Caterpillar Legends: The 200-Series Excavators (225, 235 & 245)

[@bert26a]

The 245 was a fantastic machine. I think the 300 series was a joke

[@paulnolan1352]

They became popular in the UK but the 211 and 215 could have a Deutz Engine in. Worked on the 235 and at the time was a great Excavator. Thanks for the video.

[@grandpaandlucas7054]

in 1984 an agreement was signed with German manufacturer EDER, to badge examples from their 800-Series excavators as Caterpillar. Five tracked models were produced consisting of the 205, 211, 211LC, 213, and 213LC, with four wheeled excavators to follow, 206, 212, 214 and 224 models. the 215 at this time was around 17ton and used a 3304 engine.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Ran a 245 with an Allied hammer that used to be a shovel till they got another 245 with a shovel front. STRONG machine!

[@cmcn723]

I remember staring at the beast 245 back in the day.

[@HeavySteelMarvels]

What a wonderful machine this was! Absolute beast :-)

[@maplemanz]

Back then cat put a lot of money on R&D to produce a machine built 100% cat ,and a lot of field trials to find areas that needed improvement thats why the machines got better and heavier with time and was designed to be rebuildable .

[@danielsmith4986]

Very goood video, that two series was something else!!

[@CarloBiondi]

My dad operated these machines for over 30 years. I have a photo of him in the 80s next to the 245.

[@WhiteyRavensTH]

nice... nothing like that good old iron

[@HeavySteelMarvels]

100% 🙂

[@josephstolar-nz8vu]

Good machine the cat 225 I rented them when putting in water projects ,even in digging shot rock in upstate new york.from 8 inch water maintoo 16 inch transmission mains ,the cat 235 in the 70s putting in sewer mains and trunk sewers good machine .

[@Mrdancefloordj]

I loved the 200 series Cat's too, Never ran the 300 series. I ran Koehring excavators also. One design flaw with the 200 series is the tracks and the backhoe arm could not be operated at the same time. Cat should have put in a separate hydraulic pump to drive the tracks. If the excavator gets in a soft spot you can get out. Other than that, the speed and smoothness was nice.

[@SimonPerry-cz4ke]

From England operated a 235B ME Brilliant Machine

[@mjfixitman1]

I ran the first 235 that was used in Mobile Alabama 👍

[@markdoering6877]

Had a 215 in 1982.

[@scottmcquarrie7295]

One of the worst moves Caterpillar ever made was to discontinue the 200 series in favor of the 300 series Hoes. Still to this day the 300 series are horrible machines compared to the 200 series Great Excavators.

[@maplemanz]

You are so right I just got run and look over a 235C wide Guage. The 300 series was Japanese excavator technology geared towards economic Mass production. As a result all the excavator brands are built the same way ,the only differences are engine and hydraulic components sources.

[@rodneycody8746]

Nice

[@maplemanz]

All excavators today unfortunately are all built to the same cheap design standards.