I work for a masonry company and we are thinking about getting new telehandlers we have lulls now i am leaning towered cat any opinions on any telehandler would be vary helpful thanks
We have an 06 TH460B cat telehandler. Have owned it since new and it has 2000 hrs on it currently. Other than a few minor items its been great. We build custom homes and the 3 way steer is very handy at times for tight spots. The four wheel steer and crab works good around the buildings. The two wheel steer is used for roading the machine. Also very handy when loading it on a float. Loading it in four wheel steer is very tricky. We considered the TH360 when we bought ours. The 360 only lifted 7000 lbs. We choose the 460 because of the extra 2000 lb lifting. We are glad we did. We often are at max even with the 9000 lbs. At full extension we can still lift 3000 lbs. Lots of times we are working with no backfill as we try to have the subfloor installed before backfilling. You cant have too much capacity or reach. good luck.
My favorite is the old Gradalls but they aren't made anymore. This thread sums up my opinions on the new machines -
My understanding is that the JLG made Cat machines are a little problematic. Booms are a bit weak and cables are a continuous problem. I have ran a few and they are nice to operate but they just dont seem very rugged to me. Also, the engines are a Cat/ Perkins which im not knocking Perkins but i havent had much luck with these. I heard a few weeks ago that Cat isnt going to have JLG build these machines any longer. I guess they were possibly unhappy with the build quality? Dont know that for sure though. I guess my recommendation would have to be based on what size machines you are looking into. I cant imagine why you would want to stray from the Lulls though?
The local cat salesmen came to see me and he did tell that JLG did make there telehandlers for a few years but now cat has full control of them again
Our company has a Cat TL943 made in 2008, it was manufactured by JLG and I have ran it quite a bit. We are pretty hard on it and it has held up pretty well but it is weak. It has foam filled tires, these are to heavy for the drive train. You can not operate it in 4th gear without it overheating the axels because of the foam filled tires. I know 4th gear is not used that often for most operating but we do lots of work close to town and like to road it to the job site when we can. Even operating it in 3rd gear for very long is to hard on it. I understand this is due to the foam filled tires but when we purchased this piece of equipment this was never mentioned as a side affect of the foam filled tires. I do not know if this is only with this brand and model or if foam filled tires will do this on any brand and model. Another problem is when you are scoping in the boom the engine will not stay reved up, it lugs down and will even die, this is with no load on the forks. When you have a load on the forks that is over 2000lbs (approx) the forks will not tilt up. I think there may be a problem with the hydraulic valves but this should not happen on a piece of equipment with 1000hrs on it (we bought it with 1000hrs on it, so not from us abbusing it). One good thing about this telehandler is even after us running it thru brush it has held up well, no damage to it even thought the engine compartment is fiberglass and the wheel wells are plastic but other than that I do not like this CAT telehandler. I know these are not made to be ran thru brush but we use it in the field to unload and drag pipe on pipelines sometimes.
For me TL1255C Telehandler is good. It is also my favorite.