Cummins vs. Cat

Tried everything? Like what? Make sure your not losing boost(after turbo) or drive pressure(exhaust manifold). They will kill your power and mpgs. How you drive it makes a big differance as well. If you drive it like cat says you will be disapointed. Dont lugg it below 1100 and dont rev it over 1700. When pulling a hill or going thru the gears try to keep it between 13 and 1600 rpm. Mine also seems to run best when you drive it easy. If you have a 13 or 18spd use it. When you are approaching a hill that you know you will have to down shift for do it early and then stand on it get the turbos spinning and making boost.
I have/drive a 550 acert 18spd 3.55 rears and own a 500 ISX 13spd 3.70 gears and the isx cant keep up if we are loaded the same. Not even close

 

Cummins paved the way for most of these guys to by a Cat ..Cummmins man here

 

My buddy always says that till he runs with me....My 525 eats his 550 alive no matter how he drives it...

 

I run local and run the same routs all the time. There have been more than a few times that we have "raced" comparing a 1650 tq 500ISX to 1850 tq 550 cat its not even close. If we are loaded the same. The ISX is about 3000 pds lighter (lighter truck and a lighter trailer) we somtimes take this toll road where you come out of the cash box there is about a mile long hill. I top it at just a little over 70mph the ISX is about 10 truck lenghts behind me. Thats not a 1 time occurance we have tested them a few times always the same results. The ISX does get better mpgs used to be only about 2 to 4 tenths. Now that that he has run the truck awhile and is used to it he gets a good .5 to .8 better than I do. BUT he is 2700 lbs lighter and I pull alot more/heavier permits.

 

No WAY will a 550 isx walk a 600 cat..

i happen to own one (ISX Signature) , and i can tell you, its never going to happen.

what favours the cats over ALL isx tunes apart from the 620/2050 tune, is how the cats TQ rises..

all the lower setting isx have a slow tq rise, makes them feel racier cause your always needing to rev them out.

 

I can't tell you which one will run better over the other. It's been awhile since I've retired but back when I was driving in the late 90's we couldn't really tell the difference between cat and cummins. We had some with cats and some with cummins and a couple with detroits. Going up the grades (not very many) they all pulled about the same with a 100,000lbs on. The big problem we had was with the cat dealer. They wanted the tanks completely safe which was stupid for just small repairs. That added cost and time. They were never eager to fix our trucks like they were to the contruction companies that had heavy equipment.

With cummins it was in and out most of the time and the same with detroit. We would see our truck sitting in their yard overnight which cost us alot since we lost revenue from that unit and then we had the cost of hiring another company to pull the loads that the truck in the shop lost. Plus the driver got paid for his shift even if he didn't work.

So to me cummins were cheaper with the same performance as cat for our application. Detroit run about the same as cummins. Cat just killed us in the shop.

 

I love a good purring CAT it was sad to see them not making them any more I wish they could keep makeing on highway or make one to meet todays stanerds I like cummins but nothing looks better in a 379 than a yellow C-15 with an 18 speed

 

been with cat since the A-model they got it if you know how to find it

 

i heard if you paint a cummins cat yellow it will run better.

 

I should try that I love Cat maybe its just that paint keeps me with them and since they aren't makeing motors any more I should just get a pete a paint the cummins yellow.