I'm helping my neighbor buy a cat 277b from a friend of mine, there's 1200 hrs on the machine, 1 owner. Cab, AC it little weak. Maintained well, no leaks. He's thinking of selling it for $20-25k. My neighbor is has been casually looking for a good deal on a machine just for personal use on his property, cleaning fences, light grading, etc. I doubt he would put 150hrs a year on the machine. I'm aware of the additional undercarriage cost vs a CTL. But thinking he may never get to actually need replacing everything. Anyway, curious what else I can check out on the machine. I want to be sure it's a good deal for him. He was looking at solid tire machines, maybe this will be best of both...smoother ride, but better abilities than tires. Tracks will need replacing in maybe few hundred hours. Thanks guys!
I just recently sold my 277 and have a few leftover parts, plus the huge service manual, and 1 track if he would be interested in. I would mainly look at the seals, inside and outside on the bogie and idler wheels for any leaks. I replaced my tracks by myself and while it is a little time consuming, I think it is pretty straight forward to do. He would be looking at any where from $3500 to $4000 for tracks. I liked my 277 and only sold because a guy came to me wanting to buy.
Could you spin your tracks on that 277? My friend said his won't spin for anything, won't stall out it'll just stop. Curious if that's normal?
Yes it would spin the tracks.
Do why would this one not be able to spin the tracks nomatter what?
Possible hydraulic bypass to protect drive motors.
There any way to adjust that?
If it's hydraulic bypass, it's in the Electro Hydraulic controls. Would have to be adjusted in the software, most likely. Cat we had on demo would not pick up more than rated capacity. Didn't stall or bog down, just gave up.
Throttle it up some more...
The 277B is a true pilot control machine, no E/H controls.
He said he's run it full throttle trying to get it to do anything. Also says it's a little on the weaker side lifting heavy.
You could take it to a Cat dealer and they could tell you if the pressures are where they need to be.
The travel and loader hydraulic systems each have their own pumps so I doubt an issue with one is related to the other unless there is an engine speed problem or cavitation issue which you would hear. Could be the speed sensing pressure low causing it to have low power on the tracks. Instead of pilot pressure the hystat system uses speed sensing, which is similar but it goes up as rpm increases so that you can't go full stroke on the pumps at low rpm and stall the engine.