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Conexpo 2026
- Thread starter CM1995
- Start date
CM1995
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Toured the Festival Grounds yesterday after spending Thursday inside hitting the various booths on our list
The Cat demo was impressive as always.
VA Cat 325 with tiltarotator. Never given much thought to a VA boom before however I'd like to demo one.
Some trackloader love as well - 963 Next Gen with Fusion coupler and dozer blade. Personally I'd drop the blade and pick the bucket up they had back there.
Big Volvo quad axle -
The Cat demo was impressive as always.
VA Cat 325 with tiltarotator. Never given much thought to a VA boom before however I'd like to demo one.
Some trackloader love as well - 963 Next Gen with Fusion coupler and dozer blade. Personally I'd drop the blade and pick the bucket up they had back there.
Big Volvo quad axle -
Acoals
Senior Member
Looks like a gimmick fest; drone on the roof, really cool big chains in the back window, giant tow hooks.
Basically it looks like a group of 12 year old boys put their heads together . . .
@CM1995 the reason they showed the 963 w/ coupler and blade is one of Cat’s customers out in Colorado is a big user of them and has been featured on Cat’s social media a few times. I think that customer may even use Grade Control too.
We’ve put a coupler on one 963 for a customer but most of ours stick with a normal bucket. New trackloaders aren’t big sellers for us but we have lots of customers with older ones especially the C model ones.
As far as the 325 with VAB and tilt rotator those are two very common Euro features Cat is heavily promoting for adoption in the states. Currently the wheeled excavators (another Euro thing they love) are the ones you see commonly with the VAB but the options have existed for the tracked excavators for a while- you see them in SIS
I’m going to a class on the tilt rotators in April to learn about servicing them.
We’ve put a coupler on one 963 for a customer but most of ours stick with a normal bucket. New trackloaders aren’t big sellers for us but we have lots of customers with older ones especially the C model ones.
As far as the 325 with VAB and tilt rotator those are two very common Euro features Cat is heavily promoting for adoption in the states. Currently the wheeled excavators (another Euro thing they love) are the ones you see commonly with the VAB but the options have existed for the tracked excavators for a while- you see them in SIS
I’m going to a class on the tilt rotators in April to learn about servicing them.
Track loaders and backhoes both seem to be a way of the past. Here it seems why should we have a cdl and real truck when a mini an ctl will do it. Till the rock shows its self. Then the wanta bes are in a pickle
They have their markets and customers. Not huge ones but they are in their niches.
Cat runs two production lines for the trackloaders- Thailand and Germany. I don’t know if they are more popular in Europe right now but it’s a possibility.
Cat runs two production lines for the trackloaders- Thailand and Germany. I don’t know if they are more popular in Europe right now but it’s a possibility.
MFM Truck&Equipment
Active Member
hvy 1ton
Senior Member
Stutsman Gerbaz seems to order every excavator they can with a VA boom recently. It makes a ton of sense on reduced radius machines where being able to tuck in the bucket more is the difference between being able to swing around or not. The ability to work effectively up tight to the machine is just a bonus. They also use a lot of Nox tiltrotators because there are no tilt cylinders to worry about while trenching.
(screencap shamelessly borrowed from buildwitt's youtube.
Stutsman uses an Oilquick coupler on their fancy 963. I think every one of their 963s, including at least one 963C has GPS.
dayexco
Senior Member
i've been there 3 times, how would you like to have the mobe/demobe money put out to get that equipment there and back. forget the labor to set the cranes up, etc.
dayexco
Senior Member
they just take a Ford and put in cat drivetrain?
CM1995
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Yeah I've seen the 963 video a few times. IRRC it was one of the first trackloaders to run auto GPS?
Speaking of 315's - Cat introduced it's replacement the 319.
Cat also had a concept grapple bucket. Interesting enough I got a quote from Rockland at the show the day before for a similar bucket then saw this one at the Cat demo.
This one is on a 320.
Welder Dave
Senior Member
12 years Olds are better than 6 year olds. There is a Cyb
12 year olds are better than memory from 6 years old. Probably be just as a big a seller as the well thought out contraption (cough cough) known as a Cybertruck!
hvy 1ton
Senior Member
I don't know what the price difference is currently, but I was very impressed with the AMI Graptor bucket I got to play with a couple years ago. The newer ones don't use a helical actuator, but some fancy geometry to keep the cylinders completely protected.
https://www.amiattachments.com/product/graptor-demolition-grapple-ramcam/?carrier-id=264
I swear I'm not an AMI salesman.
Cmark I didn't see an electric drive D8 but they had an electric drive D6 in the demo.
I saw this teaser on IG and was hoping for some more...
I saw this teaser on IG and was hoping for some more...
oldtom
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but old you can fixI don't know, it would probably just make me drool that I couldn't afford a brand new state of the art machine and I have to soldier on with my worn out old crap.