Ashland, Kentucky – When long-time customer Marathon Petroleum wanted to repower inland river towboats, they turned to their trusted Cat® dealer Boyd Cat to get the job done. Marathon had installed Cat 3606 engines on the inland waterways vessels in the early 1990s and twenty years later was ready to repower three towboats with the successor to the 3600 engine series, the Cat C280. Starting in December 2013, Boyd Cat worked with Marathon to repower the three vessels with Cat C280-6 engines, each rated at 2548 bhp @ 900 rpm.

“Marathon Petroleum has been a proud Cat customer for decades and had great success with the reliability and durability of the Cat 3606 engines since the initial installation of the engines,” Neilly Allen, Boyd Cat marine account manager noted. “They were impressed with the long overhaul intervals and were eager to repower their vessels with the C280 engines, which have the perfect speed and power fit for their applications on the inland rivers.”

Manufactured in Lafayette, Indiana, Cat C280 engines incorporate 30 years of proven component reliability and durability from the legendary Cat 3600 platform series with a sophisticated, yet well-proven, modern electronic fuel injection system. Cat C280 marine engines are available in continuous and maximum continuous ratings at 900 and 1000 rpm and in 6, 8, 12, and 16 cylinder configurations The advanced ADEM™ A3 electronic control system enables the C280 engines to work smarter and harder. The rugged and durable C280 engines provide customers with low owning and operating costs, with overhaul intervals running as long as 40,000 hours. “At Whayne, our customers have found the C280 delivers on the same Cat brand promise as the 3606 engines, which developed a long-standing reputation on the waterways as a reliable workhorse,” Allen noted. “With the increasing demands for the C280 platform on inland waterway applications, we’ve become incredibly proficient at completing comprehensive repowers quickly to get our customers’ vessels back on the water.”

Cat marine power and propulsion solutions are backed by the worldwide Cat dealer network with trained technicians to ensure service support is never out of reach. For more information on Caterpillar Marine, visit www.marine.cat.com. Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin/showcase/caterpillar-marine and Facebook: www.facebook.com/caterpillarmarine