Cat Engine

[augar boy]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the cat 525 hp engine.? A friend is looking at an 06 country coach rembrant with the cat 525 engine with 52000 miles. I have seen this coach and it is very nice and well kept inside and outside. The previous owner bought a new 45' Foretravel.
I have heard pros and cons to the cat engine however I had a Discovery one time and never had any trouble. Different ones he talks with say to stay away from the cat engine. Is this so? Need advice.
Thanks All
augarboy

[Mr_D]

CAT makes good engines, not in the over the road business anymore but still making industrial engines. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Mike Canter]

Beaver used those engines in their Patriot Thunder version and I have never heard a bad thing about them from anyone I know that has one other than they are a little thirsty.

[stuhly]

Ran 430 cats in my OTR truck fleet for years. Liked them better than Cummins and Detroit. Have a 350 chipped to 425 in my Providence towing 4X4 Tahoe. Good power, but a little thirsty.

[slickest1]

Although I prefer Cummins I think the cat 525 would be alright. Cat parts are probably a little pricier for big repairs, but for routine maintainence it won't make a big difference. It will have lots of power and give years of good service in a motorhome.

[dons2346]

There is nothing wrong with that motor

[B Bob]

The motor you are asking about is likely a C12 or C13. I have a C12 with 505 hp and just over 100,000 miles. Very solid motor. Either Cat or Cummins motors are first class. I own stock in both companies. When I had my valves adjusted at 90,000 miles the Cat tech said that they were all within specs and he just tweeked them. He said my motor was good for a million miles. That said it did eat a turbo last summer. Covered by extended warranty.

[docj]

I don't know if it is a current offer, but when CAT was in the OTR engine business they used to offer a tee-shirt if you could show you had a million miles on one of their engines. I'm at 71,000 miles now and expect to drive around 10,000 this year. At that rate, I'll get my shirt before I'm 160.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by B Bob

That said it did eat a turbo last summer

Did you ever find out what caused the turbo problem?

On our Cummins ISC I had to take ours apart to install the Banks kit and I was really worried about that! Five years later and many 1,000's of miles no problems

[B Bob]

Mr D - The turbo failure was seized bearings. The impeller just stopped turning and thankfully no parts of the blades went into the motor. My guess is that the negligent PO did not bother with warm up and cool down. Having had an Audi turbo seize a few years back I do take a little care with them.

A few days before the turbo failure we did come close to the limit where the motor shuts off on the I 17 north out of Phoenix. It was at least 100 ambient and I did not slow /gear down much so we got to the silverlake temp reading of 216. So that may have been the activity that sent the turbo over the edge. The mechanic stated "some of these go 100,000 and some go 1,000,000 miles".

[distaff]

I have that engine, the '05 C13. I love the way it just pushes us down the road. Just drove from Calgary to Fresno, 1,500 miles over high passes in the mountains. Did it in 3 days down, 4 back (took it a little easier).

Bit thirsty, I pull a Suburban (which weighs about 5,800 pounds) behind my 42 foot Patriot Thunder (which weighs 41,887 when I load it up) and get about 7.3 mpg pulling over the mountains. Note, I pull a lot at high altitude, in winter (winter fuel gets lower mpg), over mountain terrain, all of which knock the mpg down hard.

People can get a little religious about engine brands, but they are all good power plants.

[rvjimmy]

525 horses in the barn what a joy. I just have a itty bitty kitty 330 but it runs great and CAT is a good engine. Had CAT's in over the road trucks, good power and very dependable. They treat you good if you treat them well, good luck and stay out of trouble with all that power!Might be a little harder on fuel than a cummins but horses take hay to run.

[distaff]

525 HP, 1,600 lbs/ft, but everything is relative to weight and speed.
there is a very good paper out there from CAT about fuel mileage on these beasts. Over 60 mph the significance of rolling resistance is overshadowed by wind resistance, with the notable exception of hill climbing. Every MPH you add on level ground or an upgrade cuts your MPG severely.

I love the big coach, and I love looking at the mountains while I drive, but I curse them both when I have to climb, nothing like checking your instantaneous MPG and seeing 2.2 - YIKES

[docj]

Originally Posted by distaff

there is a very good paper out there from CAT about fuel mileage on these beasts.

Here's the paper for anyone that wants it: http://weisstravels.com/resources/CA...er+reduced.pdf