Is it normal for a skid steer to handle salt water like this?

Saltwater is the absolute worst thing you can do to a skid steer, and unless that's a rental they don't plan on keeping, those guys are asking for a mechanical disaster. These machines are absolutely not amphibious. The undercarriage on a track loader is full of bearings, seals, and precision-machined surfaces that are designed to keep out dust and dirt, but they aren't pressurized against standing water. Once that salt gets into the rollers and idlers, it starts eating the metal from the inside out within days.

Running it deep enough to hit the cab is even more dangerous because you're risking the electronics and the air intake. If the engine sucks in a gulp of salt spray or a wave hits the exhaust, itu2019ll hydrolock instantly. Then you've got a dead, multi-ton paperweight sitting in the surf while the tide comes in. Recovery costs for a buried machine in the tide can easily run into the thousands, not even counting the damage to the hydraulic pumps if a line gets compromised and lets brine into the system. If you can't get them to stop, the only way to mitigate this is a **rigorous decontamination** process every single day. As soon as that machine leaves the sand, it needs to be up on blocks and power-washed with fresh water for at least thirty minutes. You have to flush out the belly pans, the drive motors, and every nook of the chassis. Even then, the salt will likely find a home in the electrical connectors and cause phantom sensor issues for the rest of the machine's life. Iu2019ve seen guys do this for quick shoreline armoring jobs, but they usally stay on the dry sand and use a long-reach excavator for the deep work. Bringing a standard skid steer into the actual waves is just negligence. Check the **final drive oil** for milkiness immediately after they finish; if it looks like latte, the seals have already failed and youu2019re looking at a massive repair bill.

Beyond the obvious structural degradation of the undercarriage, you really need to worry about the galvanic corrosion occurring between the aluminum cooling fins and the steel chassis components, as the saline solution acts as a near-perfect electrolyte to accelerate the degradation of those dissimilar metals. I have personally witnessed the pivot pins on those newer Cooper units seize entirely beacuse the microscopic salt crystals precipitated within the tight tolerances of the bushings, essentially turning the joints into a solid block of rust. If those operators aren't pumping fresh grease through every single zerk untill it completely purges the contaminated slurry, that machine's bucket geometry is going to be effectively compromised for any future precision grading work.

Man, I hope that's a lease. I saw a crew do this exact thing last summer and they didn't just wreck the tracks—the electrical harness started throwing codes non-stop about a week later. Those sensors in the newer Coopers are super finicky and once they get a whiff of salt, they're toast. Even if you wash it, the moisture gets trapped in the wiring loom and you'll be chasing gremlins forever. They're basially turning a six-figure machine into a rust bucket for no reason. I'd be losing my mind if that was my rig.