Combines here are some words for thought

You will never be happy, will youIJ Cat service people are the best trained compared to any dealer service there is. I work for a Cat dealer and I end up following up many different dealers so called trained service people, fixing simple problems they can't fix. This goes for any color of machine.

Boy....not any bias there at all!!!..I would beg to differ on the Cat ppl being trained the best...Dealing with the local dealer here with truck motors to construction equip to ag equip, they seem to be lacking the most in ag related areas. And why not, the meat and potatoes are their construction divisions and the ag was just a area they thought they could make money not knowing what it was going to take to follow thru as far as commitment was concerned. It may not be the dealers fault to a certain degree, but without the company backing it up even more, you have a losing proposition.

Pigmanjim may not be giving us all the facts. Claas parts is just as good if not better than all the others. He should tell us the whole story before he starts bashing the dealers and manufacturers involved.

Not sure he said the parts were not good..if you cannot get them, it would not matter if they were made out of gold...the machine they go on is useless..in todays economic times who can afford to have such a machine. Makes no differance what color it is. It seems like most ppl on here think this is a kindergarten pouting match where all they say is my color is better than your color, neener neener neener..Not sure what ppl were seeing when they read his first post, but maybe a little visine would help focus on the screen some..If i had a machine with the same issues he does..it would be gone ASAP.

Hey fella, I've been reading your posts over the last few days and can't help but sympathize with you as far as your dealer support and parts supply goes, however I can't help but challenge you on a few points. My first being the capacity claims your making for the 9860. When you were running side by side with your 480, what was limiting the CAT, I can't see how a 375HP rotary with about 2500 less square inches of cleaning area could out perform the CAT in tough conditions, do you run any filler plates on your rotorsIJ I know where I'm from the 480R is still the biggest one on the block especially when conditions are tough. If there was a combine out there that could challenge its capacity I would place my bet on the CR 970, which from what I've heard is its equal under Dry conditions. I also want to challenge your idea of valueIJ I sounds like up to the point when you needed the bearing the lexion had performed quite well for you, why not try the new R series, which will no doubt come in at a far lower price then the 9860. I know b_c we just finished pricing three machines out, a 480R, CR 970 and 9860. We wanted to see if the CAT pricing was in the ball park, the CR was close, but b_c it is unproven we didn't seriously consider it. The 9860 was way, and I mean way out of line, due in part to the lack of any serious Deere programming. Finally, (sorry for the length folks!) the new 500 series lexion was tested in our area just this past season, sounds like there is going to be some around next year. What I'm excited about is being able to install_remove the rotor filler plates from the cab, this will allow for more fine-tuning t_o the day as conditions change, should make a big difference in cereals.

Yup, Cat people don't always know what their doing. If something happens to our 480 I waste my time having Cat on the phone. All they do is get out their book and read the same thing I am. Its like they were never trained for any of it. By the way, the Cat in tough conditions is a joke. When we get into irrigated soybeans that are dry, but have a wet_tough stem, the TR98 will get more beans, lose less, and get a cleaner sample than our Cat will, and that is fact cause we run both side by side. It has happen two years in a row. 3 years ago the Cat outperformed the TR cause of the header size(the TR couldn't go fast enough to make up for lost header width. If you don't believe me come out next year and watch. Nevermind, we probably won't have our 480 next year. It will get traded for a CR.

I understand where you guys are coming from with the dealer issues, that is one of the reasons we switched away from Gleaner. However, our Cat service and parts has been second to none. As far as the Cats being a joke in tough conditions you should come up to Manitoba next year if you want to see performance, especially vs. a TR. With the crops we thresh, TR's are the joke especially when tough. Our neighbor averages about 10ac_hr with his TR,we use to average that with our TX, this past year we did 18 with the 480. I don't doubt your claims about the CAT in soybeans and corn, how could I, I've never combined either and you have the opportunity to run both side by side, all year long. We thresh Cereals, oilseeds and pulses. I haven't run a combine yet that could match the Cat (TX, CX 840, R70, 9750 STS) I realize the first two are Class sixes, but in the case of the TX we could nearly double it with the 480. It appears to me that combine performance and preference is a function of crops threshed, conditions threshed in and dealer support. If our dealer support ever falters then she's history! later dudes and hope you find the STS's and CR's to your likings. Oh yeah--to the fella who demoed the 9860, you mentioned that one of the problems with the CAT was overloading the sieves. We experience this problem our first year, it got so bad that we were down to TX speed in dry Canola (3.5-4mph). When we installed the filler plates on the rotors we doubled our capacity. Have you had these installedIJ Also, I agree with you on the size of the return grain elevator, one thing I liked about the TX was the double returns, we would just never plug them. Take care