or activate a separate discharge chute to empty the drum.
That's the basic design. There are a few variations worth knowing:
Loading is manual: you shovel or dump bags of dry mix and aggregate in, add water from a hose or tank. The machine does the mixing while you move to the pour site. This is exactly the kind of task where the skid steer pays for itself — you're mobile, you're covered against weather (if you have a cab), and you don't need a second piece of equipment on site.
Mixer attachment capacity is usually stated in cubic feet or litres. Common skid steer mixer sizes run from 3 cubic feet (about 85 litres) up to 9 cubic feet (about 255 litres). A handful of larger units go to 14 cubic feet, but those are really sized for compact track loaders with higher rated operating capacity.
Here's the practical math most people don't work out ahead of time.
One 30 kg bag of ready-mix concrete yields roughly 0.014 cubic metres of mixed concrete — call it 0.5 cubic feet. A 6 cubic foot drum holds about 12 bags per batch. Mix time is typically 3–5 minutes once you've loaded. Add load and discharge time and you're looking at 8–12 minutes per cycle in practice. Over a full day, an experienced operator can run 30–40 batches — somewhere in the range of 5–7 cubic yards of total output.
That's meaningful volume for the right projects, but it's well short of what a ready-mix drum truck delivers in a single load (typically 7–10 cubic yards at once with no remixing required). The mixer attachment isn't competing with drum trucks on volume. It's competing with bag mixing by hand.
The clearest use cases in a Canadian context:
You're setting fence posts on a quarter section. The nearest ready-mix plant is 45 minutes away. A truck minimum load is 3–4 yards minimum, and you'd pay a short-load fee on top. For a day of post setting where you're pouring 2–3 bags per hole across 30 posts, the mixer attachment gives you exactly what you need — batches when and where you need them, no truck coordination, no wasted material.
This is probably the strongest argument for owning one in a prairie or rural Canadian context. The logistics problem with ready-mix is real.
Pouring a 10x12 shed pad where a truck can't get close, or a concrete apron in a backyard that's only accessible through a gate. The skid steer is already getting in there — having it mix as it goes is a genuine advantage.
Footings for a deck, anchor bolts for a steel building, bollards in a parking lot. Anything where the concrete is going in small pours at 10–20 different locations. Batching fresh concrete for each location is better than pouring from a drum truck and racing to place it all before it sets.
Don't overthink it. If you need more than 3–4 yards in one continuous pour, call the ready-mix plant. A standard residential driveway is 4–5 yards. A garage floor is 8–12 yards. The skid steer mixer isn't the right tool for those jobs — the batch-and-reload cycle means you'll have cold joints in the slab.
Also skip the attachment when your finish quality demands are high. A mixer attachment produces usable concrete, but you have some variability batch to batch in water-cement ratio unless you're measuring carefully. For decorative work or anything that needs consistent slump across the whole pour, truck-delivered concrete with a consistent mix design is the right call.
Most skid steer cement mixer attachments run on standard auxiliary flow — typically 10–20 GPM at 2,000–3,000 PSI. That's within the range of virtually every modern skid steer with auxiliary hydraulics, including standard-flow machines like the Bobcat S70, Kubota SSV65, or Case SR175.
You do not need a high-flow machine for a cement mixer. The drum rotation speed is modest — you're turning paddles through wet concrete, not powering a mulcher or a cold planer. A standard auxiliary circuit handles this without complaint.
The Eterra Hurricane line (3 CF, 6 CF, 9 CF) specifies 10–25 GPM. The Spartan Professional Series runs 12–20 GPM. Richard's Attachments' Canadian-sold hydraulic cement mixer bucket specifies similar flow. These are consistent enough that almost any machine rated for standard-flow attachments will work.
| Drum Size | Approx. Bags / Batch | Best For | Rough Machine Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cu ft (85L) | 5–6 bags | Post setting, small repairs, light use | Any skid steer |
| 5–6 cu ft (140–170L) | 10–12 bags | Small slabs, footings, medium farm use | 1,500–2,500 lb ROC |
| 8–9 cu ft (225–255L) | 16–18 bags | Serious production batching, larger slabs | 2,000+ lb ROC recommended |
ROC matters here. A 9 cubic foot drum full of wet concrete (concrete weighs about 2,300 kg/m³ or roughly 145 lbs/cu ft) puts real weight up front. A full 9 cubic foot drum is carrying roughly 1,300 lbs of mixed concrete — plus the attachment weight of 500–700 lbs — before you've added the hydraulic hose and mounting hardware. That's 1,800–2,000 lbs on the front of a machine with a 2,200 lb rated operating capacity. You're close to the rated limit. Most manufacturers spec their 8–9 CF mixers for compact track loaders or large skid steers for this reason.
New hydraulic cement mixer attachments for skid steers typically run:
Eterra, Spartan, and Blue Diamond are the names that come up most in the Canadian market. Richard's Attachments (Canadian-operated) also sells a hydraulic cement mixer bucket directly. Pricing from Canadian dealers adds duty and HST/GST on top of US list prices, which typically puts Canadian street prices 15–25% higher than comparable US retail.
Used? Cement mixer attachments show up on Kijiji and Ritchie Bros occasionally, but less frequently than buckets or grapples — they're a more specialized tool with a smaller owner population. When they do appear, expect $1,500–3,500 CAD for used units in working condition. The hydraulic motor and the internal paddles or mixing baffles are the parts most likely to show wear; inspect both before buying used.
Whether buying new or used, check these before spending money:
Cleanup. Every. Time. Concrete sets. If you don't flush the drum, hose down the paddles, and clear the discharge chute after each use, you will eventually chip hardened concrete out of the drum — or replace the whole unit. This is the top complaint from owners who regret their purchase. The tool itself works fine; the maintenance discipline is where people fail. Budget 10–15 minutes of cleanup after every session, regardless of how tempting it is to park it dirty "just for today."
Cold weather compounds this. In Canadian winters, any residual water in the drum or discharge components can freeze overnight. If you're using a mixer attachment in temperatures near or below zero, drain and blow out the drum after use — or store the attachment in a heated shop.
Looking for buckets for materials handling? Browse the skid steer bucket attachment catalog for verified product pages on real models sold through Canadian dealers.