Buyers beware of cbi grinders
This information is based on firsthand experience, documentation and is meant to be as accurate and transparent as possible.
Top 3 problems with cbi grinders based on my opinions
Ask a CBI representative which engine duty cycle you should purchase and why? Get it in writing!
No matter what engine you choose, they all have duty cycles rated from A-E.
- However, no engines offered on the CT6800 meet Caterpillar application specs in duty cycle and/or overall load factor. This problem also applies to most CBI machines/engine specs.
- Depending on engine and duty cycle ratings used, your local Caterpillar dealer may not agree to honor CBI warranties.
- The engines and their duty cycles were sold to me without this essential information. This "out of Cat specs" means that CAT engines used in CBI have a application priority for production over longevity and reliability. (It is my opinion that this is done to wrench the maximum power to drive the exceptionally heavy hammermill and its large screening area.)
- This duty cycle issue was eventually disclosed to me by (2) separate Caterpillar dealers after the engine catastrophically overheated and failed.
My company's experience with CBI? (please check the drop down menu for docs and updates)
Since 2019 I have entered into 3 rental purchase agreements with the purchase of 2 CBI CT 6800 grinders. I have been in business since 1996 and have owned grinders from different manufacturers.
- The first BT grinder quickly developed an engine oil/coolant mix problem that neither CBI nor Caterpillar would fix. To keep my business online and reduce customer interruptions, I decided to order a new machine with the larger C32 engine, despite walking away from more $200,000 in rental credits to do so.
- I later learned the day the dealer picked up the BT 6800 machine, they sold and delivered it to another unsuspecting customer without repairing or even possibly disclosing the engine problem uncovered by the history of bad bad oil scans.
- The next CT 6800 delivered with the larger C32 engine developed clutch issues and overheating problems within six months.
- The entire top part of the machine "hog box" had to be replaced because of manufacturing errors, in addition to unresolved clutch and engine issues. This was another month of down time at the dealer.
- The engine ultimately overheated as a result of a long-standing CBI programming error and cost me more than $230,000 and nearly 5 more months of downtime, without any assistance or relief from either CBI or our local Caterpillar dealer.
The CBI grinder with the larger Caterpillar C32 engine developed catastrophic engine failure.
- With fewer than 800 hours of operation, the machine was overheating on hot days and would perform a hard shutdown.
- This overheating issue that caused the hard shutdowns never alerted our operators because warning sirens/flashers were not installed on CBI grinders. With clutch warning alerts on the small control box, we were unaware of the more important engine issue. Additionally, we were not allowed access to telematics as advertised, which would have provided us the necessary details to mitigate the problems.
- In the end, the problem was uncovered only after our local Caterpillar dealer pulled a PSR at the time of the catastrophic engine failure, which showed our machine experienced (11) hard shutdowns at 232 degrees, which is the Caterpillar default setting. These 11 hard shutdowns happened over a 4,000-hour timeframe.
- CBI programing should have called for the engine to idle down and the clutch to disengage at approximately 220 degrees to give the machine time to cool down. However, these mitigation settings were not working and can only be set up with CBI software and tech access. Despite spending more than $230,000 on a new engine. CBI/Terex Executives Travis Lint and George insisted the settings were correct, also incorrectly telling me at 2023 Con Expo Vegas that we were overriding the manufacturer's safety overheat settings. I then disproved this theory by putting a heat gun on the coolant sensor to make the grinder think it was overheating. I documented these tests on video, proving that the CBI settings were not working properly — and that there was no way to immediately override the Caterpillar 232-degree hard shutdown.
- Only after I exposed the video evidence of the faulty factory settings CBI offered to update the software. This software update had been in existence for years and would have prevented the Catastrophic engine damage, $230K repair at my expense and 5 months of downtime.
- At the end of the day CBI was perfectly willing to let my engine burn up again. It is only because of the heat gun advice I received from another grinder manufacturer that I was able to get CBI to update the software to correct the settings.