257b

[dbpropertymanagement]

I'm looking at buying a Cat 257B. The local dealer has a used unit that I'm interested in. Will this machine handle a pallet of sod or a pallet of landscaping rock?:confused: Moving landscaping materials and bush hogging are going to be my main uses for the machine. Any info would be greatly appreciated............

[ksss]

Not a lot of love for that machine on this site. It sounds like it would have easily life with what you have in mind. That is a bonus. How much? The machine is not reselling real well so be sure if you buy it to get the price to as low as you possibly can. You can compare similiar machines at Ironplanet.com for an idea on what others have sold for.

[dbpropertymanagement]

ill check it out.. thanks

[qps]

I'm looking at buying a Cat 257B. The local dealer has a used unit that I'm interested in. Will this machine handle a pallet of sod or a pallet of landscaping rock?:confused: Moving landscaping materials and bush hogging are going to be my main uses for the machine. Any info would be greatly appreciated............

Don't buy it...........

[ksss]

Don't buy it...........


Here I was trying to be fair and balanced by not bashing the machine, or suggesting he save his money and buy a CASE with it instead. Here comes a dyed in the wool CAT guy and former 257B owner throwing out all that love. I would have thought it was Valentines day.:dancing:


At the end of the day that is probably the best advice. Hopefully after touring Ironplant he will see the issues. If not, we will add an other member to the Anti MTL fan board in a year. By the way I am planning a convention next year in Rigby. I already have the pop up pictures done. It is awesome. You open the first page and there sits an MTL, the next page you open a pop out picture opens up showing your MTL in pieces and you at the CAT parts counter pulling out your pockets looking for more money. Great documentary.:cool2: Based on actual events, I swear.:drinkup: If I could just find a likness of BCRon the little book will be complete. He will be the guy at the parts counter. Of course it only needs to be a likeness, as BC RON will be in disguise, as so no one will know that his CAT has grenaded and he is buying parts. The Bobcat guys there would love to catch him at the parts counter.:nono:

[Scag48]

FWIW, the 257B is about the only pile Cat produced. I think the 277B's undercarriage is better built, the radial lift machines aren't running the standard 2 idlers and 1 elevated sprocket design. The 277's, from what I have seen, seem to hold up better. However, if used in the wrong application, Cat MTL's get chewed up quick. I beleive other CTL's would see the same abuse, but not on the same level.

[KPS]

Personnaly I think, if you run the p#ss out of any MTL/CTL you will incurr rediculous repair costs. Having run a T190 for 5 years I'm not convinced that it necessarily a tougher built machine than a 257B. The ride is terrible, loud, and those tracks only last 1000 hours anyways. I had to drive slower in the access ways between houses cause the vibrations would shake the foundation! I believe smoother is truly faster and you will feel much fresher at the end of the day running a suspended undercarrage machine, thats a fact!! You can't chew through gravel and rocks with the CAT system, so just don't do it:hammerhead: its that simple. I don't think its good for any CTL anyways. The series 2 changes to the undercarriage will no doubt adress the durability issues. I would much rather open my eyes and watch what I'm running over, than have my guts shaken out all day. I know you hate the 257 scag, but not everyone needs 80hp to get the job done for me 60 is plenty. One mor thing is not everyone has room for a large frame MTL, that 277 is a monster, for residential landscaping around here I see for more 247 & 257 machines than 277 or 297's. If you are working out in an open field than by all means bigger is better, but for landscaping you can get into far more tight spaces if you give up a little on power or lift capacity. The 257B's that ive run were not junk at all, the moment I ran one I was counting the days till I could get into one and out of the T190. As long as you operate it smart and don't let abusive operators touch it, it will serve its purpose, just like any other machine.:) Sorry for the rant but there are far more junky machnes than the 257B.

[Scag48]

Regardless of operation style, the 257's and 257B's, not the series IIs, were absolute garbage, ask ANYONE that had one and they hated it. If they said they loved it, they obviously weren't running it hard enough or didn't have enough hours on it. I wish you the best of luck with your series II and hope that Cat has it figured out with the new 257's, but the original 257's and the B's were complete junk from a reliability standpoint and they were completely gutless.

I'm a die hard Cat fan, but I will never support the A series or B series 257's, they were far from Cat standards.

[KPS]

I guess everyone feels differently about certain machine. maybe people don't wanna put down more cash for a bigger machine so they try to outwork a smaller one then say its got no power. Maybe these machines are not popular everywhere, but when you only got 7 feet between houses here in ontario, the 257 fits the bill nicely. I wish the MTL choices were as vast as the tire machines. Every manufacturer has a flaw in their machines, just buy one that best fits your application, and enjoy the fact that you will have to do less work with a hand shovel now that you have a machine.

[ksss]

Personnaly I think, if you run the p#ss out of any MTL/CTL you will incurr rediculous repair costs. Having run a T190 for 5 years I'm not convinced that it necessarily a tougher built machine than a 257B. The ride is terrible, loud, and those tracks only last 1000 hours anyways. I had to drive slower in the access ways between houses cause the vibrations would shake the foundation! I believe smoother is truly faster and you will feel much fresher at the end of the day running a suspended undercarrage machine, thats a fact!! You can't chew through gravel and rocks with the CAT system, so just don't do it:hammerhead: its that simple. I don't think its good for any CTL anyways. The series 2 changes to the undercarriage will no doubt adress the durability issues. I would much rather open my eyes and watch what I'm running over, than have my guts shaken out all day. I know you hate the 257 scag, but not everyone needs 80hp to get the job done for me 60 is plenty. One mor thing is not everyone has room for a large frame MTL, that 277 is a monster, for residential landscaping around here I see for more 247 & 257 machines than 277 or 297's. If you are working out in an open field than by all means bigger is better, but for landscaping you can get into far more tight spaces if you give up a little on power or lift capacity. The 257B's that ive run were not junk at all, the moment I ran one I was counting the days till I could get into one and out of the T190. As long as you operate it smart and don't let abusive operators touch it, it will serve its purpose, just like any other machine.:) Sorry for the rant but there are far more junky machnes than the 257B.

If there is a more junky machine than the 257B than the T190 would get my vote. I cant believe you kept it for 5 years. That must have been painful.

The 277 is wide. There is a CAT only excavation company here that has an 287B and aside from an unbelievable amount of track issues (there words not mine), trying to fit those machines in tight areas is expensive. One of their operators (I use the term loosely) removed the siding off of a house they were final grading. He could not see the outside edge of the tracks and they were desiding the house as he was grading along side it. Ouch.

I hope for you C series MTL guys that the new system has really been improved (I am not joking around I mean that). I know you read the brochures and you listen to the salesman doing what salesman do and you want to buy the machine so you buy into the talk of improvements. I don't know if they are improved. Well let me say I know they have made changes, but I don't know that they have been improved. Having a bunch of little wheels wrapped in rubber and putting them in the dirt just doesn't seem durable to me. Add to the special design of the tracks and the suspended nature of the system and your undercarriage is now very suseptible to damage and problems simply by an increase number of undercarriage components. The standard CTL tracks are only good for 1000 hours. I believe that to be true from everyone I have talked to and from what I have read. The difference is the other componenets on an MTL that may need replacing. The added costs of the CAT tracks is also an issue.

They need to be taken care of and you need to be charging accordingly. If your jobs require the special abilities of an MTL, than you have found your machine. If your jobs don't require an MTL and you want to buy CAT, go with a CAT skid steer with the VTS. The MTL's do things no one else in the CTL world can do. They just do it at a higher cost (based on past MTL platforms). However if your making good money with them, what the heck.

And thats all I have to say about that.:drinkup:

[KPS]

Well put KSSS:clapping:. The vibrations were a big issue for us and the suspended undercarriage fixed that for us. I wanted to give CASE a shot but they are too heavy for us to haul with our F250's and stay under our weight limit. They do make a great machine from what I've seen. If one machine was the best for everyone than what would we have to argue about on here:drinkup:

[bobcat_ron]

I'm looking at buying a Cat 257B. The local dealer has a used unit that I'm interested in. Will this machine handle a pallet of sod or a pallet of landscaping rock?:confused: Moving landscaping materials and bush hogging are going to be my main uses for the machine. Any info would be greatly appreciated............


Anyways..............I would steer clear of the older B models as they were a bit sluggish, the new B2 versions have updated hydraulics and drive motors as well as the easier to maintain undercarriage. The only way to find out if it's the right machine is try it out for yourself.

[Fieldman12]

I think there is hope for a suspended undercarriage but I am not sure we are yet there. From what i have seen the only way to go with a Cat is either with a skid steer or a skid steer with VTS installed.

[qps]

Personnaly I think, if you run the p#ss out of any MTL/CTL you will incurr rediculous repair costs. Having run a T190 for 5 years I'm not convinced that it necessarily a tougher built machine than a 257B. The ride is terrible, loud, and those tracks only last 1000 hours anyways. I had to drive slower in the access ways between houses cause the vibrations would shake the foundation! I believe smoother is truly faster and you will feel much fresher at the end of the day running a suspended undercarrage machine, thats a fact!! You can't chew through gravel and rocks with the CAT system, so just don't do it:hammerhead: its that simple. I don't think its good for any CTL anyways. The series 2 changes to the undercarriage will no doubt adress the durability issues. I would much rather open my eyes and watch what I'm running over, than have my guts shaken out all day. I know you hate the 257 scag, but not everyone needs 80hp to get the job done for me 60 is plenty. One mor thing is not everyone has room for a large frame MTL, that 277 is a monster, for residential landscaping around here I see for more 247 & 257 machines than 277 or 297's. If you are working out in an open field than by all means bigger is better, but for landscaping you can get into far more tight spaces if you give up a little on power or lift capacity. The 257B's that ive run were not junk at all, the moment I ran one I was counting the days till I could get into one and out of the T190. As long as you operate it smart and don't let abusive operators touch it, it will serve its purpose, just like any other machine.:) Sorry for the rant but there are far more junky machnes than the 257B.



Gotta chime in on this one...I bought a nice shiney 05 257B, first of all I don't use my loader everyday...heck hardly ever....I traded in that machine with 137hrs....yes 137hrs...and a stack of repair bills (warranty...thank god) for almost 10,000.00 dollars....if you got it in a little dirt or mud...I'm talking 6"...it didn't want to turn...good thing about it not turning is I never wore out the undercarriage..(that one was for you KSSS)...I know I probably ran the pizz out of it in those 137 hrs....:laugh:...I hear the B2 series are much much better...

[Tigerotor77W]

If one machine was the best for everyone than what would we have to argue about on here:drinkup:

Can you post this sentence every so often in every thread?

[KPS]

Can you post this sentence every so often in every thread?

HAHAHA Yeah you better believe it:hammerhead: I hope I get more than 137 hrs before I get a stack of repair bills. That situation seems eerily similar to what we went through with our T190, it sure puts a bad taste in your mouth when that happens on a brand spankin new machine. But the drive motors and metal face seals on the rollers and steel in the rear look very much improved over the B series.

[dbpropertymanagement]

will a 257B's hydraulics pick a 3300lb pallet of sod off the trailer and handle it well moving it into place?

[Scag48]

will a 257B's hydraulics pick a 3300lb pallet of sod off the trailer and handle it well moving it into place?

It won't get it off the trailer, but it could probably move it around once off the trailer.