General Discussion

[Rat]

HELP!!!!!!!

This thing has no power. I have to drop gears climbing an over pass.   Hills that C13s can excellerate up are slowing me down and making me drop gears.  My fuel economy is nothing. I have done the math many times using the amount of fuel used to the milage put on and I am averaging between 3.8 and 4 mpg.

I am running an 04 pete 379.

Specs
MBN 24234 C15 ?475?
rtlo12913a Transmission
3.36 ratio
295/75 R 22.5 rubber

I had it into Butler Cat in Grand Forks ND many times for this problem. They just say that it is the way it is.   I now have over 730K on the rig and they tell me it is 600 dollars to uprate it to 525 hp  1850 torque.   Takes an hour to do.    600 dollars for an hours worth of work is insane.

This motor can not be lugged down. It will stall at anything less then 1400 rpm with a load behind it. I know because I have driven this truck for 3 years now and logged more then 300K on it since I got it.

Oh and the derate for over 30 psi of boost is insane also.   I have had problems with the boost sensor and this pulls better at over 30 psi until the light comes on and it derates. EGTs actually run cooler also.

There has got to be a fix for this somewere in the Cat programming.  This is probly the most worthless kitty I have ever been behind the wheel of.

[njc1979]

You have to pay for the programming, the passwords and files, plus their tech fees.  Its not just labor.  Typically, the CAT Factory charges the dealers for re-rating software programs.  

[Rat]

That is what I am getting at, Cat says it costs 600 dollars to make this thing perform like a cat is supposed to perform.    I swear I could drop in an old 12V 5.9 cummins and get the same performance as this much larger engine. I know what the Butler guys say about these Bridged engines and it is not roses. Cat needs to step up to the plate on these motors to help the people out that are running these things.   There are many many out there on the road and every person I talk to that has one does more then complain about it.   They can't afford to upgrade to a newer rig with a better motor so they have to keep limping these things along.  

To start they need to come up with a program to let these things build some actual boost.   They also need to change the programming that does not allow fuel till it sees 8 lbs of boost.   Drop it down to 4 or 5 psi so these things will actually respond the way they are supposed to.

[Rat]

Well, I got an email from this site telling me that the local cat dealer would contact me.   LOL didn't happen.   Does Cat not care about how their stuff works or how their customers feel about issues with their products????? Do they not care when someone might go around talking about the inferior products that they put out or the lack of help that people get using their products?????

Or just it only biol down to money? Give them Money and they will correctly fix the issue. Don't give them money and live with the issue.

All I am my boss ask for a a proper program for this truck that will make it do what it supposed to do in the first place without having to take a **bleep** loan out to do it.

But that is OK, Cat won't fix these issues so the Boss is going to keep looking at other manufacturers for his equipment.   Cats loss I guess!!!!