Scag48
05-11-2009, 05:31 PM
Hey all, thought I'd share an interesting story. Dad threw the trencher on the 216 a few weeks back to do some trenching which didn't work out very well. Trencher hadn't been used since last season, but as far as I know, it worked fine when he last used it. Turns out, the trencher, even in very favorable digging conditions would stall out and shut off flow when encountering any sort of load. I've ran in it the past, you can get into rocks and the thing will keep spinning no problem, it'll just hop around on the rocks if the going gets tough. Now, in sweet topsoil that should be easy digging, sink it about a foot deep and it straight up stops spinning.
Okay, so going by what I was told, I figured it would be a relief valve on the machine kicking out somewhere. The hydraulic system filter was due for a change, swapped it out with no change in performance. Dad decided instead of tearing into the machine, he'd rather send it down to Cat to have it looked at.
As it turns out, the trencher itself was the culprit. I would've bet $1,000 on this issue being machine related given the way it was acting. From what I'm being told, the techs slapped another trencher on the machine and it dug just fine. Who would've guessed? The trencher is my dad's only continuous flow attachment so testing it on another attachment at the shop wasn't doable. The time spent getting it down to Cat and having it looked at was worthwhile.
From here, I'm not sure what the best option is. I haven't yet had a chance to discuss options with my dad about what to do with the damn thing. Service dept. called my dad and told him it was going to be "expensive" to fix, I'm not really sure what that means exactly. I think he gave $4500 for it about 4 years ago when it was new, the unit has about 150 hours on it, it's in excellent shape as a whole. I'm also trying to figure out how a trencher just grenades, doesn't seem to me that there's a whole lot involved with spinning that sprocket to run the chain so I'm not really sure how it could work one day and not the next. The real issue is that it's worth nothing when it doesn't run worth a damn so it's not like my dad could part ways without losing his @$$ on the thing. That and I'm not sure if the service boys can give us an estimate to fix the thing, sounds like it'll be T&M deal to fix it which really makes it hard to decide which route to take; scrap it or keep it. For my dad, it's one of those attachments that doesn't get used all the time, but when you need it, you need it. He may look at renting a trencher from here on out and getting rid of this pig entirely, but we haven't completely hammered out the details.
What's more irritating is the fact that with only 150 hours on the unit, it does not run. Thanks for producing an excellent attachment, Cat. Without a doubt my dad will no longer purchase Cat attachments given this lack of acceptable service life.
Any opinions on a route to take? If a machine goes down, fix it, it makes you nothing while it's sitting. However, it's tough to want to spend a wad on an attachment that sees little use but is in good shape overall.
Okay, so going by what I was told, I figured it would be a relief valve on the machine kicking out somewhere. The hydraulic system filter was due for a change, swapped it out with no change in performance. Dad decided instead of tearing into the machine, he'd rather send it down to Cat to have it looked at.
As it turns out, the trencher itself was the culprit. I would've bet $1,000 on this issue being machine related given the way it was acting. From what I'm being told, the techs slapped another trencher on the machine and it dug just fine. Who would've guessed? The trencher is my dad's only continuous flow attachment so testing it on another attachment at the shop wasn't doable. The time spent getting it down to Cat and having it looked at was worthwhile.
From here, I'm not sure what the best option is. I haven't yet had a chance to discuss options with my dad about what to do with the damn thing. Service dept. called my dad and told him it was going to be "expensive" to fix, I'm not really sure what that means exactly. I think he gave $4500 for it about 4 years ago when it was new, the unit has about 150 hours on it, it's in excellent shape as a whole. I'm also trying to figure out how a trencher just grenades, doesn't seem to me that there's a whole lot involved with spinning that sprocket to run the chain so I'm not really sure how it could work one day and not the next. The real issue is that it's worth nothing when it doesn't run worth a damn so it's not like my dad could part ways without losing his @$$ on the thing. That and I'm not sure if the service boys can give us an estimate to fix the thing, sounds like it'll be T&M deal to fix it which really makes it hard to decide which route to take; scrap it or keep it. For my dad, it's one of those attachments that doesn't get used all the time, but when you need it, you need it. He may look at renting a trencher from here on out and getting rid of this pig entirely, but we haven't completely hammered out the details.
What's more irritating is the fact that with only 150 hours on the unit, it does not run. Thanks for producing an excellent attachment, Cat. Without a doubt my dad will no longer purchase Cat attachments given this lack of acceptable service life.
Any opinions on a route to take? If a machine goes down, fix it, it makes you nothing while it's sitting. However, it's tough to want to spend a wad on an attachment that sees little use but is in good shape overall.