[mown2long]

i have a cat 267b, about 600 hrs, bought it back in march, its going back in shop next week for its second set of idlers, leaking grease seals the problem, 1st set leaked both sides aroun 200 hrs- how are your machines holdin up??

[Bill Schwab]

Leaking grease seals????? There are no seals so to speak, you just shoot the grease in the zert and it squirts out the gaps. With 600 hours and bought in March, you should still be under warrantee. Why are they not servicing you in field or picking the machine up for you and giving you a replacement?

We have 1700 hours on one 257B, and 460 hours on the other. We had a hydraulic limiting valve get replaced under warrantee, there was a recall update. We also had a turbo go bad at 100 hours. Cat came out, took the machine and dropped a demo. A week after we got it back, they called, told me the engine had to come out because the oil test they took came back unfavorable. They just as easily could have let me run the engine until it slipped out of warrantee. But they were more concerned with making it right, and being able to disassemble the Perkapillar engine to see what went wrong.

We lastly had two o-rings go out on the drive motor supply lines, one right, the other left. Cat came out and fixed them, 35 minutes after we called them for the repair.

All these repairs were on the oldest machine. The newest has not had a problem.

Have you taken the certification class from Cat yet? And what are you operating in? Our idlers are looking raggy, but are still very runnable. The only critical idlers on the system are the end, and front. Of those, the end is more important. In theory, you could run the machine with no idlers but the track would not support itself very well.

We have one more year on the first machine and it will be paid off. Then we are trading for a C series machine. Typically, we like to keep heavy equipment on a 3-5 year plan, because my theroy is to run them hard and bid the jobs tight. You can't run hard on older machines without worrying about lost billable time.

So, all in all, we hae had a few, but with Cat service, we have not lost any billable hours. They are a company who understands the importance of keeping it's clients working.

[mown2long]

Bill, thanks for the lesson in greasing a machine.Sorry, its actuall the large front guide wheel so to speak, notr an idler.Remember this is a 267b noth the 57 with the short track lenght.The idlers and guide wheels on these machines are filled with gear oil, and the "oil " seals leak. if i leave the machine sit for about 20 min, come back and oil has dripped down on the track-- both sides. and since they repaired it once, they say the warranty on the repairs are for 6 months-- i think its a bunch of bs-the first time i drtopped off my machine, they had it three days and i started getting irritaed-- no loaner by the way-and i finally told them i wanted the machine in the morning, or a new one-- they were waiting for new seals to come in, the wrong ones came in, la dee da da-- and so that night they ended up putting all new guide wheels and idlers on-- complete groups-- and now here we are again-- im not to worried about a loaner, i am fininshin my last job tommorow, and im going to CO then alberta hunting for three week, so cat can have it-- other than that i love it,, i have the backhoe, root rake grapple,auger,preparator,forks,gp bucket, western v plow,6' bush hog, and i do "landscape management-- i also have a 939c trackloader, so we do a little bit of everything

[Bill Schwab]

So, are you out of warrantee?

[mown2long]

i have to check and see if they call it " repaired and 6 mo" of what... i bought the extended for 3 yrs, but i doubt that uc is covered. ill let you guys know what they say--BILL--have you only had the 57's? i bought the 67 for the longer track, and lift capacity-- we layed only about 60 pallets of pavers and 20 wall this year--

[Bill Schwab]

If that is a new machine you are covered. If your dealer is not taking care of you, call corporate.