I like my wheel loaders! I put 260 hours on a Gehl AL340, now I have 98 hours on the AL540. My climber has a AL140 with dual tires all around. I mainly do tree work, but we also do dirt work, some demo, site prep, etc. I have a thread going here regarding the AL loaders and my involvement with them. I presume it would be against the rules to link to that thread here?
Visibility all around is excellent, especially to the rear as compared to a skid steer. A skid steer can see the cutting edge better than a wheel loader however.
Fuel consumption is superior due in part to the engine rpm being controlled primarily by the foot pedal for acceleration instead of "set it and forget it" on a skid steer. The 340 and 540 have throttle locks to set the engine rpm higher without affecting travel speed, for running an auger, for example.
The biggest wheeled skids do have a higher lift height. The 540 has 10' to the pin while a wheeled machine could have up to 12'. Granted the 540 is a 2500lb ROC machine and that 12' lift machine is 4000lb ROC.
The 540 is also only 54" wide, which allows getting in narrower places as compared to a skid, however they aren't as stable as a skid due to the narrowness and the center pivot oscillation.
The Kubota wheel loader has 10" more lift height, and is considerable wider as well as a 2k+lbs heavier than the 540 while being nearly identical in other performance categories. It's better for loading over the side of a tandem truck without a high dump bucket.
My theory on my next, next purchase is a large CTL. I haven't found a need that a skid steer would justify itself in addition to a wheel loader. A CTL can out lift and out push either by a wide margin. Also they can handle any high flow needs I may develop. Right now the Kubota SLV90, Bobcat T770-870, and the Takeuchi TL12 are the top contenders for a CTL for me. It's still a year or two out at least though.
