Ive never ran a zero tail swing machine before, but what is the main downside to them vs say a 320 or 323 in your opinion? Obviously you work in tight quarters a lot, but if a guy ran a 325 clearing trees, loading trucks, demo, etc is there a big drawback to them?
My 245G has great balance...a lot better than I expected. I often run a 5500# breaker on it (weighs 5,000#) and that's a bigger hammer than what might be recommended for a 20tn hoe (i.e. a 320 or 323) and it handles it no problem. I also run a 48" wide, 1.25 yard bucket (and our soils are
not light) which it also handles well. The zero tails have the boom mounted farther back into the superstructure (which also helps to give it a tighter radius on the front), and they generally are heavier than comparable conventional hoes which both serve to counter the lack of counterbalance leverage. As an example, a Cat 323 (as it is commonly set up for my area) will weigh about 56k# and my Deere 245G (which is comparable to a Cat 325) weighs about 60k#.
I love working the machine as I don't have to worry about my a$$ hitting things when I swing. Coming from a Cat 315 I feel that I can do way more work in even tighter areas than the 315 could.
I think AZ hit the nail on the head when he talked about service headaches. My 245G only has about 1,800 hours on it so we haven't had to do any significant repairs yet. It is a pain to do normal services when compared to a conventional tail machine. The dealer had to R&R the turbo under warranty a while back. I didn't look to hard from my perspective (which was at a fair distance
). The other draw back is the cab. Most of them have smaller cabs and/or cab entry than a conventional hoe (though the Cat 325 next gen claims the same cab as the conventional). My 245G definitely has a smaller cab than a 210 but I don't find it difficult to live with (accept the seat is not as comfortable as my 315 seat). There is no room for a lunch box or water jug in the 245. On that note there is no room for anything on the 245 for anything (i.e. tools, spare teeth, grease gun, etc.). On my 315 I have a box under the step that has wrenches, spare teeth and keepers, a 2# hammer, a grease gun, etc.) and I have other areas to keep an extra gallon of oil, anti-freeze, and a couple of lifting straps.