Looking to get into a tracked skidsteer to run our harley rake, have a Cat 262 that we currently use and like and will keep at the shop. Thinking a 257 or 259 seems like a mid size popular machine that would be nimble around the jobsites. Just hearing on the street that these newer machines the hydraulics arent as smooth as the older machines and can be difficult to fine grade with, 257 rides smooth but the tracks are super expensive to repair. 259 was a popular machine but not as stabble as the 257. looking to make an informed decision any information or experience would help.
Run from the ASV undercarriage as they are expensive to repair and maintain. I would highly recommend the 259 with standard CTL UC. We have gotten over 2K hours on OEM tracks and sprockets on our oldest 279D. We've never gotten that many hours out of a set of tracks running CTL's since 2003. Don't know about the 259D but we have 2 279D's one 2016 and 2019, both are very stable grade machines.
Surprised to see Cat still selling MTL's (aka 7's). As far as i thought they were done and dusted at least down here. Constantly doing undercarriage work.
Apparently Cat has discontinued the model as it's not on the US website either which speaks for itself.
My friend replaced his cat 259d with an asv rt 120 and is now very happy.