I am upgrading my CTL. I have been looking at the Cat 259B. Dose anyone have one or any experience with one? How do like the torsion bar suspension? Grading with it? Any problems or issues? Thanks!
Ride is fantastic, suspension hurts you a little when your cutting grade as if you take a big bite it pulls you down more and cause ya to gouge a bit but you can over come that with a little practice. Absolutely hate the undercarriage, cost about 14 thousand to replace and only last about 1000 hrs on average. Thing is, they don't fail all at once so get used to a ridiculous track change procedure and the monhtly 500$ repair bill for what ever decides to let go, hope you can, I'm still trying to cope. So in reality by the time you need 7000$ in tracks you'll of spent 3 thousand just to get them there (if your lucky) then prob need to spend 6 or 7 to get it all up to par, great track system for light work, stay away from rock, stumps and curbs, concrete demo, 360 turns, though sometimes unavoidable, it will do it with ease, but you can feel your wallet get light every time you do. Very fast works great for tree sheer, LOTS of production floats over the softest of mud. Don"t abuse it and it'll take care of bidness, abuse it and it'll put you out...
Are you referring to the 257 with the ASV undercarriage or the 259B with the steel carriage?
257 asv for sure. Owner operator, not up on everything and all models, guess I just assumed Cat hadn't pulled their head out of their a**. I'm sure the steel is a step up... that said alot of what I said still applies... Love the machine its just the upkeep on tracks in general that need be considered.
I agree that track maintenance needs to be considered on all CTL/MTL's, but the 259B3 is in an entirely different ballpark than the 257 you are referring to. The 259B3 has the all steel undercarriage, which is basically a shrunken version of the D3. It also has a 3.4L turbo with 72 net HP, as does the 257B3. You are right about grading with it also; have to get used to it first.
3.3L CAT branded Mitsubishi engine.
We own a 259B3 and love it it is a real workhorse does not fall on it's face like our 277B's the undercarrage is more suited for rougher applications but for finish work the 277B works great. I would easily buy another if we replace a 277b. Just wish they had the cab the new C series has but im sure that is in the works.
The CTL undercarriage is what I wish had always been done for the general use i see guys use them for. The basic setup is just like a dozer, but remember its not a steel chain in there. Try and Avoid zero turning and clean out those tracks before you fire up for the day. Most of the issues guys have with the undercarriage is from packed in dirt and rocks getting forced through your bogies and idlers, not good. I've ha guys that love them and praise them all day never had a problem and the next guy to call toasted a bogey, but when you see them come in with them you can tell its been put away and fired up dirty far too times.
I've got 1500 hrs on my 287c and have not needed to replace any undercarriage parts ant have about 20-25% wear left.
I see a large bucket of money in your future being given to the parts counter, you have got better then average time out of your tracks ( I am sure this is from being very good operator) I got my JCB used with 1800 hrs on it, at that time it had 200 hour on a bunch of replacement parts and tracks. nature of the beast , tire skidsteers eat up tires around 400~600 hours but cant do what these will.