Had a 262C, Cat wheeled machine also before we got into the Cat tracked machines. Was a good machine except for - hydraulic pump imploding at 50 hours, oil pan crack at 300 hours and this was due to (I kid you not) work orders comment was "engine set down hard during assembly" and then engine frying at 310 hours due to Cat mechanic installing new oil pan incorrectly, at least that is what they said. Somehow, during the oil pan assembly....and I'm no mechanic, it was done incorrectly and the motor starved. Those of you that are mechanics would probably understand more about what went wrong. You would think I would have learned... not saying that all Cat's are bad, but there is a huge variation in the good and bad. So far, out of 4 Cat machines, I've had 4 bad Cat experiences. From what little I've been around Bobcat, seems they have a little better grasp on making the skid steer thing work. One positive I have liked about Cat....is there is room around the engine, although not much, and the radiators are easy to get to and clean out.
