Rippa RS 03

RS 03 is the smallest loader in the range: a tracked machine that the operator drives standing on a platform at the back. It does the work you would otherwise do with a wheelbarrow and shovel — carrying soil, sand, gravel, mortar or rubble across the yard, spreading ballast on paths, loading the trailer, mucking out stables and paddocks, taking materials to a house under construction. With a transport width of 1,150 mm and a height of 1,361 mm it fits through an ordinary farmyard gate and between a fence and a wall, and its ground pressure of 22.5 kPa does not crack paving or tear up lawns.

What sets it apart from the rest of the range is the petrol engine and the absence of a cab. A Briggs & Stratton XR2100, a single 0.42-litre air-cooled cylinder, with a rated fuel consumption of 0.8–1.2 litres per hour; it starts easily and fills up at any petrol station, without the winter worries of a diesel. The operator steps on and off the platform in a second, which matters on jobs with lots of stops: you load, step off, adjust, step back on. Travel speed goes up to 2.5 km/h, on slopes of up to 25% — this is a machine for working at walking pace, not for covering distances.

It suits households and small farms, landscaping and paving crews, builders of individual houses and anyone who moves material every day over small areas but has neither the space to keep nor the budget to pay for a large machine. It is the cheapest way into the loader class and the easiest to move: it weighs under a tonne, is 1,638 mm long without the bucket and 1,150 mm wide, so it goes on a light car trailer and travels between jobs without special transport.

As standard it comes with the 0.15 m³ bucket, 1,150 mm wide, on rubber tracks, plus hydraulic ports ready for attachments, with an auxiliary flow of 21.6 litres per minute. As new jobs come up, the same machine takes a hydraulic breaker, a 4-in-1 bucket, a dozer blade, a rotary tiller, a snow brush or a log grab, so in winter it clears snow in the same yard where it moves soil in summer.

Standard equipment

• Briggs & Stratton XR2100 petrol engine, single 0.42 l cylinder, air-cooled
• Rated fuel consumption of 0.8–1.2 litres per hour
• Standard 0.15 m³ bucket, 1,150 mm wide
• Rubber tracks, ground pressure of only 22.5 kPa
• Stand-on operator platform, no cab
• Hydraulic ports for attachments, auxiliary flow of 21.6 l/min
• Transport dimensions: 1,150 mm wide and 1,361 mm high