If you run a crew, a farm, or a public works department in mid-Missouri, you already know the problem. The big-name equipment dealers are an hour and a half away in St. Louis or Columbia's outer ring, and when you call about a machine you get routed to a 1-800 number three states away. We're a skid steer dealer right here in mid Missouri, based in Laddonia, and you can actually reach us. We sell and support Manitou and Gehl loaders, telehandlers, forklifts, and aerial work platforms for contractors, farms, and municipalities across Columbia, Jefferson City, Mexico, Fulton, and the smaller towns in between. No call center. A local dealer who picks up.
This page is the short version of what we carry, who we serve, and how to get a real quote. If you'd rather just see the lineup, start at the equipment catalog and work backward from there.
A Local Skid Steer Dealer You Can Actually Reach
Here's the thing most equipment buyers in this part of the state run into. The recognizable brands have plenty of dealers, but they cluster around the metros. Drive a half-hour out of Columbia or Jeff City toward Mexico, Vandalia, or Bowling Green and the map thins out fast. That's the donut-hole, and it's exactly where a lot of working farms and contractors are based.
We sit in the middle of it. When you're weighing a machine that's going to cost real money and earn its keep for years, you want to talk to someone who knows the ground you work on, not a script reader who's never seen a Missouri clay jobsite. That's the whole pitch. We're close, we're reachable, and we'd rather build a relationship than close a transaction and disappear.
Being close matters more than people give it credit for. It means a face-to-face conversation before you buy. It means we know the difference between a guy clearing fence rows in Audrain County and a site crew pouring footings in Callaway County, and we can point each one at the right machine instead of whatever's easiest to sell.
The Only Manitou and Gehl Dirt-Equipment Dealer for About 50 Miles
This is the part that surprises people. For dirt equipment, we're the authorized Manitou and Gehl dealer for roughly 50 miles in any direction. If you want these brands and you're anywhere near central or northeast Missouri, this is the dealership.
Manitou and Gehl have a long track record in compact loaders and material handling. Gehl helped pioneer the skid loader category decades ago, and Manitou is one of the most respected names in telehandlers worldwide. We didn't build these machines, but we've put in the time to know them, and we'll tell you straight which model fits your work and which one is more than you need. A good dealer talks you out of over-buying as often as up.
Because we carry the full line, you're not stuck cobbling together a fleet from three different brands. Your skid steer, your track loader, your telehandler, and your forklift can all come from one dealer who knows your account. That's less hassle when you're standing up a quote, comparing attachments, or just trying to get a straight answer on a Tuesday morning.
What We Carry
We cover the working end of the jobsite. Here's the lineup, with a quick note on what each class is actually good for. None of this is a spec dump. It's meant to help you figure out which category you're shopping before you ask for numbers.
Skid Steer Loaders
The Swiss Army knife of the jobsite. A skid loader runs on wheels, turns on a dime, and swaps attachments in seconds, so one machine grades, digs, lifts, augers, and sweeps. If your ground is firm and you want the most versatile single machine for the money, this is usually where the conversation starts. See the skid loader lineup for the models we stock.
Compact Track Loaders
Same idea as a skid steer, but on rubber tracks instead of wheels. Tracks spread the machine's weight over more ground, which is the whole reason they matter in mid-Missouri. Our clay turns to soup after a rain and rock-hard in August, and a track loader keeps working in conditions that would bog a wheeled machine or tear up soft turf. If you work wet ground, hillsides, or finished lawns, look hard at the track loaders.
Telehandlers
A telehandler is a forklift with reach. The boom extends out and up, so you can place material on a second-story deck, set trusses, or stack feed and pallets higher than a standard forklift ever could. Farms and framing crews lean on these. If you're choosing between a telehandler and a plain forklift, our telehandler models are worth a look, and we get into the tradeoffs below.
Forklifts
For flat-yard material handling, loading docks, and warehouses, a straight forklift is the simpler, lower-cost tool. We carry rough-terrain and yard forklifts for the jobs where you don't need a boom and just want to move pallets reliably.
Aerial Work Platforms
When the work is up high and people need to be up there safely, a scissor lift or boom lift beats a ladder and a prayer every time. We carry aerial work platforms for crews doing maintenance, install, and overhead work who'd rather not improvise.
Not sure which category fits your work? Run through our guided machine selector. It asks a handful of plain questions about your jobs and ground and points you at the right class to start with. No login, no obligation.
Built for Mid-Missouri Ground
Equipment that performs in a brochure photo and equipment that performs in our dirt aren't always the same thing. Mid-Missouri clay is heavy, it holds water, and it punishes machines that aren't matched to it. That's a big part of why we steer so many buyers toward track loaders over wheeled skid steers when the work involves soft or wet ground.
The same logic runs through the whole conversation. Tire choice, track type, the right attachment for the soil, weight and balance for hilly Callaway and Boone County sites. These are the qualitative judgment calls that separate a machine you fight all day from one that just works. The wrong bucket or the wrong tread can turn an otherwise solid machine into a headache, and those are the kinds of details that are easy to miss when you're buying off a website three states away. We can't make your jobsite drier, but we can keep you from buying the wrong tool for it. That's the value of a dealer who actually works in your region instead of shipping you a box from a warehouse.
Areas We Serve
We're based in Laddonia and we deliver and support equipment across mid-Missouri. If you're in any of these areas, you're in our backyard:
- Columbia and the surrounding Boone County crews
- Jefferson City and the Cole County area
- Mexico, Vandalia, and the Audrain County farms and shops
- Fulton and Callaway County
- The smaller towns in the Mexico, Vandalia, Bowling Green donut-hole that the metro dealers tend to skip
If your town isn't on that list but you're within reasonable driving distance, call anyway. The map lines aren't hard rules, and we'd rather have the conversation than turn away a good customer over geography.
Who We Sell To
Three kinds of buyers come through, and each one shops a little differently. We adjust the conversation to fit.
Contractors
You need uptime and the right machine for the bid, not a sales pitch. We'll match the loader or telehandler to the work you actually do and keep you from over-buying capacity you'll never use. If you're torn between owning and renting for a specific job, our take on renting versus buying a loader or telehandler lays out the math honestly.
Farms
Year-round work, from feeding and bedding to clearing, grading, and lifting. A telehandler or a track loader often replaces two or three older single-purpose machines, and a farm that runs lean appreciates that. We've spent enough time around ag operations to know feed yards and fence lines are a different animal than commercial sites.
Municipalities and Public Works
Cities, counties, road districts, and school districts have budgets and procurement rules to honor. If you're a municipal buyer, ask us about cooperative purchasing options when you request a quote. Cooperative contracts can simplify the buying process for public agencies, and it's worth a conversation about whether your purchase qualifies. We'll walk you through how it works for your situation.
Telehandler or Forklift? A Quick Word on Choosing
This is the single most common crossroads we see, so it's worth a beat here. If all you do is move pallets around a flat yard or a warehouse, a forklift is simpler and usually the better buy. The moment you need to reach out over an obstacle, place material up high, or work on rough ground, a telehandler earns its keep. We walk through the full tradeoff in our telehandler versus forklift breakdown, but the short version is: match the machine to the reach and the ground, not to the brochure. We'll help you draw that line before you spend a dime.
Financing That Makes the Math Work
A new machine is a serious purchase, and the right financing can be the difference between buying this season and waiting another year. Right now we've got 0% for 48 months on skid and track loaders, rates from 1.99% across the line (1.49% on electric machines), through September 30, 2026.
For a lot of contractors and farms, that changes the calculation entirely. A monthly payment on a machine that earns its keep beats nursing a tired old unit that's costing you in downtime and repairs. We'll put real numbers in front of you for your purchase, not a vague promise. Start with the financing page for the current programs, then bring your quote and we'll work it out.
How to Get a Quote
We're a quote-driven dealership, and that's on purpose. Every job is a little different, attachments and configurations matter, and a generic sticker price online would just mislead you. So here's the simple path to a real number:
- Tell us about the work. What you're building, growing, or maintaining, and the ground you're doing it on.
- We'll recommend a machine class and a model or two. Honest about fit, not just whatever's on the lot.
- You get a quote with current financing built in, so you can see the real monthly cost.
If you're a municipal or public-agency buyer, flag that when you reach out so we can bring cooperative purchasing into the conversation from the start.
The fastest way to begin is to request a quote. Tell us what you're working on and where you are in mid-Missouri, and we'll get you a straight answer and the right machine for the job, from a dealer you can actually reach. That's the whole point of buying local.