Quick Attach

Both, and it is worth separating them. Quick Attach is a manufacturer we carry, and this collection holds their 29 attachments: grapples, stump grinders, chippers, brush cutters, tree shears, mulchers and log splitters. Separately, quick attach is the industry-standard mounting system, sometimes written quick tach, that lets a skid steer or loader pick up an attachment without tools. Most attachments we sell use that universal mount regardless of who made them, so if you arrived here looking for the mounting standard rather than the brand, the answers below still apply.

It is an attachment built to a standard mounting interface rather than bolted to one specific machine. The loader arms carry a plate with two levers; the attachment carries a matching hitch. You drive up, tilt the plate into the hitch, lift slightly, drop the levers, connect the hydraulic couplers if the attachment needs them, and you are working. The point is that one machine runs a whole fleet of tools, and the tools outlive the machine because the next loader takes the same plate.

A standard or dedicated attachment is matched to one machine and usually needs bolting, pinning or a shop visit to change. A quick attach attachment uses the universal interface, so it comes off and goes back on in the field by one person. The practical difference is how often you are willing to change tools. If swapping costs you half an hour with spanners you will leave the same attachment on all day; if it costs a minute you will use the right tool for each job, which is where the productivity actually comes from.

On a universal quick attach plate, under a minute is normal once you have done it a few times, and most of that is walking around the machine. Attachments that need hydraulics, like a grapple, a stump grinder or a log splitter, add the time to connect and disconnect the quick disconnect couplers, which is seconds rather than minutes. Mini skid steers use their own smaller mounts, such as the Dingo and MT plates on the Ramsplitter SSUD16 and SSUD20, and they swap just as quickly, but a mini mount and a full-size universal mount are not interchangeable, so check which one your machine carries before ordering.

Most quick attach problems are dirt and neglect rather than wear. Knock the mud and chips off the plate and the hitch before you couple up, because packed debris stops the attachment seating fully and that is what puts load on the levers instead of the plate. Grease the locking pins on the schedule in your machine's manual, and check that both levers drop fully home every single time, since one seated lever and one proud lever is how attachments come off. Keep the hydraulic couplers capped when they are not connected, as grit in a coupler ends up in the machine's hydraulic system rather than the attachment's.