Cat 265

Cat's answer to what replaces the 289D3 turned out to be a machine that also replaces the 279D3, and the headline is torque — 43 percent more of it than the 289D3 made, the biggest gain in the next-generation range. What contractors actually talk about, though, is not the engine but the ground: several credit the relocated engine with transforming how it behaves on slopes, one saying flatly that he would not have attempted a turn on a slope in the old machine and now feels planted in this one. Another reports shaving 20 to 30 percent off his hours, mostly because the lift height lets him empty a bucket over a truck instead of shaking material out of it.

Most of the improvement lands in the cab: 22 percent more volume, 26 percent more foot space, and air conditioning that operators in hot climates rate as a genuine productivity item rather than a comfort. The hydraulics deserve care at the order desk. Standard is 23 GPM; a software-enabled setting takes it to 30 GPM at the same 3,500 psi and can be switched on remotely later; only the factory High Flow XPS option reaches 34 GPM at 4,061 psi, and that one cannot be retrofitted. Against all that, two grumbles recur from people who have taken delivery — loader pin play significant enough that one owner wanted shims his dealer could not supply, and a radiator cover with no hinge that has to be lifted clear to clean behind.

It earns its keep when the attachments are demanding enough to need the flow and the ground is difficult enough to want the weight, and when dealer pricing near $99,500 against about $75,400 for the 255 can be justified by the work. If the job is dirt and pallets rather than hydraulic tools, the 255 does it for $24,000 less. Settle the high-flow question before ordering rather than after, check the loader pins for play at handover, and confirm your trailer and tow rating actually cover 10,492 lb before a bucket goes on.