385C's

[ben46a]

I'll add my 2 cents on the 385C, We bought a new one last march, and couldnt use it for a month because the welds on the stick were so poor they had to replace it. They also had to remove the boom and touch up some welds on it and the carbody. The machine has the 29 FT boom and 11 ft stick with a 7 yd spade nose bucket. It digs great and bails like a bugger, but has a had its share of problems. Blew 4 fan motors apart inside 3 months. last going off they put a new pump, new motor and added a line releif. Pump pressure was spiking to 7500+ PSI as the pump was stroking to full swash for no apparant reason. This has been covered under warranty every time but the downtime is very costly as the 345B with 2 broken shanks the dealer lent us inst as productive LOL. The pump controls leak like a seive and they cant seem to get them stopped. The just replaced the pump drive as part of a PIP, and replaced 9 rollers as they wrere leaking. There is a new set of chains on the way as the pins are walking in these ones. The bucket is a cat bucket and the metal is very soft. it is pretty much work out after 1600 hrs. We will be rebuilding it and buying a 7.25 yd craig bucket to replace it. The XT-6 hoses on it are also failing at an alarming rate, i guess there is a problem with the hose itself and cat has upped the warrranty on those for us . The operator loves the machine, and when it works it works great, but i doubt well buy another Big cat excavator.

 

[hoeman600]

who spect your 385 out your boom and stick are way to long for a 7 yard bucket. that setup is more pipe not me..the side forces are to heavy. ime sure with a full bucket it doesent stop swinging easy. i ben a hoe operator for 20 years this combo always a problem

 

[ben46a]

Well we ran a 375 with a similar setup (6.5 yd) for ten years without a problem, a ten ton heavier machine should handle a 7 yd just fine, which it does. Oh wait, sorry, Its got the 27'7 boom (brain fart on my part.)

 

[9420pullpan]

who spect your 385 out your boom and stick are way to long for a 7 yard bucket. that setup is more pipe not me..the side forces are to heavy. ime sure with a full bucket it doesent stop swinging easy. i ben a hoe operator for 20 years this combo always a problem

like this Hoeman!?

 

[hoeman600]

that will work:notworthy

 

[JDOFMEMI]

Well we ran a 375 with a similar setup (6.5 yd) for ten years without a problem, a ten ton heavier machine should handle a 7 yd just fine, which it does. Oh wait, sorry, Its got the 27'7 boom (brain fart on my part.)

We are running a 375 here with a 9cy bucket on it. It is too big, but the operator puts in it what it willhandle depending on the material. We have over 9000 hrs on it, and total of 2 blown hoses to show for downtime. I was thinking about a 385, but with a report like you wrote, I am having second thoughts now.

 

[Tigerotor77W]

We are running a 375 here with a 9cy bucket on it. It is too big, but the operator puts in it what it willhandle depending on the material. We have over 9000 hrs on it, and total of 2 blown hoses to show for downtime. I was thinking about a 385, but with a report like you wrote, I am having second thoughts now.

Could be a lemon of sorts -- it was also pretty early in the introduction phase. Hopefully (yes, hopefully and not concretelly) this has been addressed.

 

[Dozerboy]

We had a handful of problems with our New 385 too. I liked the LinkBelt 800 and the Deere 550 although smaller that I have ran better.

 

[jimmyjack]

sounds like a friday machine

 

[345cl]

heres my three cents,,i know you guys are talkin about 385s,,i would love to jump on one,,but i thought id tell you this,, we just got a 345cl last summer its a nice machine i find it very comfortable and it works well,i do mainly sewer work with it,,but we had to take in for the manifold 3 times because it leaking like crazy the bearing in the turbo went for a crap,after 400 hours i had a hard time to lift a 6 ton YES 6 ton manhole,,we found out after the boom cylinders where machined incorrectly as well cat told me not to worry if the manifold leaks a little bit its normal:crazy i told him if i operate a 45 ton shovel that cant pick 6 tons is that normal too!!! my boss told him that if you dont know what the problem is then you should say so!!! but he also said i dont spend 400 thousand bucks for our machine to watch it leak through the manifold after 200 hours,,so guys if you any of you ever had a problem like this let me know,,my boss told me it over twenty years they been buying excavtors from cat,,and he'd give any thing for the old 245b series isnt that the truth

 

[Mass-X]

345cl: "so guys if you any of you ever had a problem like this let me know"

We've got six 345C's on site right now. All with less than 3,000 hours on them. So far, we've only had minor repairs on any of them, with the exception of operator caused damage.

A couple small things, like bad quick couplers, problems switching control patterns, etc. Nothing serious though.

They're used hard but run like tops.

 

[mflah87]

Buy a Komatsu, I haven't had any major problems, and when I do have a problem its fixed right away.

 

[Cat 385C LRE]

Well I did it:bouncegri :bouncegri :bouncegri I got to see and run our 385 before it is sold. IMO I like the LinkBelt 800 I ran better. The Cats track motor barely moved this thing and tuning was not happening without help from the bucket. The cab was a lot louder I wore my ear plugs in it I only had a few hrs on it and that is the things I noticed right away. Here it is a parked next to an IIRC our D8L and D8K. Also seeing this iron sitting with rust and no plan on moving it made me start looking at other companied to work for I know we have scraper hands sitting at home and today so am I.

Dozerboy

have you more pictures from this Cat 385CL ??

Very Nice Pictures :thumbsup

Greatz Yanko de Graaf

 

[traxs]

Heres what I have for 385s. there so sexy...ahhhhhhh. yes, equipment makes me horny.

 

[Countryboy]

Heres what I have for 385s. there so sexy...ahhhhhhh. yes, equipment makes me horny.

I didn't know Deere made 385s.....

And where is the "running away" smiley..........:cool2

 

[traxs]

I didn't know Deere made 385s.....

And where is the "running away" smiley..........:cool2

yeah, you better run....:crazy

 

[Demoguy324]

I work for MCM management Corp, (the owner of the 385C HRD in the first post) right now, our 385C HRD sits 4/5 days a week, running only 2-3 hours on the day it does work. though it is overkill for what we are working on at the moment. even when there is a call for it's use it breaks down at least once a shift and spends 2-3 hours down per working day.

I know for a fact that the standard arrangement 385 is NO GOOD for demoltion work, as the controls are computer over hydraulic, which means that the computer tells the engine and pumps what the machine should be doing rather than the operator. you can't bypass the system or tweak it in any way to make it perform better in high-flow operations (I.E. shearing/crushing)

All of which justify the reasoning for us owning (14) 375's and still buying/fixing the old ones as opposed to buying a new 385.

here's a few pics of the 385 working a few weeks ago at Lansing car assembly plant 6 (the job I'm currently working on.

<img src="http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7854/0703160005il5.jpg">
<img src="http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2659/0703170003vt9.jpg">
<img src="http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4111/0703170004hz5.jpg">
<img src="http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8274/0703170002zz4.jpg">

*edit, that code works on my other forum any hints as to why it doesn't work here? i Just signed up tonight...*

Eric

 

[Squizzy246B]

Welcome DemoGuy...I finally beat CB

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7854/0703160005il5.jpg

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2659/0703170003vt9.jpg

that should work....It may be because you just logged in and don't have many posts...its an antispammer thing I think.

Hope you enjoy HEF and I know some of the members will be keen to talk to you about the 385.

Cheers

 

[Countryboy]

Yeah you beat me Squizzy, but at what? :beatsme

Welcome to HEF Demoguy324! :drinkup

There is a link button on the top tool bar when you make a post. If you copy and paste the address into that window that comes up when you press the button then it will make the link for you. :thumbsup

It appears I beat you back Squizzy. :wink2

 

[Tigerotor77W]

I know for a fact that the standard arrangement 385 is NO GOOD for demoltion work, as the controls are computer over hydraulic, which means that the computer tells the engine and pumps what the machine should be doing rather than the operator. you can't bypass the system or tweak it in any way to make it perform better in high-flow operations (I.E. shearing/crushing)

All of which justify the reasoning for us owning (14) 375's and still buying/fixing the old ones as opposed to buying a new 385.

Welcome to the site!

That's interesting about the 385Cs... how do they break usually?