John,
I have tried out the ASV,Takeuchi, and am going to try the Cat 287,although I have a friend who has a 277 and I would imagine the 287 runs just about the same even though it has a slightly different undercarriage than the 277. The ASV was nice, especially the speedy part of the 2 speeds, but I didn't particularly like the massive amount of rear end that sticks out the back beyond the tracks, it looks like it could be a problem when backing up, and I wouldn't give the fiberglass hood much of a chance either. Also the bucket did not seem to have much roll-back to it, which seemed to result in losing material while in transport, and with the bucket raised all the way it did not seem to have much "reach" while trying to load a truck, my biggest gripe though was the serviceability of it, it is hard to locate the dipstick, much less get your hand on it, and getting to the filters looked as though it could be a bit frustrating. The Takeuchi was also nice, had self leveling bucket but no option to shut it off, which tends to be quite annoying while trying to power rake or use other implements. The track system is much simplier, but does not offer the ride that the ASV or Cat does, but I could see it being a little more resistant to dammage, and again the serviceability of this machine is better than the ASV but still didn't look great. The Cat seems to have gotten the hint that when it comes time for service make it as user friendly as possible, all the filters are located right at the rear of the machine, and draining the oil is a snap, as is access to the radiator since the fan is hydraulically driven and can fold up out of the way,the biggest drawback to the Cat is that it only has one speed and no high flow option. I'm not sure when I'm going to demo the Cat, hopefully sometime this week or next, and my salesmans name is Steve Fritz. Keep me posted on how you decide, the more feedback the merrier.
