What I did with a Cat 420D on my summer vacation

[gordyo]

Here is a few shots of the project I did up in the Adirondacks last week. This was at the camp that the college I work for owns. They rented a Cat 420 D and had me drive up from Mass. to operate it. We installed 2 55' telephone poles for the high ropes course. The Cat was a we bit different than the JD 310G I operate most of the time but everything went fine thanks to the ability to switch the pilot controls pattern from Cat Excavator mode to JD Backhoe mode! I would have been lost without that.

[Cat420]

How did the 420 compare to the Deere for power, balance, and overall design? I have nothing but good to say about ours, but I often wonder how it actually compares with a Deere, since I've never run one.

[gordyo]

Well, this is only my opinion:

Cat has automatic stabilizer raise which is really nice, better window latch mechanisms so opening and closing the windows is much easier except for the rear window on both machines The rear window on both Deere and Cat are too hard to operate in my opinion. The Pilot Towers move together with one lever on the Cat which is real nice, Deere are seperate . I also liked the fact that the front bucket of the Cat does not have the center hydraulic piston in the middle of your view.

Deere seems to have better visability and more room in the cab and operator comfort is better. Everytime I swung the seat in the Cat to run the backhoe on the Cat the seat or my knee would hit something and I would have to grab the lever and make the seat go back and then swing around to the backhoe posistion and readjust the seat. It does not do this in the Deere.

Deere has an electric switch to go from Excavator mode to Backhoe mode in the cab, Cat has a lever that you have to unbolt to change the pattern outside near the rear wheel.

All in all this is all minor stuff and I am fine running either machine. Both seem to have similar power.

[Dozerboy]

Both seem to have similar power.

And the 420 is a step bigger than the 310 the 310s equal is the Cat 416. I agree 100% with you, but you must have had a quick attach front bucket to switch out to forks, because all the other Cats have the single hydraulic piston in the center.

[CascadeScaper]

Yep, IT has 2 cylinders, standard configuration has 1 center bucket cylinder like Deere.

[Dusty]

nice pics

[gordyo]

Well that would explain the lack of a middle piston in my view on the Cat. This machine did have the quick coupler on it and I think I actually remember seeing IT up on the top of the Cab after the 420D. Anyway it was a great machine and I would have no problem running it again if asked to.