Buying Used Skid Steer Attachments in Canada

The used attachment market in Canada is genuinely good right now. Kijiji has 197+ listings across the country on any given day. Ritchie Bros runs major Canadian auctions every spring. Facebook Marketplace has filled in the informal farm-to-farm tier. For anyone willing to do a bit of homework and a pre-purchase inspection, buying used can cut 40–60% off new attachment prices — and skid steer attachments, being mostly welded steel, hold up well if they haven't been abused.

The work is in knowing what "abused" looks like before you wire the money.

Where to Look in Canada

Ritchie Bros. Auctions (rbauctionprices.com)

The most important thing Ritchie Bros offers isn't the auction itself — it's rbauctionprices.com, their publicly searchable historical auction database. Before you bid on anything, look up the specific item type and see what similar units actually cleared in recent Canadian auctions. A 72-inch bucket that sold for $1,100 last March gives you a price anchor that a Kijiji asking price of $2,400 for the same attachment cannot override. This is free intelligence most buyers don't use.

Ritchie Bros runs significant Canadian auction events primarily in March through May, when contractors sell off equipment before spring construction season ramps up. Edmonton, Moose Jaw, and Chilliwack are recurring auction sites for heavy equipment and attachments. Spring is when the best selection appears — and also when competition is highest, so don't expect bargains on popular items like root grapples and buckets.

The buyer's premium matters. Ritchie Bros charges 10–15% on top of the hammer price, which adds up on a $3,000 purchase. Factor that into your maximum bid. An attachment you'd pay $2,200 for should have a max bid around $1,900–2,000 to stay within budget after the premium.

IronPlanet

IronPlanet (which Ritchie Bros owns) focuses more on machines than attachments, but it does list attachments periodically. Their IronClad Assurance inspection program means some items come with a condition report — useful for buying remotely without being able to inspect in person. The inventory is more sporadic for attachments specifically; check periodically rather than expecting consistent listings.

MachineryTrader Canada

MachineryTrader lists dealer inventory and private sales across Canada. The advantage over auction sites: fixed pricing from sellers who aren't always motivated to give it away, but with room to negotiate. Dealer listings often come with basic condition information and sometimes documented hours on associated machines. Worth checking monthly if you're looking for specific attachment types.

Kijiji — Farm Equipment Section

Kijiji is underused for equipment if you're only checking the general "heavy equipment" category. The farm equipment section (under the Agriculture & Forestry category) is where most Canadian farm attachment sales end up. Alberta has 76+ listings for skid steer attachments alone. Ontario runs 440+. Search by province, set up alerts for specific attachment types, and check regularly — good deals get pulled fast. The informal nature of Kijiji also means prices are more negotiable than auction hammer prices.

Facebook Marketplace

Best for local buys where you can inspect before purchasing. The quality of listings varies enormously — you'll find genuine deals from farmers clearing out a shop, and you'll find people asking $3,500 for a bent bucket they found in a ditch. The advantage is the ability to message the seller, ask specific questions about wear and fit, and arrange a look before committing. Better for attachments you can inspect easily (buckets, forks, blades) than for hydraulic attachments where you'd want to test actual operation.

Local Equipment Dealers — Used Trade-Ins

Bobcat, John Deere, Case, and Kubota dealers across Canada take used attachments on trade when customers upgrade. These rarely appear in online listings — they move quietly off the used equipment lot. Call your regional dealer's used equipment manager directly and ask what they have. Dealer-sourced used equipment often has a light inspection done and sometimes a short warranty, which makes it worth slightly more than the equivalent Kijiji buy.

What to Inspect Before You Buy

The Mounting Plate

This is your starting point. The mounting plate — the flat steel plate with receiver pins that attaches to your machine's coupler — is the attachment's most structurally critical component and the most common failure point after overloading. Look for:

• Cracks at the corners of the receiver slots — this is where stress concentrates during heavy prying or lift cycles
• Warping or bowing — a plate that's bent means the attachment was run past its rated capacity at some point
• Weld repairs on or near the plate — OEM repairs done at a dealer are fine; non-OEM field repairs with visible spatter patterns and irregular beads are a reason to walk away
• Pin receiver wear — the holes for the coupler pins should be round, not oblong. Oblong means the attachment has significant hours on it and the coupling cycles have worn the receiver

Hydraulic Fittings and Lines

For any hydraulically driven attachment — augers, grapples, mulchers, angle brooms — inspect every fitting. Corrosion at the thread interface is common and usually manageable; active weeping from a fitting under pressure is not. Ask the seller to run the attachment under load before you agree to buy. If they can't or won't demonstrate operation, that tells you something. Also check the line routing: hydraulic lines that run across sharp edges, near heat sources, or with obvious chafe marks are a maintenance bill waiting to happen.

Cutting Edges and Teeth

Cutting edges on buckets and blades are consumables — they wear and get replaced. But the remaining thickness tells you total life left and replacement cost to factor into your offer. A bolt-on cutting edge with less than 30% thickness remaining means you're buying a new edge shortly after purchase (budget $150–$400 depending on width). Tooth-style bucket wear parts (for rock buckets especially) should have at least half their tooth material remaining, and the tooth holders should be structurally sound — a cracked holder is a weld repair job before the attachment is usable.

Frame and Weld Inspection

On grapples and specialty attachments, examine weld joints at the tine bases, at the pivot points, and anywhere two frame members meet at an angle. Cracks in parent metal are serious. Cracks at weld toes are fixable but signal accumulated stress fatigue. A grinder and a can of penetrant dye will reveal hairline cracks that a visual inspection in bad lighting will miss — if you're buying a significant attachment remotely, consider asking the seller to do a dye penetrant check on the critical welds, or have an equipment shop in their area do a pre-purchase inspection for $100–150.

Red Flags in Listings

The Bob-Tach Adapter Trap

Bobcat uses its own proprietary Bob-Tach coupling system. If you have a Bobcat machine and want to run non-Bobcat attachments, you need a Bob-Tach adapter plate — a steel adapter that converts non-Bobcat plates to fit the Bob-Tach receiver. These exist, they're commonly sold, and they work adequately for light-duty applications like forks and buckets.

The problem is that adapter plates add weight, add a mechanical interface, and introduce an additional failure point under load. For attachments where you're doing aggressive prying work — root grapples, rock buckets, heavy demo use — the adapter plate is a weak link that can flex or fail under the same loads that a direct-mount attachment would handle fine. The adapter is also adding 3–6 inches of depth between your machine's coupler and the attachment, which changes the effective reach and sometimes the dump clearance.

When it's worth it: buying a quality non-Bobcat attachment at 40–50% of Bobcat OEM pricing, for applications where the loads are within the adapter's rating, is a legitimate strategy. When it isn't: choosing a budget universal attachment specifically to save money on a heavy-duty application, then adding an adapter, gives you two compromised components under the most demanding conditions.