2 claims: that the twin cylinders on IT loader give it a slight edge in breakout force but are not as robust as the single cylinder D variant....and the opposite. According to Ritchiespecs, breakout force is identical....this machine will be used for digging the vast majority of its time with me. Being a novice operator, I'm not sure what the definition of "heavy digging" is. I'm less concerned with breakout force than I am with general toughness of the machine. Can anyone confirm that the IT loader is less robust than the standard, or point me to some good data?
Mine are all IT machines. 416CIT 426CIT 426CIT 420EIT 420EIT With the pallet forks, they will carry an 8x20 kundel or efficiency trenchshield all day long.. Pretty much every one has cylinder drift on the tilt around 6k hours. A simple repack of the cylinders and they're back in business, and I don't even pull the barrels off the machine. Only Z bar BHLs we had were the plain old 416 machines. Never an issue with the IT coupler either. We have brooms, gp buckets, 4in1 buckets, forks, and a telescopic jib.
More moving parts on an IT is all I would see for major negative when buying used I dont think there is a price difference between standard and IT but new IT are expensive in comparison witch is why they are less common
Imo get the IT it is way more useful ours we bought used with about 7500 hours on it and it is tight as you could ask for.
Appreciate the responses, Thank you. I am leaning heavily towards the IT.
Just bought a 420D IT last week. So far its been an awesome machine. Love the quick coupler capability and the autolevel bucket is so convenient. I'm shocked how often im using the pallet forks around the farm. Everything from moving logs to picking up patiostones
Here are the pages from the Cat Performance Handbook covering the 420D & the IT version if it's any use to you.
Thank you, this is exactly what I was interested in. For any who may come behind me there is a slight edge, 5% more lift capacity and 4% more breakout force with the twin cylinder IT.
I've had a 420Dit for several years and in my opinion, it lifts more than it should. I saw the boys lift the backend of a 955L off the ground, which didn't impress me they did that!!!
That was a good testimonial as to the strength of the front axle assembly !