Not a fan so far. Customer bought a P385B Last summer, its been a constant headache. Draft arms for the screed bent in the first month(too light), the augers are made from too thin a metal so they wear quickly(again, too light). Replaced a broken conveyor adjust bolt yesterday for the left conveyor chain drive ( don't sound like much, but its a bitch and a horrible design.) Several electrical issues have downed the machine. It only has 556 hours as of yesterday. My area dealer cant seem to get parts very timely and field service is always over 7 days out. The auger roll plates wore holes in them at 300 hours (and yet AGAIN too thin) I just cant wait (sarcasm) to have to repair anything very deep in this thing, you should see how unserviceable a lot of the major components are.........you will have to remove gobs of crap to get to most things.
624 hours...…….the machine has broken both right and left conveyor adjusting bolts ( the design is **** poor) in the last month.. Broke the right conveyor drive chain today.
Sounds like my leeboy 8515t. Broke all that, plus wore out the crawler chains before 1000h.
905 hours, bearing failure on the right conveyor idler rollers. Im just going to keep a running tab on this machine. I was told last week they were buying another one. Job security I guess...….
1268 hours...……….auger box roll plate replacements on both left and right sides. These were replaced under warranty by CAT when they wore holes through them at 420 hours. These replacements they have actually improved since then. The old plates were 5/16 thick, the hew ones are 1/2. They bolted right up with no mods. I do like the fact that Weiler listened and made the improvement!
……………….and I have NO idea why it posted the pics twice! I did wait 3 weeks to get these parts.
I can appreciate that they made them heavier, but, imho, they are too close to the screws.
Are these branded CAT or Weiler?
I agree, and these augers have a bit of wear in them.
They are branded Weiler. I'm not sure if CAT has involvement with them on a corporate/partnership or not. The only thing I have found that is CAT is the ignition switch. My local CAT dealer started selling these a few years ago. I'm just going to keep a running tab (thread) on this machine because I loathe it so much.
I don’t know who else, but I know that both Carlson and Weiler make pavers for for CAT. They also have CAT controls on them, and the controls cover that is not lockable gets lost really easy when you transport them if you forgot to put bunjy cord on them - but you can buy it from Cat.
A lot of manufacturers are using cheap steel in wear areas to save $$$$$. Have had buckets wear through in 1000 hours.
I believe Carlson makes the screeds that can be purchased for any paver. Weiler makes their own screeds and the pavers as well and sells them through Cat dealers. I've heard the Weiler bought the old Blount logging equipment business from Cat. Cat baled on a line again.
Carlson also makes pavers, the new ones with electronics and electric over hydraulic is PITA to operate - too much of hysteresis! Operators complaining a lot, jerky movements and delays in movements makes it hard to get used to it.
Time for another Weiler repair. This time its the conveyor drive sprockets and chains at 1462 hours. The set-up for this is just a major pain in the ass, the access to the motor and chains is a joke. I got it done (no pics cause I couldn't wait to get away from this machine) but now my shoulders ache from the contortionist positions I had to put myself in.
I love working on pavers ,everything thing is always nice and cool , no body in a rush to get it fixed just because there is 4-5 loads of asphalt waiting . No yelling or screaming .
More Weiler issues. Nothing big but still annoying. 1509 hours and I’m getting a “left feed transducer voltage low”. It is the transducer itself and that is ordered for the machine. Then there is a weld crack in the screed lift arm on the right side and a missing flange bolt. Took care of that today.
Do you get to work on Carlson’s? And if you do how do you compare those two?
And the saga continues, although this is not the machines fault. SO.......somehow a piece of the fiber matt got caught in the left side conveyor chain without anyone noticing . Of course, it continued to roll around the lower drive sprocket, continuing to increase its size to the point that the chain overrode the sprocket teeth. It wound this fiberglass matt in there tighter than cable on a winch drum and finally broke the drive motor shaft. That gear above, as you can see, still has the shaft and retaining nut. The matting you see here is only a third of what was wound up. It took me 5 hours to remove all that crap, using a oring pick, wire snips, cutting torch to burn away part of it, several prybars, and a hammer and chisel.......all in a 6x8 inch hole below the drive gear that is the only access. There was no way to stay away from the fiberglass fibers so I was covered in them and had to wear that crap the rest of the day. Parts are supposed to be here today so hopefully all goes well.
On another note, the customer here did buy 2 more of these pavers late last year. Both have had the DEF tanks replaced under warranty. One had a conveyor drive failure (motor separated from its mount).....also under warranty.
All done and ready until the next problem
Time for more.................... Customer said that both steering wheels at the left and right controls are loose and they can tighten the up. Well........they are BROKE so you CANT tighten them up! The steer potentiometer has a small shaft that he steering wheel centers itself over then you lock it in place with 2 set screws on the shaft. There should be another 2 inches of smaller shaft on the end of this shaft, its broken off inside the end of the steering wheel shaft on both sides. Contacted Weiler and the individual parts I need for repair are not in stock but I could get 2 new steer assemblies in 5 days at $1388.00 each! AHHHH..they came through with the new assemblies as promised. Installed both with ease. By the way, these are NOT plug & Play's.........You have to go into the machine monitor and select the steer/travel calibration and follow the instructions. The good thing was the instructions were very clear and easy to follow! All of this due to the operator using the steering wheel to pull himself out of the operators seat. These are way too lite for that.
Well, its more Weiler headaches this last week. I got called out for a hydraulic leak under the machine. There is a bracket that the cut off door cylinders pin to, which also doubles as a guide plate for the conveyor chains. The only thing holding all this weight and the cylinder pressure is 5 grade 8 1/2 bolts. The 2 bolts on the left outer bracket mount had sheered off and when the cylinder closed the door, it would torque the bracket to where th fitting struck the mainframe.........instant crack and spewed oil like a mofo! This is the old bracket once I got it removed. It doesn't look too bad at first site but it was tweaked bad enough that it wouldn't drop out from between the frame....................had to torch it to get enough clearance. Since the conveyor chains lay on the guide plate that it bolted to this bracket, the chains had to be jacked up to the bottom of the floor and supported to get the weight off of the bracket for removal. I had to back the machine onto good sized lumber to even have enough room under there to do anything. It was a royal pain in the ass. This is the new bracket installed. The mount bolts for that side are behind the cylinder. Again, this is just too weak of a design for the purpose that its intended for. Til next time.............
Damn!!! This machine sounds like it's broke more that it runs!! I worked for the largest paving contractor in our county back in the 80s, they had Blaw-Knox pavers. It was a very rare occasion that one went down. They would run non-stop as long as the asphalt plant was running. I can only imagine the conversation my boss would have been having with the dealer over this!!
Just wondering if you ever ran into the problem while replacing the electric motor for steering on these with that stupid intermediate shaft where Weiler has drilled the holes wrong? The new shaft and the shaft i took out you can see clear as day are drilled at a different mark on the shaft itseld. The steering wheel has to be turned damn near a 1/4 turn to go straight and not fault out. Terrible design by them with these guys always using it to pull themselves up.