My Township just signed paperwork on a new Cat 150 AWD machine. Will be factory built. Should take delivery in 90 days or so. I started running a Grader for this Township in 1988. Was a 1975 Cat 12 mechanical machine. In the Fall of 1989 they bought me a new JD 670B. Since then they've bought me 8 new JD machines. Went to the 7 series in 1994. Went to AWD in 2019 with our current JD672G. Have always had antler rack machines. 30 years ago when trading Cat always acted like they didn't care if we bought their machine or not. Always a take it or leave it attitude. Always higher than JD. It seems the market share has changed dramatically in the last few years. Cat is on the warpath to get back their majority of machine sales. Now it appears JD has developed that arrogant take it or leave it attitude. We wanted to get back in a 7 series JD. So the comparable would be the Cat 150. We are also going to joystick if we purchased the JD. So a Cat 150AWD versus a JD772GP. Cat is giving us $23,000 more for our used 672G than JD!!! When comparing equal equipped machines our trade cost for the 772GP is $21,000 above the Cat 150. That completely shocks me. No consideration for our 35 years of JD ownership. No consideration for the previous 8 new machines from JD. A complete take it or leave it attitude from the dealer. So when the new machine shows up I'll add posts to this thread with pics of course. This will probably be my last new machine. I'm 72. With that in mind I'm excited about changing brands and going to joystick controls. I've always been fond of JD machines. Their personality fits me. Anxious to see how I feel about that a year from now. I'm attaching the sales agreement so you can see how the machine is equipped.
Did you get chance to look over the Specalog for the 150AWD (attached) to see what options were available then pick from the list, or did the dealer do most of the speccing.?
Nige, I used Cat's website to sort thru the options. I am also fortunate to have a neighboring Township with a 150 that's two years old. I had a mental list of "must haves" such as reversible engine fan. I bounced my ideas off the neighbor's machine equipment. Immediately noticed they don't have the reversible fan. I'm hoping I didn't miss anything critical. Thanks for the attachments Nige!!!
Did Cat give a municipality/gov't. discount? Back in 2004 when the county my property is in bought a new D6N they got a huge discount because they were a gov't. entity. I think it was over a $100,000 discount. They basically got a new machine for what used examples were selling for. JD and Komatsu didn't offer near as much discount. The county did have some Cat graders and other Cat machines that maybe affected the discount?? The county demo'd all 3 machines. They said the JD couldn't do much with a full blade of dirt but they said the Komatsu was the most impressive and would just boil the blade and keep pushing. The Cat was somewhere in the middle. The big reasons they went with Cat were the municipality discount and that Cat offered rebuilt exchange components that were far cheaper than having to buy brand new components from Komatsu.
Been wondering about you You have been MIA
Maybe he wanted to get more used to joystick controls before he posted?
Yes, there's a huge discount for governmental entities. Going by the listings I see for new Graders published by various dealers I'm guessing it's somewhere around 30%. Dealers like to sell new machines to government entities, then resell their trade-ins to contractors. In our case, they are giving us $213K. They'll ask $300K. I've checked into direct selling our machine and direct buying a new machine. Two problems. First is the time lag to get a new machine. Makes it hard to pinpoint the availability of our machine for sale. Second is financing. By law it has to be a "lease/purchase" arrangement. Hard to find a local lender that will get anywhere close to the interest rate offered by the manufacturer. If we could get financing for the entire amount of the new machine cost, then sell our machine and apply that money to the loan without penalty it would be doable. But, best I can learn, with a lease/purchase agreement there's no benefit to speedy payoff. So even though we would have 50% or more to apply to the loan in the first few months we would pay the complete finance charge as if we rode the loan to maturity. So far I've not found a way to outrun that.... As for machine capabilities, I haven't ran a Cat machine enough to quantify a difference. I've always been content with what a JD machine is capable of. I've got two dirt moving projects to do this Fall weather permitting. I'll know more about the comparison after those projects.
I've kinda stepped away from the Internet for awhile. Usually I'm active during Winter. This past Winter I was extremely busy and didn't get to spend much time in my shop on the computer. Good to see my old friends here again. Thanks for thinking about me cuttin edge.
Yeah, I'll refrain from much debate regarding joysticks until I put a hundred hours or so on the Cat. Then I'll be mouthy as I usually am. Won't get delivery for probably 90 days.
Sometimes you just need a break from everything to try and relax.
Congratulations on getting a new machine I’m interested to hear your thoughts going to the cat from the Deere having deer all them years glad to see you back was thinking about you since you had not posted I awhile look forward too seeing pictures of your new machine.
Thank you Sir. Gonna have to change my Avatar......
Congrats on the new machine, I am running the 150 AWD and like it, I came of the antler style machines and found it a easy transformation to the Cat joy sticks, Cat spends alot of time making the joysticks fit your hands comfortably also the armrests for good positioning, you may find steering it while running road to road abit tricky at first but we will talk about that once you get settled into your new Cat , anything I can help you with just let me know I will be more than glad to help
Thanks 20/80, I certainly will. One question I have already. With Advanced Joysticks can the front lift group be controlled by the additional control buttons on either stick? I think it would be easier to run the V plow that way?
I'm not sure if they can, the advanced joystick is set up for blade control option and Gps which most 150's come plumbed for, mine has the hand pod with the fingertip roller toggles for the plow and wing settup, again Cat ergonomics has it well positioned and easy to use and fit your hand well, had no problem with the V plow, used it with ease with the pod, My pod also has the float option on the toggles for the front plow and wing, a little green light lights up on the pod when you use it, just push the toggle back I believe with a little more force and it will go into float, you will find this pod works well for you just takes a bit to adjust coming off a different settup. hope this helps
My neighboring township has the hand pod like you mention. I didn't think to ask them if that's how they control their plow but I'm guessing it is. I saw a Cat video mentioning using the right joystick advance controls to run a ripper but they didn't mention the front lift group. If possible, I think I'd want to run it with the left joystick. But from your description I'd probably be okay using the pod. Thanks 20/80.
my 150 came with a separate control mounted on the right below the button panel that controlled a ripper attachment, I removed it where I don't run a ripper, found it in the way abit of the pod control, not sure if Cat would use the the left joystick if they can for plow and wing control where that is your steering joystick and might interfere with the steering but I'm just guessing.
Couple days ago I visited the neighboring Township's machine. They have the pod control you referred to. It has two separate controls on the pod even though they don't have a rear attachment. Their front lift group (plow) is controlled by the left or forward control. The right or rearward control does nothing. I played with the joysticks pretending I was trying to control the front lift group with the grade control buttons on the advanced sticks. I found it almost impossible to use my thumbs to do that without inputting other actions because of inadvertent stick movement. Might be my inexperience. It just didn't feel comfortable at all. As of now, I'm going to leave the front lift group control on the pod if that's how it arrives. Thanks for your input 20/80.