As I mented on several differnt forums that I'm A Deere fan and been looking around for the biggest largest ctl. Why I want the largest ctl? I'm self employed who borrows a friend t-300 to unload the 5,000 lbs steel bundles I get to build fences and drill holes for post also clear brush to make way for new fence. How ever I do want to expand to do more agriculture construction to metal fence, water lines, bush clearing and mulching in the future. I've looked at bobcat, tak, kubota, case, new holland and Deere. I'm a huge fan of h pattern controls with foot throttle. My results: Bobcat-dealer are far away, 100 miles to closest one. When digging graves for livestock have noticed that the steeper the hill is the harder I have to pull the controls and won't even try to spin. Case: not to popular, love their controls but scares to gamble with it scince them and new holland are together. Tak: never been in one. Looks dang bulky. New holland: haven't been in on either. Never seen one with tracks beside the Boucher. Deere: demoed it. Seems nice and comfy. Deere said they have a cooling package that you add on if you want to run a mulched to keep the machine from overheating. Been looking at low hours ones lately. For those who make a living on these machines, what the experience you have from service fuel usage dealer support resale vaule. Etc. I'm ready to try get one in the end of the week after I get more opinions. Still having that odd feeling
Cat 299!!!! Just my dream, hoping i can live vicariously......
I thought that cat have bad under carriage??
Kubota did a great job on the SVL 95. We have one and we love it. We did not not like the Cat we had and have had no problem out of the Kubota. We do have a mulched head and it does not need any extra cooling package. I think it would be hard to beat the price also. Chris
I'll admit I've heard great things bout kubota, but how long they been out and how long they gonnal last? I've seen bobcats , Deere, case with over 5,000 hrs
299 is a standard CTL undercarriage (steel idlers and Bridgestone tracks) with the addition of suspension.
So cat have one like a bobcat or Deere type? Arnit cat dang pricy to buy and work on? I have a C-13 cat in my peterbilt, good engine but every time it get worked on bill always over 1,200. Even just a dang starter. But I do have a heck of warranty on the engine throu
I really dont know anything about the 299. I ran one and its a beast and the ride is better than anything ive ever been in! Everything is expensive to work on these days, not just a Cat.
I can't say what will happen in 5000 hours but I do not see anything that would cause me to worry. Everything on the machine is built heavy and they have done a great job of keeping everything very neat inside the engine compartment. As for 5000 hours on the motor, I think there would be no problem at all since Kubota motors are tough as nails. We had a 289C with a little over 100 hours and decided to sell it and get the SVL 95 because of electrical/hyd problems we kept having with the 289. If you were grading and tried to raise the bucket a little but, it would not move then it would jump up as much as two inches. They tried new software as well as worked on the hyd system itself but never got any better and it did not look like it was going to get better anytime soon so we got rid of it. Chris
It just I trend to go to popular brand, however I do have a kubota engine in my welder, it's been goin alright just leaking oil and can't get a kubota tech to fix it it's because it's is in a Lincoln machine and no one want to touch then due to high electrical stuff as my welder is kinda fancy one throu.