Need some input on Cat Challengers and John Deere 8000T Series rigs

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440_chazz

Member
Trail grooming with Cat Challengers and John Deere 8000T Series rigs

There is "casual" groomer talk among our club right now. I say casual because we do not have the funds for a groomer at the moment. But our club is divided between regular tractors, Tucker sno cats and Piston Bullies, and the big Cat Challengers and John Deere 8400 tracked series tractors which is me. Are these models too big? I say no because they offer the horsepower to get through any size drift and pull a massive dead weight drag at the same time. How are the Challengers as far as reliability? We sold our Tucker because well one it was gas and not diesel and two we had problems every time we went out to groom. It got too expensive to maintain the thing.
 
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stealthv

New member
There was a Challenger MT700 being used to groom trails around Bergland about four-five years ago. Not sure what they're using today.

Pulling a groomer with a Challenger is pretty easy on the machine compared to the life for which it was designed. There are farmers with 14,000 hours on them that have done nothing but change oil and filters.

A Deere is just a cheap copy. But then again, I'm a wee-bit biased as working on the yellow ones pays for my snowmobile habit.
 
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Deleted member 10829

Guest
I'm pretty sure all 3 of Bergland's groomers are the Piston Bullies, and they are very happy with them. I rarely hear of a breakdown lately either. I would contact George at the Hoop 'N Holler and get his opinion. He is the trail boss.
 
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groomerdave

New member
John Deere

Had a Cat 55 for 6 years and 4200 hours. $1.80 "O" ring went out in it. It was located in the transmission. $23,000 to get to the O ring. Other than that the Cat was a great machine except for the 7 gallons per hour addiction to fuel. I LOVE Cat power. We now run a John Deere 8230T. 8 gallons per hour on the fuel SUCKS! It has 1700 hours on it right now and has had a track carriage problem that might be a reoccurring issue. It seems to be missing a gear in the transmission right at the speed that we want to groom. With all of this said what I would get next is a small John Deere (I think 7330 is what a lot of people are using now) with soucy tracks. With the IVT transmission and the small tractor they are getting around 4 - 4.5 gallons per hour fuel consumption. You can easily pull a 9' drag, and there is a blade out there that is very good from what I hear. The best part is this machine is alot cheaper. We deal with Bader John Deere from Portland MI. If you have more questions about this setup get ahold of them, they know there stuff.
Here's a link to soucy tracks:
http://www.soucy-track.com/en/surfaceuse/surfaceuse.asp

If you ever want to jump in the seat of our machine email me. dave@trailsinc.org
Think Snow! -Dave
 
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