John, unfortunately I don't have that much pull with them as I only run 1 D8 these days.Times have changed on our shores.They do show interest until it comes to pricing,then it's often the same old story.
Quality come at a cost is the sort of line,however, clearly it comes at a greater cost than Esco in this case.
I'm not saying their quality is not up to the job,it's just too expensive per hour.
Will Cat cutting edges really last twice as long as MST?,I don't know yet,but I doubt it,but they'll need to if they want to be financially equal to MST.
As for tracks,in 30 years of D4 to D8 ownership,I've never been impressed with Cat hourly costs.In saying all that,I've only run them in mixed clays and soils etc,never had a D8 dedicated to one job,such as the sandstone I'm in now.I've always convinced myself that Cat must be so expensive simply because it comes into its own on D8 size upwards in real tough conditions,but I'm not so sure these days.........
The fact is,the ITR shank tector lasts longer than the Cat tector,and the MST Easco tip lasts longer than the Cat tip in my particular application,then when you also take the price into consideration,Cat looses the race by a country mile.
