Has anybody have test drive the cat ct660 truck.

It looks ###### to me ! It's kind of exciting to get a new choice in class 8 trucks for sure, I'd love to get my hands on one for a day or two.

It looks to me like it is strictly a day cab and I haven't seen a picture of one without a 20,000 lb. front axle yet. makes me wonder if you can just get a regular highway daycab or if it's more for cement mixers, dump trucks, or if it does have a fifth wheel just for heavy hauling ?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1fPdjP01Rc[/ame]

 

well, I found this vid of some of them with 13,200 front axles, still heavy duty set up with 56,000 rears but more of a traditional daycab. I want to drive one !

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1joHnxfvfso&feature=related[/ame]

 

After what cat did to me with there 07 emissions
POS which I'm still own. They can take there
trucks to china and sell them there. Any other
make of heavy haul truck is probably better!

 

The truck AND the engine are manufactured by Navistar . Just an International with CAT badging.
http://www.foundrymag.com/frontpage/news/84083/cat_navistar_launching_new_truck_lines

 

I guess I'm not surprised. CAT combines are just German CLAAS painted yellow and their tractors are AGCO. I guess being from Peoria, IL where CAT headquarters are I'm still excited about it though. I mean a frame is a frame, all trucks subcontract axles and suspension. So it's really just the cab, switches, and gauges that are proprietery to the truck brand and I'm sure most of that stuff is made overseas. lol. I think there is some good design ideas with the three piece bumper and replaceable, dent resistent fenders.

 

All, I would test drive one before I deemed this deal a rebadging exercise. I think Cat worked hard with Navistar, but this is not an International truck. Got to be the quietest class 8 I've ever driven. Reminds me of a 980 loader. Smooth ride. Make sure you test drive one with that new automatic transmission. It's like driving your pickup...

 

Sound like a salesman
manufactured in Navistar's Garland, TX, plant
built by International in International plant
if ford build a BMW its still a ford

 

a real pickup isnt an auto.

 

Ill be driving one next week. While the truck is on the same assembly line as the paystar, it looks to be very different and its looks remind me of a mack.

The thing I don't like about it is the navistar engines. We all saw what EGR/DPF did to our wallets and how much the SCR has helped prevent issues and gain back lost dollars. The fact that Navistar is so against it makes me turn away from them, they still haven't submitted an engine that meets the current standards so the future is unknown.

I also fear for CAT if they are just letting Navistar build the trucks.whether you like them or not Cat does have very high quality standards at their plants. Many other companies don't and navistar is not a name that screams quality. It screams economical, that's not what cat is about.

It is neat to have options though. Ill have more opinions after the test drive

Cat left the Ag market in 2002. Their challenger track tractors have always been their own design. They used their engine, their 16 speed powershift, and their friction drive system which they own the patent to and had a lawsuit against Deere on it. The early ones with the straight tracks were their own cab, the ones with the triangle tracks were a ford/NH cab off the genesis series. They were mostly all cat though with outsourcing where it made sense. In 2002 Agco bought the challenger brand and began painting their Massey line yellow to offer a bigger lineup at the Cat dealers. Due to the contracts and the way everything worked, many cat dealers remained Ag dealers selling through agco. This has bit agco in the butt hard. Its the only reason they offer another color, and the cat dealers (while good with construction accounts) just don't have enough market share in the Ag business to have the level of support and knowledgeable service needed.

The current generation of challenger brand equipment is all repainted Massey stuff with the exception of the tracked tractors. The large wheeled articulated is also unique to them but was engineered and built by agco. Most of the lineup is just different paint, however on some of the tractors they have changed the controls to match the cab and controls of the tracked machines. The sheer metal on some tractors also varies slightly. The rest of the lineup is just paint.

The tracked machines still run cat powershifts and the largest ones still have cat engines. The mid size series now runs Agcos SISU Diesel which is proving to be a home run engine for agco setting new records for fuel economy with good reliability, low maintenance and good driveability and power. Its a very quiet engine too. And its an in house engine which costs agco less money. In addition, Cat kind of goes against agcos motto that their e3 technology is the answer to meeting tier 4 emissions. Currently Cat sees advanced EGR along with a DPF as the current solution to meeting emissions versus agcos SCR system. However cat is treading lightly and is not bashing the SCR system and their engineers will not confirm or deny their future stance on it which leads me to believe they will.be adding it to meet tier 4 final.

Rumors coming out of Agco have suggested they are toyong with the idea of putting the Fendt CVT into the mid size track tractors and looking to replace the larger size tractors engines with Sisu engines once they get their own large engine designed and running well. They had a v12 prototype but I don't think that will be going into them.

another fun fact of the day is that the large versatile tractors also use Cat powershifts. These tractors were bought out by Ford/NH awhile back, but then when case and NH merged they were required to drop some of their lineup and the versatile tractors and genesis tractors were purchased by buhler out of canada and are currently still owned by buhler and sold under the versatile brand. Buhler was recently bought out by rostselmash . Their large tractors still use the cat powershift whole the row crop size still uses the funk powershift they have always used from Deere. The row crop tractors still have the cab that the original genesis had which cat used on some of their tracked machines. Both ranges of tractors from versatile use Cummins engines.

As for the Cat lexion combines, that deal was drafted up back when cat was making their tractors on their own in the 90s, they basically supplied the engines to Claas for the combines and provided a dealer network for the Claas combines. All of the combines built for north america are still painted yellow and black. Aside from the engines, cat had little to do with the combines design. That deal also ended in 2002. The Claas Lexions still remain at the cat dealers and still have their color scheme, but it is solely controlled by Claas. The new series still uses Cat engines but for the big Class 10 model 770 switched to the OM502 V8 Mercedes that they have used in many of their forage harvesters for years.


How long things will stay this way is unknown. It means a lot if Claas still uses your product but then again their could be a lot of politics behind that as Cat is good about making sure they get what they want. Claas is still a private family business with ridiculous quality standards, they design and build most of their own parts, linde does some of their hydraulics and Mercedes, MAN and CAT supply engines.


The new Holland FR forage harvesters also use a Cat engine in the second biggest model. The largest gas a V8 Iveco and the smaller ones have smaller Ivecos.

You have 6 gears in a synchronized manual or 6 gears in a clutch-clutch auto with lockup converter and tap shifter. That extra pedal and stick isn't helping you get any more done for any less money. You might save some mpgs, but you better be running a lot of miles to se a difference.

I agree, in a semi I don't want anything but an old manual, but big rigs aren't synchronized, so there's more feel to floating a gear and no synchros to take out like in passenger vehicles.

Not only that, you have to buy a ram to get one, that right there is the deal breaker. All though they have come a long way and out I got one I sure wouldn't want that little 68rfe auto in it.

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