This is what Caterpillar says is a perfectly screed

[milling_drum]

This operation I'm with flipped a 4ft wirtgen on monday. They had to completely bypass the local dealers and get after Nashville for the replacement parts because they know the deal all too well with these local fools. Even Nashville will drop the ball but two days in you will get a straight answer. Going direct is the only way to circumvent a week of BS because you will eventually wind up having to deal with the main product source soon anyways. The dealer makes a few pennies off initial contact and could give a rats @ss about production schedules of a customer which....about tells it like it is.

 

[milling_drum]

We need to have this conversation over at LinkedIn.com and see how those pretty pictured dealer managers react.

 

[stock]

Might wake up a few of them to the real world.............................................

 

[andoman]

Some of these "dealers" need to have their franchises taken away.

 

[GeoffD]

Have you talked to Cat directly or just threw the dealer?

 

[andoman]

Both, CAT corporate just sends lawyers and they get paid based on billable hours so they don't care. The problem is Cat corporate laid off all the engineers that knew what was going on.

 

[GeoffD]

So you haven't talked to the Cat Dealer Service Rep?

 

[andoman]

We have, then they bounce it to an engineer, then they bounce it to someone else, and on and on and on and on......dragging their feet for 12 months.

 

[csx7006]

Any new news yet? Hope it works out in the end

 

[GeoffD]

At this point I would call 411 and go right to Customer Service for Cat in Perior Ill and skip the dealer. If you talk to enough people at Cat you will get to the right one.

 

[andoman]

Ended up eating some crow and taking the settlement because corporate was determined to drag this thing out forever. Took the screed completely apart last weekend to find that every internal bolt on the screed was only hand tight, so we torqued everything up and replaced the plates and noses and that's working pretty good right now. What sucks is these are the things they should have checked from the beginning and we asked them to but they're smarter than us. Anyway, so right now we're gutting the electric heat electronics and installing the older style temp sensors, blocks, and switches so it will hopefully heat up unlike the "new" version. Once we get the heat done, the paver should work the way it should have from the beginning. I used to be a CAT guy but these issues we've had they've lost CAT about $500,000 in sales to date this year since we went to Deere and Hamm. Their loss not mine, I'll keep paving without them. All I can do is warn people about what has happened to us, you can take it as you will.

 

[d9gdon]

It's hard to fight Cat's lawyers, whether you're right or not.

I have found out the hard way that whoever has the most money usually wins the lawsuit.

Sorry to hear about the trouble you've had to endure. Betcha won't have to take a test next time it comes to a big purchase.

 

[GeoffD]

I feel this falls more on the dealer for not checking this stuff from the start. It sounds like the dealer took a stand, and maybe didn't give all the facts to Cat from the start. At the end of the day I feel the dealer was wrong, and wonder if they even communicated the correct message from Caterpillar at the start.

 

[Vern B]

Andoman

Curious if you were working with Jim Damron from Michigan Cat? I worked with Jim for a long time and
always found him to be responsive to customer needs and bend over backwards for his customers. Not sure
how much has changed since the takeover by McAllister, but Mich Cat was always responsive to customer needs.

It's unfortunate you had to go through this and are now buying other brands. It's always difficult for owners
to have an adverserial relationship with a dealer when you still have a lot of equipment that you have to have
serviced and buy parts for.

Hope the machine works out for you now.

 

[andoman]

Jim sits on his hands now, I don't think they let him make any calls anymore.

 

[Vern B]

That's unfortunate. Jim is a great guy and bent over backwards for my paving customers.

I'm hearing lots of things have changed for the worse since the takeover by McAllister.

Too bad!!

 

[Nige]

In my single experience with McAllister in Indiana a few years ago (we were buying a used loader out of their territory to ship to South America) to say I was unimpressed with their level of professionalism was the understatement of the year. As I was working for a large Cat mining dealer at the time I had a good comparison to work with.

 

[andoman]

You can say that again. They're basically refusing to sell me parts now because I sued them, so I've been ordering parts from Ohio CAT. That's fine, they missed out on a 8 ton vibratory roller, a 4 tone vibe, 2 back hoes, new lowboy trailer (micat sells them too), and a loader. I'm going Roadtec or Wirtgen next year when I start replacing pavers and I'm going Deere or Case for my dirt iron. I have to say the reason Cat always did well was because of service, now that they don't have service all they have is over priced iron.

 

[Tripowerpaving]

We've used Barber-Green pavers all throughout the 80s and a part of the 90s then we switched to Caterpillar with the buy out of Barber-Green but we've always used the Extend-A-Mat screeds because of the quality mat they laid and how ridged they were. I also want to say we've always purchased Caterpillar equipment and for the most part have always had a good experience and loved the machines and I still have a few million dollars in newer Cat iron in the yard today. However, having said that we bought a new 1055 last year with a new Extend-A-Mat 10-20 electric screed and have nothing but problems with it and Caterpillar is letting the local sales people (Michigan CAT/ Macallister CAT) and the corporate lawyers deal with the issue, which they're dragging their feet and trying to say the machine is operating within Caterpillars acceptable tolerances, all the while I'm stuck with a machine that is un-usable. So they monkey with it from time to time and this is what they say is acceptable in the pictures below. Please don't get me wrong the tractor is great, but I think the screed wasn't seated in the jig the right way when they welded it together. Every time they "fix" it the same thing happens it paves fine for 50 feet they a loud bang and the extensions start moving all over the place (vertically), please let me know what you guys think, I'm at wits end here, and thinking I should have bought a Roadtec with an Eagle screed, but this is our 10th or so CAT and we haven't really had any other problems until now. I personally think I'm caught in the middle of the lawyers bilking Caterpillar for billable hours, all while I loose money with a machine I can't use and people that have to sit home. Hopefully some of the higher ups at Cat read the board.

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I have p65 the screed extension broke first the hopper started eating its self bending the wings the did everything but fix it put new hoses and new breakers bent it back and repainted it this was down till about June we used it 3 times then my truck went down fords hole another topic but you can get someone to work on it 100 miles but that another sour story. The paver broke I called both guys at cat they told me the paver guy quit they did some skip payments but I couldn’t do anything with it and had to go back to using old one I never did pay them because they were supposed to give me 2 years on frame besides the engine from wieler rep I can’t move it they came out to fix they just gave me the run around with no support on new machine now I got letter from cat demanding all the money so guess it time for lawyers unless they give me money back

 

[Tripowerpaving]

They came out the

I have p65 the screed extension broke first the hopper started eating its self bending the wings the did everything but fix it put new hoses and new breakers bent it back and repainted it this was down till about June we used it 3 times then my truck went down fords hole another topic but you can get someone to work on it 100 miles but that another sour story. The paver broke I called both guys at cat they told me the paver guy quit they did some skip payments but I couldn’t do anything with it and had to go back to using old one I never did pay them because they were supposed to give me 2 years on frame besides the engine from wieler rep I can’t move it they came out to fix they just gave me the run around with no support on new machine now I got letter from cat demanding all the money so guess it time for lawyers unless they give me money back

first time to my house that when the extension fell out from under but haven’t seen anyone since I had it there for half the summer guess I will see what they say when I call Monday