I was looking at an old CAT 955L today. It seemed to be in fairly decent shape with a good engine and decent undercarriage. I was just a bit unsure about whether or not its torque convertor was fine or not. I wasn't allowed to dig or push with it, only drive back and forth, so I couldn't test it the way I'd like to. The machine seemed to drive forcefully at low idle in first gear, ran at the same speed as first in second gear at low idle, and moved very slowly in third at low idle. At half throttle, the machine ran at the same speed in third gear that it ran in second. In third gear, the machine needed to be revved to near full throttle to move at a good clip (felt like about 9 km/h). The machine needed to be at 3/4 throttle or up to turn in third gear. I don't have much experience with track loaders. Is it normal for a 955L to need to be revved up to a high RPM to move itself well in third gear? Also, it there anything in particular that I should look out for in these machines? Thanks, Sultan
It would of course be nice to be able to push against something solid before buying. I can only respond to you questions by saying that mine seems to have a lot of slip in 3rd gear but in 1st it will easily spin the tracks even down close to idle.
The machine was able to turn at low idle in first gear. I guess the machine's probably alright, though I would've preferred to actually try pushing. Thanks for the reply.
Just to clarify, when I said spin the tracks I meant they remain turning in the dirt while pushing against a solid object. A 15 ton machine with 130hp is not much power to weight when compared to even the smallest of cars. When getting up in the higher gears I wouldn't expect much performance. Good Luck