mark49•15d ago

Stopped by an old Caterpillar dealer lot last week and felt like a museum

I was passing through Bakersfield and pulled into this Cat dealer I used to go to with my old man back in the 90s. They still had a D8H sitting out front, same one I helped him wrench on when I was 16. The shop guys now all use laptops and tablets, nobody even looked under the hood when I asked about a noise. Makes me wonder how many of those new techs could rebuild a 3406 from scratch like we used to. Any of you guys still work on the old iron or is everyone just flashing ECMs these days?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly33815d ago

I mean yeah, that's pretty much how it is everywhere now. My old shop had a D9G that we kept running with bailing wire and prayers, and the old guys could rebuild a final drive with their eyes closed. Now the kids coming in barely know how to check oil, they just plug in their laptops and follow the steps on the screen. I stopped by a dealer in Fresno a few months back and the service manager couldn't even tell me what a 3406 was without looking it up on his phone. Kinda sad, really, all that knowledge just dying off.

mason.margaret15d ago

Honestly, what worked for me was just taking the time to pull the younger guys aside and actually show them the old way while they were using their laptops. Told them that the screen tells you what's wrong but it can't tell you why that part failed or what else is getting ready to go with it. Ngl, a few of them actually started getting into it once they saw the bigger picture and realized there's a lot the computer doesn't catch.