Question about these motors. I haven't had much exposure to these motors but it seems that these are the desirable motors to have in big rigs and all sorts of heavy equipment. Why is that? Or is it personal preference?

 

It is mostly personal preference. There are far better and more reliable engines out there for OTR trucks. Hence part of the reason that CAT is getting out of the truck engine market.

As far as off road, coming from a lot of years working on various equipment, I can tell you that CAT guys are a lot like Ford guys. You can tell them, demo to them, and flat out outperform their CAT gear, but they still believe its the best.

The best thing that I have seen out of CAT. Is their ability to get parts to the customer in a reasonable time. I suppose that you would have to be pretty experienced with it, to be that efficient.

Before this turns in to a total rant. CAT has made some good stuff, and had some good designs. However, with their engines generally using more fuel per hour than anyone else's, plus the cost of parts and repairs, I generally advise against their products. And I will only work on their stuff, if someone is in a bind. Otherwise, call a CAT mechanic.

That is just my experience, I could go on for days with the deficiencies I have seen in their OTR engines, but I'll hold off.

 

Ditto, You could hand the Cat guy his **** on a silver platter with another product and he'd still swear up and down how much better the yellow engine is.

From working on Cat products a lot at my job, for the most part they are a pretty good product, no denying that. Although I have run into some downright silly designs that I'm pretty sure the engineer in Peoria designed to frustrate the mechanics.


And like pind said, getting parts is pretty good although I swear that they tint that yellow paint with gold, those parts are spendy.

 

out of personal exp. cat engine work hard and last but they suck fuel and that yellow paint seems to make the parts expensive. I would wanna be an owner-operator of one but they are great fleet engines. Cummins is middle ground on power, fuel mileage and parts price. Detroit get good fuel econ cheap parts but lacks good power. up till recent the s60 was only a 12.7L vs the cat and Cummins that had 15L engines. tell me which one is gonna have an easier time making 500hp 12.7L or 15L??

 

I have seen a lot of S60 that are 500HP and going on for the second million! I really like Cummins and Cat, but if I was going to drive OTR it would be a Detriot and a 13spd.
DS79

 

On our farm we have a Cat 3126, a 24 valve 8.3 Cummins and an IH DTI-466 all in about equal sized tractor's. The Cat is a hard running engine and isn't too bad on fuel but a replacement engine is almost three times what the IH costs to reman and twice what the Cummins cost. Cat parts and sevice has been very good but there's not nearly as much aftermarket stuff for them as say the IH but that's partly due to being a newer engine. Here are some video's of all three brands running in the field.

Here's the Cummins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yAWmqOPw04

Here's the Cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF9ONLWYFo4

And the IH.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvxt_F4Nwug

 

We have three cats, two in dump trucks and one in a garbage truck, all three of them are underpowered and like diesel a lot. The reason Cat is no longer making highway engines is they did not want to mess with the emissions regulations. Only 10% of their total sales world wide was high way truck engines so they saw no loss buy cutting that market.
I might be a little biased having been a Cummins mechanic but you can get a lot of power out of a N-14 or the newer ISX engines. Cat has always in my opinion been like chevy, they need more displacement to make the same amount of power as every one else does out of smaller engines.

 

hey, do you like them hub duals, i one with snapon duals and i think i'm gonna get hub duas instead (weight reason)

 

Source for the reason? With ACERT I would question the reason you post.

Also...2007 Total sales was $44.958 billion (3.5 b in profit). So I think the second part of your reason is a bit off too. Or are you telling me that Cat would see "no loss" if they cut 4.4 billion? I think not. More than likely you are confusing sales with percentage of new engine distribution.

2007

9% Truck
11% Marine
15% Industrial
30% Electric Power
35% Petroleum

Of course you realize that Cat sells more than engines right?

 

ran an 04 379 pete dual turbo 600 hp 18 spd bull waon it would run tripple digits loaded and get descent mileage 3:36 rears but the yellow paint adds to part cost. most cats seem to like diesel but they have been around. all my big trucks run cummins and get descent mileage. reputation is probably the main reason just like detroit has a bad rep from their older motors

 

Actually, I liked the ACERT series engines with the twins. Great idea. in fact, I have found over time, that if the turbos don't grenade, they just fall off anyway. But, at least they are consistent.

 

I had a truck at work with an ACCERT C15 in it. The big turbo lost its seals and was dumoing oil into the motor. Was a pain in the **** to replace those turbos. took a lot of extensions and swearing to get the moff and even more to get them back on. Not to mention the $3500 price tag to do it.
DS79

 

CAT has decided not to pursue the big truck motor market after 2010 due to the emmission requirements was posted in one of my overdrive issues

 

From what I've read they are just getting out of the highway truck engine market, thanks to our lovely epa. Look it up. Read in several sources that CAT didn't want ot comply with 2010 emmisions. I will bet they will produce the crap out of 09 engines for glider kits & repowers. CAT do seem to suck more fuel than the other big 2, but imo the pull harder down low than either Cummins or Detroit. Parts are a little higher but so is resale value vs a truck with Cummins or Detroit. Same with CAT heavy equipment resale value is alot higher than say Komatsu. We bought a brand new Liebeherr 622 track loader for less than you can buy a used CAT in the 45k pound range for. Glad to , like the joystick controls vs the pedal steer.

 

Cat C15.