Music to my ears
IF EVER THERE WAS A MACHINE THAT MAKES you feel young at heart, the Next Generation Cat 323 stands at the head of the queue.
I just wish I had been offered a digger like this when I was coming into the industry all those years ago.
The technology not only makes it easy to operate, it’s also a lot of fun.
Sure, you can play around with all those interesting settings which make it do this or that, but what really stands out is how responsive and natural it feels through the controls. Like it’s an extension of your arms.
If this is how 21st century machine work is supposed to be, then bring it on.
Being so user-friendly means that the new 323 will also be more productive, because there is nothing holding the operator back from doing their job.
From the outside, it doesn’t look like it is sitting on a high and wide chassis and even climbing up into the cab is no chore, but the extra height was very welcome when taking the machine over some rough ground.
The cab itself makes for a very nice workspace. Bright and airy, even with the shutter pulled across the roof skylight – those deep windows make a big difference. The view wasn’t really spoilt by the guarding grille over the front screen, either.
But what blew me away was when Anton showed me how to bring up the 360-degree outside view through the four cameras. Being able to see my track edge and what’s behind me at the same time was awesome. Takes a lot of guesswork out this sort of work.
The same goes for dialling up different functions and parameters for the bucket. Shame there wasn’t a hole to dig for a deadman or some other job that could have put it to the test. It certainly whetted my appetite for being able to use this technology in the future. Straight away you have a record of how deep you dig and how long, which is great for health and safety records, not to mention peace of mind. Those are the types of technology we need to see in the forest.
As for the usual controls, I was so relieved when Anton showed me how to switch back to the Cat pattern to operate the joysticks. Very easy using that touch-screen. I much prefer to have the slew and dipper arm controls on the left and the bucket and boom working through the right sticks. Then there are the triggers underneath both joysticks, with the left one changing the power modes and the right for setting up your boundaries, but I didn’t need to use either.
I left the power setting on Eco and found it worked very well for me when blading, slewing and lifting. The only time it felt like it needed more urgency in Eco was in the drive motors for walking.
As with most modern machines, the controls are very quick and do take a while to get used to. But I found it very controllable. I could do fine blading on flat ground and even angling the bucket to create the batter was not a problem.
Another thing I like is that it shows what angles you are on, so you can compensate. It doesn’t matter what angle the base is on you can keep the bucket steady, because you have a bucket control angle and you dial it in and let the machine do the work. Very nifty.
The mechanical thumb is always useful in
these jobs, especially for keeping a load of slash and rubble in the bucket as I was clearing rubbish out of the way. Good speed and power in both the slew and the lift.
And being able to work in such a quiet and relaxed cab is a real bonus – I turned the radio down to soft and I could still hear it over the engine and hydraulics. That’s probably not a feature that would appeal to a young operator who likes the stereo up high, but to me, this whole machine is music to my ears.
NZL