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Rank: Advanced Member
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Exactly how ours are! I think only one of them has all original glass (this being the newest of 10), and the one that lives in the fine ore bin has none of the original in it (nobody listens about not getting under the drop point).
It's really irritating that such an expensive machine has so many little annoyances like that in it. I can't remember which one it was, but one even had a side window fall out while they were putting it together!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Rexford Montana & Sparwood BC
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They've been quite reliable for us.I think we have 5 of them now,but they are mostly working on the spoils,so they don't get tested to hard.The only change I'd like to see,is a cage protecting the LH cab slider window,and LH door window.Which would give the operator some protection in the event of a tire failure on a haultruck.
IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE...
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Rank: Member
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Location: Ky
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At the job I'm currently working on, they have 1 D10T. Low hours, still smells new.
Why I post is to ask if you guys have had that aftercooler update done. CAT came in a took that thing down to the frame rails, replaced a bunch of stuff. Apparently there just wasn't enough air passing through the cooler. They put a new hood on it, just like the D10R's have. Replaced the radiator as well. They basically made it back into a R' as far as that system goes.
The T has a ton of "structural" improvements. The roller frames and push-arms have upgrades to them that people have been crying for, for a long time.
But there is also a lot of crap, the stuff you guys noted plus many of other things. The rock guard on the diagonal brace that protects the tilt hoses closest to the frame is just retarded. We had to replace those tubes that run along top of it 2 times before they let me make a 'custom' guard.
I could go on... Just makes you wonder how much, and where, they field tested this T. I agree with D10N. I've worked on just about everything CAT makes for mining -minus 797. And I can attest to the fact that a lot of crap has been slipping through quality control. That 10T cooler update is free to anyone who bought one, and will end up costing CAT millions.
Having said all that, I'll STILL take a CAT dozer over a Komatsu any day. You know what happens to a 575 when it wears out the undercarriage? They bury it.
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In a year or two all the bitching will stop.. or most of it about the T series, because a new series will be out to bitch about... and of course the Komatsu machines are all junk too, Maybe the Chinese can show Cat how to build a real mans machine EH??.. I have heard and talked to people that love the new machines and people that bitch no matter what they operate or drive. Some guys can take a new truck and tear it to pieces in months, and some guys can drive them for years and not have any real problems except expected wear and tear. Some mines are just dam hard on machines... and some are not. I recall when the R series was called " Garbage" and useless junk, I can also recall when all the high tracks were looked at as junk and garbage, "I'll take my trusty D9H anyday... makes those 8 and 9L's seem like crap".....
It never changes and never will.... No doudt the T series machines will be looked at as fantastic machines when the next series comes along... I have run all kinds of machines and in general they all did the job. Some operators and drivers talk like they would rather drive a mule team.... .. Hey, by the way 10N, Perhaps Morenci would be better off trading those 10T's in for 375's what do you say?? A nice 375 for you?? I heard you were realy a fan of Japanese or Korean built Iron..Oh yeah, you don't like the T-282's either.. The 930's were junk too... take a good look at your posts.. Maybe forget the new machines altogether... after all they are useless junk... you guys should open up your minds and eyes. The world will move forward no matter what.Sorry, but the constant negative crap gets real old after a while, in particular when I hear just the exact opposite from other good operators.. " I have no doudt that you guys are both excellant operators, other wise you would not be on here interested in machines and talking about them.. so I am not saying you aren't top notch men.I belve you are... And go ahead and rant at me if you want. It won't change human nature. I drove a 1967 KW W900 with a Detroit 8-71 for a couple years when I was just an 18 or 20 year old kid, and guess what, I thought that cramped noisy, smelly rattle trap was a great truck!!!.... Well I'll take the 2006 KW T-800 with a 450 C-13 ACERT any day now..and some guys think KW's are all junk also. The new ones too...... The Cat T's are here to stay, I'm sure Cat would love to talk with you guys, you should contact them with your issues. Komatsu too. and all the the other junk makers. It's just that if you read enough and listen to enough you realize some people will NEVER realy be satisfied, including many of my best freinds.. sometimes even me...But we should all take a look at are attitude from time to time. Are there realy ANY good things made any more.. or was there ever??? I go to a steam traction forum quite a bit.... guess what?? they argue about machines that were built in the early 1900's and bitch and complain about EVERY SINGLE mfg that ever existed.... Oh well.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Sorry, but my opinions are based off of my paycheck - not just personal. Every minute we spend with that thing sitting and waiting on a part, or a wiring harness, or some obscure switching relay is a minute in which our unit cost goes up. We live and die by what it costs to pull a pound of copper from our ore body, and after 125 years, most of the REALLY good stuff is gone - leaving us to reduce costs where possible.
Komatsu got booted off the property for a reason, and that reason is failure to consistently perform. The last of the 930E's has been relegated to the scrap yard now, and the only Komatsu dozers that were ever on property have long ago met with the torch.
I've never mentioned an R model as problematic, or an N, or even a plain D10 - the T however is a losing proposition in a hard rock environment. They may shine in coal, they aren't THAT bad pioneering, but they aren't up to the task otherwise.
I have run them all, and can offer an opinion on far more than how they look, or how well designed the air conditioner is. I care more about availability than ergonomics.
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Tim: my comments were based on the fact that when I left TTTD headquarters two years ago, I thought these small bugs had been ironed out completely. I was saddened when I heard that they weren't.
That's the extent of my lament. I'm not saying that the T-series is a piece of crud or that all new Cat products are inferior to their predecessors; I'm not sure that's what D10N is saying, either. For me, I was just surprised that these issues -- not really big ticket items to address, ya know? -- were still popping up. That doesn't make a machine worse in my eyes, but it's still fair to wish they weren't there.
Opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Caterpillar, Inc., a copyrighted trademark.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Thanks Xing,
My whole point was that the T series is plagued with minor problems that add up to major headaches for us. It would've been nice to get them dealt with long ago, and now that it's been mentioned, the two newer ones do actually look more like R's than T's.
It's hard to fathom from an outside point of view, but when that rear window falls out, or the joystick faults out, that Cat is down - we now have to start routing trucks to another stockpile that may be an extra 5000 feet or more of a haul, while either the 10T gets fixed, or we scavenge another dozer to put there. When you are talking the 4100XPB's or XPC's with the monster dippers kicking out a truck every 40 seconds or so, the 2 hours it might take to steal another dozer can add up to A LOT of extra money being spent on the haulage side. We also might have to move the shovels into a different grade to shorten up the haul, which still results in bottlenecks somewhere along the line. When one throws a track in the fine ore bin, we might have to shut down the secondary crusher, and all downstream activity (Mine For Leach pads) while we get another dozer brought in, and get the broken Cat out of the line of fire.
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Well I spent tonight working on the 2nd D11T ever built doing a blade change out which has nothing to do with the machine and at 6000hrs ever operator at The River has said that it will out do any D11 or D475 they have ever run at one of the toughest places on dozers you could ever get. The machine has maintained above 90% availabilty and sure enough it has had it's hiccups along the line along with product improvements. Field follow dozers that have been in the area include the D10T,D10R(3KR and AKT), and D11R in years past. The D11R 7PZ series will be remembered as a classic machine to my generation of guys in the industry and quite possibly the D11T could join it.
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Good solid topic gents that gave a lot of facts from people that know and i am sure the guys who are up and coming to our industry would appreciate it.
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I surely second what Gavin said. These types of posts with people who work with these machines every day and know what they are talking about are extremely informative. I sure hope that everyone can see that even though people have differences of opinions on these matters still, these are all people with a wealth of knowledge and much can be learned! I have watched and read this post every step of the way and certainly appreciate everyone's input!  ...Prt
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Rexford Montana & Sparwood BC
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As a kid,I grew up on the old stuff,D7G,D8K,D9H,and those dozers were quite primative compared to todays stuff.The only electrical on the old stuff was the lights and gauges,every thing else was mecanical.The only downfall to the old stuff,was that the undercarrages houred out around 5000 hrs.At the end of a day on the old stuff,you were knackerd,your arms were sore from pulling levers all day,your legs were sore from using the decelerator and left and right steering breaks.Also at the end of the day your ears were sore and ringing (why I'm so deaf today). The new dozers of today are a dream to run,finger tip controls,climate control,wicked stereos,window wipers,quiet as my Jeep Liberty when in the cab operating.Plus you have options to set the dozer to your liking using the onboard computer.The trany and ripper controls are lady friendly using your thumbs.So at the end of a 12hr day your still feeling pretty good,leaving you able to have a couple cold ones at the end of the day. In the old days,I was working road constuction.The material was hardpan clay or top soil.Today its blasted sandstone,and its never a perfect world in the blasting department.We are moving material thats like crushed rock,to boulders a 1/4 of the size of the dozer.Our dozers run 24/7-360 days a yr with very little down time. With a Cat with as much electrical componants as they have today,there's bound to be a problem every now and then.When Cat went from the D10N,to the D10R,I thought they can't build a better dozer.But then you run that nice new T series thats unbelievably operator friendly,and QUIET,QUIET,QUIET.With awesome avalability.The future dozers will probably have fiberoptics running the electronics,which they might already be using (I don't have the time to follow all the new updates and technology) I'm just an operator,busy with a family and hobbies. I spent a 1/4 shift last night feeding our LeTourneau 1850 on a 10T with 8000+ hrs on it,and was still like a brand new machine.I can't wait to get my hands on that D11T,because what I here from my friends at the River they all say the same thing.THAT D11T ROCKS!!! CAT will always be the king in dirt moving department,in my eyes! Just my 2 cents TC PS.D10N,how many Komatzu 930's do you guys have parked? Would Phelps want to sell them? What would they be asking for them? If the price was right,we'd probably buy them from you guys.Please let me know if you can dig up any info on the trucks. PS,PS:I don't mind breaking them every now and then,it keeps ACE797 working steady  
IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE...
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Tomcat:
You guys need to relax there at the 'Hills after the latest carnage and buying some 930E's I could only imagine what it would be like, probably be a thing called Bay 90 would be created.
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Ya,we'll have to relocate the Breaker Station to make room for it all.
Actually,all thats there right now is the new 637G,the wheel moter and piece of axle box we broke off 18 truck,and 3loader is back in the pocket.So we have room to break more.LOL
IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE...
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I sure do agree this is a great post and well handled by all... except maybe me.. I ranted a bit.. I just get to the point of pulling my hair out about complaints about machines.. of all makes and types.But I do agree with everything said and respect all the opinions here. You guys are truly the pros when it comes to these things, and it also proves that all kinds of different opinions can be right. Just so many variations in operations and applications, etc, etc. everyone CAN be right I guess!! good stuff for sure. Tim.
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I think there's 6 930E's in various stages of decay still sitting here. The 628 truck that used to sit as a tourist attraction has been officially deadlined now, and it's actually about 90% functional.
The rest of the 930E fleet has been foisted on Chino, also in varying stages of unwanted.
I'm pretty sure they'll get scrapped out, or sold at the next surplus auction (I'm going to bid a couple hundred on my old 834B just for kicks!).
**Stupid trivia note discovered today** A D9L is actually slightly taller than a D10T....there's about 1½" difference between the walkways when parked side by side on level ground.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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We don't have any 930 at the mine I work at.But I'm sure they'ed part them out or put them together to run with in our organization if the price was right. Getting back to the T series dozers topic,I do have one major beef with the new dozers.And that is the foot rest at the decelerator is way to high.When you have a man on the ground handeling the power cable for the shovels,and your moving the cable arches is very touchy work.So when it takes 10-15 min to do the job,with your foot on and off the decelerator,or holding the cat steady at a low RPM.My shin aches because of the awkward foot angle.Drives me nuts!But when your pushing muck its just full throttle. I'd also like to see a back massager built in to the seat.Make for a nice coffee break.  All equipment should have this option.
IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE...
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Great reading! Good work guys! It's amazingly interesting reading about life in and around this environment from both the operator and the enthusiasts point of view. As a teacher, the closest I get are my scale models! Rowan.
1:25th scale CAT 375L excavator
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