Is it an optical illusion, or is the emergency over flow lower than the top of the outlet control structure?
36 and 48, those are big buckets, even for a 250 class. I suppose the 36 could be used for trenching on a 250, but that 48, that's for mass excavator loading trucks from a pile. Just my guess though.
I have a 48" Extreme duty CAT bucket on my 325 NG. It has a 1.56 yd capacity (YAY!) and is very stout! The machine handles it well, and it is our primary bucket. I also bought a 24" for trenching. I have a 30" trenching bucket for the Deere 245G (along with a 48" bucket as primary for that machine as well) and I thought having a 24" would be good to have in the fleet as well. My opinion may change someday, but so far, I wish I would have gotten another 30", or maybe even 36", instead of the 24". I can swap buckets between the Cat and the Deere so I won't be spending any money to change that anytime soon.
Reduced tail swing machines are getting pretty fat in the posterior. 325 is 28 metric tons these days. I'm not sure if it's from tonnage creep or it's the old 328 were renumbered.
I work on residential lots with lots of trees, and other possible obstructions, and having a zero tail (Deere 245G), and the Cat 325NG (hangs over about 9") are key for us. I can get those big machines where my little 315CL would struggle to work efficiently, and the biiger machines are much better in the hard rock excavation that we do. The other tghing that you get with the zero/reduced tail machine is that it is alsi tighter on the front side as well. Meaning that the boom and bucket can be brought in closer to the machine center as well.
My Cat 325 NextGen scaled in at 65,000# with long undercarriage, extra heavy counter weight (weighs 18k#), and the 48" extreme duty bucket. I had the delivery driver go across scales before and after delivery, the day I took possession. It probably weighs even more now that it has had about 900 hours of dust added to it (LOL).
Yeah it's an expensive leap of faith for sure. Never thought I would be into such technology on the job site but it really has changed how we do things. Unfortunately it comes with a high initial cost however it pays for itself 2 fold.
For example our initial base station, rover and full auto on our D3 was $110K which was financed for 2 years with just under a $5K payment per month - ouch. However the 2 years prior to purchasing the system we went through so many laborers I couldn't remember 1/2 of them when the W2's went out last year. It's just hard to find people who are dependable and show up for work. Our metro area is around 3% unemployment rate, it's tough.
A laborer that has the ability to show up every day, capacity to walk and breath at the same time costs around $50K a year total labor burden including onboarding, PPE and training. We have eliminated the need for a human to hold a grade rod, pull a string, set a blue top or read a tape on 90% of our jobs with GPS. So the tech pays for itself rather quickly.
The difference in tech between our current 325FL and this Next Gen 325 is like a flip phone compared to the latest iPhone. This machine has the ability to go full auto on the last pass of a ditch to a perfect sub-grade then spread bedding to it's desired depth. It should take most of the work off a pipe layer and save over excavation and bedding over runs. That right there is going to save thousands in one year.
Full auto GPS on a 325 Next Gen is around $65K with the latest receivers. That doesn't not include a base station and rover which we already have. Fairly reasonable for what it can do IMO.
The next step for us is getting more into the office side of things building models, adjusting models and pushing data to and from the field. Trimble Business Center is expensive and complicated software for an old dog like myself to learn but we can do it.
Never thought I would say it in my lifetime much less in my working career but we'll have autonomous machines one day and it will be sooner than I ever imagined.
I used lack of decent labor force as rationale for buying my 325NG as well. I've still never used the "Auto Grade" feature, but we do use our 2D system with laser catch. BTW, the laser catch does not come standard. It costs extra. I found that to be a bit silly when paying $275k for machine that CAT markets as being standard with a 2D system.
Thanks.
Dealer has to order the med pressure parts and install which will take a couple of weeks.
We're expecting the next gen to be better on fuel than the F but who knows. As long as it's comparable it's fine with me.
Interesting thing is the cooling fans are all electric and one thing I really like is the ability to check the engine oil at ground level on the passenger side. No more climbing up and down, something to think about when you get older.
After having reduced swing machines for so long we're not interested in a conventional tail for our production hoes. If we had a dedicated pit machine or one feeding a crusher sure but not for what we do on a day to day basis.
I didn't see the "third" group (for tilt/rotate, or "grapple" to quote you) that you mentioned in your post with the photo. I see the ones that run down the front of the dipper (under the bucket ram), but on my 325, those are used for the bucket coupler. I'll see of I can find a photo showing this.
Thanks for that intel OxBow. We'll have to verify the oil dipstick on the new 325 to see if it has the same issue. Kinda bummed if it does.
Really like the auto shutdown feature on the newer machines. Idle time is a killer on the emissions system and the value of the machine. Like you (and I've done it too) we have to stop to discuss something or take a delivery and forget the machine has been idling for 15-20 mins.
Can you program it per operator profile or is it one setting? For instance when we are laying pipe the tractor might idle for 5-10 mins while the pipe layer is adjusting a manhole or checking grade and we don't want the machine to shut down. Just wondering if you could have operator profile Bob excavating and profile Bob pipe laying with different shut down times.
I love not having to climb the machine to check fluids as well. Good job Cat! One can also check hydraulic oil (same compartment as engine oil dipstick), and anti-freeze (same compartment as the battery disconnect) from the ground. You still have to climb it to fuel it though. The climb is better than my Deere 245G though. My engine oil dip stick does not collect oil in it so I have no issues checking the level. I woud think that one could easily do a field modification (bend it up slightly) to take care of this. At least one could on the 325NG, but I'm not familiar with the 330NG. I hope that your machine doesn't have excessive blow-by OxBow.
Machine auto-shut down is a feature that I like, but I have found some negatives as well. The machine will shut itself off after it goes through the "warm up cycle". I usually go start other machines, or go do paper work, set up laser, etc., while it goes through the warm up. If I get back to the machine after it has turned itself off, it often wants you to put it through the warm up cycle all over again. For sure, one has the option to cancel that request, but then I wonder if I may be harming the machuine by running it before it reaches operating temp (Which is what I was told by the Cat training rep who gave us the intro to the machine when it was delivered). I find this to be annoying. Furthermore, I do a lot of attachment swaps (hammer, crusher, ho-pac) and the machine will often shut down during the swap. I also find this a little bit annoying. First world problems for sure (LOL). OH!...My shut off timer is not operator specific, it's set for the machine regardless of which operator signs in.
On edit: My Deere 245G also has auto-shut off but, for some reason, it won't shut down from first start up. Maybe it "knows" not to during warm up?
