What is your budget?
What specifically do you need to do?
What might you want to do?
What is your previous skid steer experience and are you willing to change?(brands, controls etc.)
Do you want new and nice, or old and simple?
Why do you feel that tracks are not good for snow, bobcatdan? We in oklahoma love them in snow, and don't see why you would dislike them.
Oklahoma may just be the key words. In the midwest where its nearly impossible to keep a clean surface for traction the wheel machines work better. The answer is above. Ground pressure. You need it for ice. You dont need it for snow unless its deep hard packed snow. Same reason flotation tires on tractors are suicide in the winter. Flotation+Ice=Bad. Now both flotation tires and tracks get much better traction in the dirt, and are much easier on the ground itself due to their large footprint and low ground pressure. However Ice does not compress and allow the tires/tracks to sink in slightly to get their traction. Therefore you rely solely on friction. When friction is the answer the more PSI the Better.
Now a track machine with studded tracks would probably kick some ass.
I am really liking the Alpha series CASE machines.
They haven't been as well recieved around this area. The construction people don't seem to mind them but they are not working well in Ag applications. To me the biggest issue is the rear of the machine. Its too wide, the engine is impossible to get to, the plastic sheilds get misaligned the first day, the honecomb cover allows too much debris into the engine bay and also collects debris behind the rear window where the cab inlet is at, and while I am proud of new holland for catching up and making the cab flip, you still need to have the boom in the air to really be able to comfortable get anything done.
Like I said though, this is coming from the ag industry and tired machines. We don't push the limits of the capacities, we push the limits of durability due to the conditions. The CNH machines are not adequately equipped to deal with the bedding (some farmers have had fires others who use sand have ruined radiators, cabs get dirty fast too), or deal with the constant side loading of the attachment for pushing up feed, scraping pens etc. The pins wear out too quickly. They also are not set up to be cleaned easily which is an issue in our environments.
We were diehard NH and it took enough to switch away from them, but we've been happy with the switch. The folks in construction I've talked to with the CNH alpha's don't mind them but their main reasons for their purchase were loyalty, price, visibility or resistance to change (changing controls, changing dealers, etc.). Their visibility is outstanding and the reach of the vertical booms is still unmatched. Theres enough I miss about them, but being the one who has to fix all of them I'm glad we don't have them.
That said, The older machines would be a good choice for the OP. I would steer away from the L100 series new hollands and their issues and get back to the old LS series. They were solid, simple, and reliable.
Another bad under carriage is the ASV / Cat track loader. Asv sold to Cat and Cat put there cab on the ASV undercarriage which came a from a design by polaris . Cat a little more needs to be done, Besides the new models are very expensive.
CAT purchased undercarriages from ASV to put on their MTL loaders. They took their wheeled machines and put ASV's undercarraige on. That was the issue. The ASV was purpose built to run on their undercarriage and worked well on it, the Skid Steer Design from CAT didn't fair as well with it. They still cater to a certain market that has a need for them. The later CTL's addressed the issues with a rigid steel undercarriage like the rest of the competition.
