by Nick Drew | Wed 24 Jul 2019
Cat 301.8 Next Gen Excavator from a Different Perspective
Earlier this year we were invited out to Malaga to witness the unveiling of Caterpillar’s all new in-house built Next Gen mini excavator range, we have seen and read a lot of material on these new machines since then, so its always good to get a different view on the new products.
We would normally associate Australian plant and machinery legend Ron Horner with the larger earthmoving kit, but in this edition of Ronnie’s Road Trip series he was invited to get up close and personal with some of Caterpillar’s smallest offerings.
As part of their Caterpillar Next Generation Road Trip tour main dealers Hastings Deering stopped off at Toowoomba in South East Queensland with a full line up of the new machines for visitors to try out. The machines feature standardisation of common components right across the range, which makes each machine in the different weight classes easier to operate, as they are all so similar. Add into the mix the unique and innovative new factory fitted features like “stick steer” and “cruise control” and air-conditioning in a sub two-tonne excavator, its easy to see why these machines are raising more than a few eyebrows! Ron focuses on the 1.8 tonne class 301.8 in the video and true to form gives us an enthusiastic report and evaluation of the product, enjoy!
Credit to Australian magazine Trade Earthmovers for the use of this video.