cat series differences?

[Tigerotor77W]

Aha... interesting information.

I'll be careful to the scraper ready before climbing any hills...

 

[Burnout]

Hi, Burnout.
Dunno what's goin' on with yours but our 943's are mostly nudging 20 years or more and they ALL stop promptly when you put the trans control back in Park. Just like stomping on the center pedal. Ditto our 2 x 953's. And my boss is NOT exactly renowned for his prompt and meticulous attention to maintenance details - if I may be so polite. LOL.

Maybe it's just the way we run our babies then. Our track loader man, and the guys from Cat have all said that what we do is not reccomended for track loaders. Long pushes aren't easy on em, and we are always beating the crap out of them. I am starting a new subdivision this week which means lots of services so I will be able to fire up the old 973 Cam and show you gentlemen what I mean about a hard life.

 

[Deas Plant]

Hard use.

Hi, Burnout.
We use our 943's and 953's fairly hard too, some moderately long pushing, within the confines of the house pad, and a LOT of pulling back from banks and batters and out of tight corners. A LOT of our trim cutting is done in reverse too 'cos we use spreader bars and it's a lot easier to control their cut while cutting backwards. Our tracks probably still outlast what we might get if we were using them for loading only 'cos there's less sharp turning involved.

 

[Burnout]

Hi, Burnout.
We use our 943's and 953's fairly hard too, some moderately long pushing, within the confines of the house pad, and a LOT of pulling back from banks and batters and out of tight corners. A LOT of our trim cutting is done in reverse too 'cos we use spreader bars and it's a lot easier to control their cut while cutting backwards. Our tracks probably still outlast what we might get if we were using them for loading only 'cos there's less sharp turning involved.

Our workload for a 73 is pretty bad. Today I was opening up the double ditch mainline for services. So instead of pushing my dirt off the pile I sit in the hole and dig it out of the wall, so I spent 11hrs of the day side loading my bucket time after time. I do no back dragging... I can't stand it. The 73 doesnt have that nice square lip on the backside of the bucket like the smaller models do so we can't back drag, we will rake backwards with the teeth but thats about it. For us we spend lots of time counter rotating to turn around in the narrow ditch which is brutal on the undercarriage. I am just hitting the 6000hr mark on my unit and I need sprocket segments which onl have about 1500hrs on them and their frigged, my chains are done, the pads are wearing thin, and the bushings have all been turned and are squared off on 3 sides. My bucket also needs to be removed so that it can be shimmed, new pins and new seals, and they'll probably weld the big bucket extensions on her since she is off warranty, and I have asked for clean out chains. But thats all happening this winter, so until then I have to make my undercarriage last. Today we noticed my tensioner on the right side seems to be slacking off, in 300hrs it went from a nice 2" droop to almost 6" today.