Cat OEM General Duty vs Heavy Duty CTL Tracks

[Bestweld]

It's time for tracks for a 259D3, so I was at the Cat dealer today and got a quote.

They are running a deal on their 'general duty' that includes the labor for installing them for about $1400.00 less than the 'heavy duty' block pattern, tracks only, which came on the machine originally.

Reading the brochure from cat it is obvious that these are intended to be at a price point to contend with aftermarket and they last for less hours than the 'heavy duty', but how many hours less? https://www.kellytractor.com/eng/pr...e/Rubber-Track/CTL-General-Duty-FAQ-Sheet.pdf

I have read about people getting 1200 to 1500 out of the OEM Bridgestone heavy duty tracks, does anybody have any first hand experience with the general duty? How many hours are people getting out of them?

I personally like the block pattern better, but for the money, I would use the other.

I currently use the machine on dirt only, for dirt work, building pads for metal building slabs. I do not put a lot of hours on a machine. I had a 236B3 that I put ~500 hrs on in 5 years. Although the hours/year may increase, because my son is wanting to start trying to get some other work with it. I'm in Texas, so no need for traction in snow and currently don't really work in the mud.

 

[Bestweld]

No one has used a set of general duty "caterpillar" tracks?

 

[ozarkag]

We sell OE Bridgestone, but seems the only people that request those are the commercial operators that have it down to dollars per hour. Or maybe simply want the best. Most customers are happy with a premium aftermarket track. I have no experience with those Cat ones, be interesting to know who makes them.

 

[Reuben Frazier]

Look up The Trax Guy, you can save some cash and his tracks are top notch. The blocks will last a lot longer but the Z bars have better traction by a pretty good amount. Personally I like the Bar’s better overall though. You can see 1200-1500 on his blocks and around 1000 on the bars which is about the same as the OEM’s.

 

[Bestweld]

I appreciate it Reuben.

 

[CM1995]

We sell OE Bridgestone, but seems the only people that request those are the commercial operators that have it down to dollars per hour. Or maybe simply want the best. Most customers are happy with a premium aftermarket track. I have no experience with those Cat ones, be interesting to know who makes them.

The OEM tracks on our 279D's are Bridgestone. The second set on our oldest 279 from Cat are also Bridgestone.

I've ran CTL's for 20 years and the Bridgestone tracks outlast all the rest and I've probably tried them all over the years.

OP I've seen the same offer from our dealer but for our operation I'd go with the HD version. You should be fine with the cheaper version if you're only putting 100 hours a year on a machine.

Whichever track you decide to go with replace the sprocket segments as well. New tracks need new segments. If you don't replace the segments the worn segments will accelerate the wear on the T-bones in the track.