Is the engine bay that much smaller on the 289? I think everything is easily accessible in my engine bay. Oil and all filters are super easy to change. Much better than the Deere I had or the Bobcat. Do you like the 289 other than that? The engineer that decided were the drains go never cleaned a machine.
@@theMTNman Oh yeah its more tighter than the 299. Other than that for what I use it mainly for, mulching, the performance is excellent for its size class
The majority of this stuff is creature comfort. I guess I understand considering the amount these things are going for now, but I've just never cared about anything like "hydraulic noise" or cupholders or whatever. With that said......... 2 comments. #1, I think CAT is the premier brand all things considered. Quality, availability, and network are the type of things you never care about until they are gone. CAT has consistently done those things right, which allows them to charge a premium for their equipment. #2, my absolute biggest complaint is the obvious intent of difficult engineering. I think that when they designed the entire CTL lineup, they purposely made it difficult to do more complicated maintenance. I'm one of those guys that doesn't let anybody touch my machines other than me. My DPF needed a complete flush in my 289, so I went to yank it off. Turns out you have to remove the motor to get the DPF off, which requires you to unbolt the hydraulic pump. Should be simple right????? No, the bolts holding the hydraulic pump on require a special access tool (basically a torque adapter for 12 point metric). There is zero requirement for that, you could easily space those bolts 6 inches further apart to access with a normal ratchet. Same thing with the DPF. You know for a fact you will have to clean the DPF at some point, but you position it such that you have to remove the radiator and intercooler?? The whole thing makes me want to find the engineering team and do bad things.
Thanks for watching and I appreciate your comments. I agree about difficult engineering, much of this new technology is junk and they seem to try to engineer things so only a factory mechanic with their equipment and software can work on it. I do feel that the CAT is way easier to work on and maintain than the T300 or JD; however, I haven't looked at my DPF. You definitely have me curious because once out of warranty I do pretty much all my repairs.
I bought the 299d3xe and my brother bought the 259d3. I open up my machine and pressure wash it out as much as possible to get out the silt. I have had tractors hardlines rust out a hole from silt packed around them. Well brother's machine works in really dusty conditions regularly and the dirt built up under his oil pan. It rubbed a little hole in it and now he has to repair it. Just wanted to throw that out there if it will help someone else.
Where I work there's a 299d to it doesn't ever lose any coolant and we use on some pretty rough terrain pushing it to its limits I'm amazed it stays on its tracks and through all that it never loses a drop of coolant
I just got a new 299d3 the paint job is horrendous they missed all the harder to reach spots on the arms. Brand new machine rust lines running down it everywhere. Such a joke. Love the machine other then that but really piss me off after paying 140k Canadian.
I get quite a few comments for basically a 299D3 channel but this is the MOST shocking. I don't think I've ever mentioned the paint on mine, but I am extremely impressed with it and notice how thick it is almost every time I use it. I was running it yesterday and trying to figure out a method of filling the chips to bring them up to top coat level so I could apply touch up paint. That's why I'm so shocked by your comment. Yours should be painted just as good as mine and clearly it's not. Please contact your dealership and show them the issues. My dealership took care of me on a set of tracks that were destroyed at around 300-400 hours and they should definitely take care of you on a botched paint job. I would be happy to send you close up pics of the areas on mine that I have chipped the paint so you can see what the thickness should be. Let me know if I can help.
@@theMTNman ya it’s ridiculous I emailed cat directly after telling the salesman I wasn’t happy. They sent a email saying they take all these concerns very serious and will get back to me well that was 3 weeks ago. Clearly not to big of a concern to them. I just ordered a 8 ton excavator it was a toss between the cat 308 and the kubota kx080. When cat never replied it was a no brainer new orange hoe should be here in a few weeks.
That's so disappointing to hear. My salesman worked with CAT to remedy my track issue, I think the dealership is key. I'm looking at an excavator and the only reason I will get a CAT is my dealership, they have been extremely supportive. The smaller CAT's are made in PRC which I'm not a fan of, if they were made in USA it would be a no brainer. Kubota would probably be my next choice but I'm not sure where they are made. I hope the Kubota works out for you and I encourage you to keep communicating with your dealership to get your paint issues addressed. Walk the yard with them and compare the paint job on your machine to what they have on site, and maybe both parties will have a better understanding of what is going on. Have them take pictures and send them to CAT. Hopefully if you aren't having unreasonable expectations and there is clearly a difference in quality, they will address it. These machines cost more than my house, so you would hope for good quality control.
That should of never passed QC, they have auditors that have to sign off on the paint and all the steps thru out the assembly. My line i had 12 auditors just for paint inspection. That wasn’t including the final finished machine audit.
I know it’s a bit late but we have a 259 cat and yah the machine will setup when you life something heavy but once you get past that and get used to it doing that it’s actually really stable.
I run A 299D3 XE for work. That "muddy spot" is not caused by your coolant. It is actually the Condensation dripping off of the AC line directly above it.
I would agree if it only happened when I'm running the AC. As you said the AC lines, and everything beneath them is covered in a muddy film on hot dusty days when the AC is on. Thanks for watching.
I agree I noticed because the lines are just Dusty well I mean muddy cuz they're nice and cold unlike my engine the one I run overheats quite often I have not figured it out yet
First 100 hours on my 299D3 XE Land Management and I agree it tips forward especially on a small down hill grade with my mulching head on it. My questions are does anyone feel like the front door is very cheap and flimsy? I wipe the windshield off with paper towels and my wife said my hand was coming out the bottom. I can stick my whole hand out the bottom of door. Also I only get one station on the radio. Anyone have problems with the radio?
That's a roomy cab to not have a cup holder. Without the adapter mine will barely hold a skinny can, sometimes I wonder what these engineers are thinking. They should have an operator on their left and a mechanic on their right when they are designing a machine and then you might get a machine that's easy to work on and designed with the operator in mind.
Cat excavators are great with plenty of technology and engineering but the skid steers are the opposite stuck in time, bad engineering and no advancement. I recommend John Deere skid steers. 😊😊😊
Yeah I really don't like the cup holder and I'm either can only fit a 16 oz water bottle in there I cannot fit my coffee cup in there if you don't have a fire extinguisher though you have to package with the fire extinguisher holder you can get it 40 oz and nalgene bottle with a source tactical hydration straw
I see Stowers is your dealer, they are mine also. I’m in southeast TN. Did your suit come with the hose coupler guard on the arms?? I have a 289D3 XE high flow, haven’t used it much because its at our 2nd home land. So seeing a few of your Videos have been helpful.
Yes, the XE model in the 299 comes as shown on the video. Thanks for watching. I started making these videos because I didn't feel there was enough info out there when I purchased mine. All I could find was rigged Bobcat and JD videos. I'm glad you find them helpful.
@@theMTNman yea, i ran the paint department in the largest Cat facility in the US before retiring, and i agree i think the technical information is limited, we (Cat) need to catch up with the times and do more across the internet. Decided i only need a track-loader when i retired and not a mining large wheel loader or anything of that size. LOL But it sure was fun playing with those monsters.
Neat video love to see the stowers sticker I’m a mechanic at the chatt store. Also It shouldn’t be pushing coolant out any overheating or overheating codes?
@@theMTNman I worked on a 259 a while ago was pushing compression out the head gasket pressurizing coolant system causing it to overflow and push coolant out but it would overheat after a while. If you run it hot and take the cap off the expansion tank and look in the tank and see air bubbles you know head gasket is leaking compression.
Wow, I really appreciate the info. Thankful you watched my video. After responding to you, I remembered I have thrown an overheat code while running BRX418. Muddy engine compartment from spillover is a regular thing when I'm running hard in hot weather. I'm going to look for bubbles! The machine is awesome and Stowers has taken good care of me.
