Cat J-Series vs Komatsu PC200 Bucket Teeth: How to Match the Right Tip

Published: September 28, 2026By CN Machinery

1. Two Systems That Only Look Alike

Every week a container leaves Shanghai with bucket teeth in it, and every week somebody orders the wrong family because two teeth looked the same on a phone photo. The confusion has one cause: both Caterpillar and Komatsu use side-pinned teeth, so a Cat J-series tip and a Komatsu PC200 tooth share a silhouette — a wedge of steel with a pin through it — while the pin, the pin pocket and the adapter nose are all different.

The practical rule is short: you cannot cross a Cat J-family tip onto a Komatsu PC200 tooth, or the reverse. What you can do is identify your tooth, in either system, from two measurements and one number on the bucket. That is what this guide covers.

2. How a Cat J Number Is Built

Cat's J-series designations run J200, J225, J250, J300, J350, J400 and upward, and the number describes the size of the tooth system — pin diameter, pin length, retainer diameter and the adapter nose that carries it. The part number sitting inside a family describes the profile, not the size. Cat's own part pages make the point for you:

Cat part number	Cat's own description	Family
1U-3252	Bucket Tip — Cat J Series, industry-standard side-pinned design, standard pin and retainer system	J250
1U-3202	Bucket Tip, general purpose long	J200
1U-3302	Cat® J300 General Purpose Bucket Tip	J300
1U-3352	Cat® J350 general purpose bucket tooth, designed to penetrate and loosen soil and rocks	J350

So 1U-3252 and 1U-3302 are not "a better and a worse tooth". They are the same style of tip in two different system sizes, and which one you can bolt on is decided by the adapter already welded to the bucket. If the bucket carries a J250 nose, a J300 tip will not fit it — no matter how close the numbers look.

3. The Pin Is the Fastest Identification

This is the table worth photographing and keeping on the workshop wall. It is the Caterpillar-style wear chart used by wear-parts distributors, and it matches Cat's own part descriptions on the two rows we can check directly:

Family	Pin diameter	Pin length	Retainer diameter	Standard long tip weight (aftermarket catalogue)
J200	11 mm	61 mm	22 mm	2.8 lb / ~1.3 kg (1U-3202)
J225	14 mm	69 mm	30 mm	4.5 lb / ~2.0 kg (6Y-3222)
J250	14 mm	78 mm	30 mm	6.2 lb / ~2.8 kg (1U-3252)
J300	14 mm	92 mm	30 mm	9.7 lb / ~4.4 kg (1U-3302)
J350	19 mm	108 mm	40 mm	12.9 lb / ~5.9 kg (1U-3352)
J400	22 mm	119 mm	42 mm	cast weight varies by profile — confirm with us

The cross-check matters, because it is how you know the chart is about the real system and not about one supplier's drawings. Cat describes 149-5733 as a 14 mm J300 pin retainer — and the chart gives J300 a 14 mm pin. Cat lists 132-4763 as a J250 heavy duty pin, chamfered at both ends and not grooved so it can be driven in from either side — and the chart gives J250 a 14 mm pin, at 78 mm rather than 92 mm. That one length difference is what separates the two families in the field, and it is exactly the mistake that produces a pallet of worthless teeth.

Retention hardware travels with the family, not the tip profile: in the J250 group the heavy-duty pin is 132-4763 and the retainer is 149-5733; J350 steps up to pin 114-0358 with retainer 114-0359, and Cat also sells 8E-6259 as a 14 mm J300 extreme-service pin retainer.

4. The Komatsu PC200 Side

Komatsu numbers its teeth by machine family instead of by a J-size. The PC200 standard dirt tooth is 205-70-19570, and the profile variants keep the same base number with a suffix:

Part number	Profile	Pin	Catalogue weight
205-70-19570	Standard dirt tooth (straight chisel)	092-44-02496	10.47 lb / ~4.75 kg
205-70-19570-SB	SBIC / heavy-duty standard	092-44-02496	8.90 lb / ~4.04 kg
205-70-19570RC	Rock chisel	092-44-02496	11.90 lb / ~5.4 kg
205-70-19570TL	Tiger long	092-44-02496	12.10 lb / ~5.5 kg

Two details that catch buyers out. First, the pin is the same across the profiles, so a mixed box of standard, rock chisel and tiger teeth needs one pin number, not four. Second, the adapter is where the variation sits: supplier catalogues list both 20Y-70-14520 (32 mm nose class) and 205-939-7120 (40 mm nose class) for PC200 buckets, because the same tooth system is welded onto different bucket sizes. Measure the nose you have rather than ordering to the machine model alone.

Fitment for the tooth itself is well established in aftermarket catalogues as PC200 / PC220 / PC240, and the PC200-7 parts grouping lists 205-70-19570 with pin 092-44-02496 alongside its bucket cutters and track group. Hardness on aftermarket castings in this family is normally quoted at 48–52 HRC with an impact value above 20 J — treat those as the supplier's figure for the grade you are buying, and ask for the number on the packing list.

5. Where the Two Systems Actually Differ

Item	Cat J250 (1U-3252 class)	Komatsu PC200 (205-70-19570)
Naming logic	J-family size + profile number	Machine family + profile suffix
Pin	132-4763 (78 mm × 14 mm)	092-44-02496
Retainer	149-5733 (14 mm)	Snap-ring type on the Komatsu pin
Adapter examples	119-3253, 1U-0257 (weld-on)	20Y-70-14520, 205-939-7120 (weld-on)
Typical machine class	307/311/312-class excavators per aftermarket adapter lists	PC200 / PC220 / PC240

Nothing in that table can be swapped across the columns. The pockets are cut differently, the pins are different lengths, and the nose angles are not the same. An aftermarket tooth sold as "1U3252 equivalent" is a legitimate Cat-system tooth; it is not a Komatsu tooth in disguise.

6. What to Measure Before You Order

Five minutes with a tape measure and a phone camera removes almost every wrong order we see:

• Pin diameter and length. 11 mm or 14 mm or 19 mm; 78 mm or 92 mm. This alone puts you in a Cat family.
• Nose width at the pin line. Measure across the adapter nose where the pin passes, not the widest point of the tooth.
• Tooth length and profile. Standard, rock chisel or tiger long — the profile decides how the bucket loads, not the family.
• Adapter wear. If the nose has worn thin at the pin hole, new teeth will sit loose and lose pins; the adapter, not the tooth, is the part to replace.
• The numbers. A photo of any casting or stamp on the old tooth and on the adapter is worth more than a model name, because buckets get rebuilt with parts from more than one generation.

Send us the machine model with serial prefix, the numbers off the old teeth and adapters, and those measurements. We confirm the family, quote the tip together with the matching pin and retainer, and ship FOB Shanghai or CIF to your port.

7. What We Do Not Publish

No prices and no wear-life figures. Both depend on facts we cannot see: quantity, profile, quantity of pins and retainers on the same order, the shipping lane, and how abrasive your ground is. What we do publish is checkable — part numbers, pin dimensions, Cat's and the catalogues' own wording, and the measurement routine above. Cross numbers are a search lead, not a verification: if the pin in your hand measures 78 mm and 14 mm, you are in the J250 family, and that is the fact to order against.

FAQ

Q: Is a Cat J250 tooth the same as a Komatsu PC200 tooth?
A: No. A Cat J250 tooth is a side-pinned tip on a J-family adapter nose and takes a 78 mm × 14 mm pin. The Komatsu PC200 tooth is 205-70-19570, held with pin 092-44-02496 on a Komatsu-style adapter nose such as 20Y-70-14520 or 205-939-7120. The two look similar in a photograph but the pin, the pocket and the nose angle are different, so they are not interchangeable.

Q: How can I tell a J250 from a J300 without a catalogue?
A: Measure the pin. Both families use a 14 mm pin diameter, but the J250 pin is 78 mm long and the J300 pin is 92 mm long. Cat's retainer 149-5733 is described by Cat as a 14 mm J300 pin retainer, which is consistent with that. If you are still unsure, measure from the pin hole to the nose tip on the adapter and compare both ends of the tooth.

Q: Can I use a Cat pin in a Komatsu tooth?
A: No. Cat's 132-4763 is a J250 heavy duty pin, chamfered at both ends and not grooved, sized for J250 tips and adapters. Komatsu's 092-44-02496 is sized for the Komatsu tooth pocket. A pin even slightly too long will not seat and lock; one too short will walk out and take the tooth with it on the first shift.

Q: Which pins and retainers should I order with a box of teeth?
A: Order them by family, not per tooth profile. J250 tips all take the 132-4763 pin and 149-5733 retainer; J350 tips take the 114-0358 pin and 114-0359 retainer; the Komatsu PC200 profiles — standard, SBIC, rock chisel and tiger long — all take the same 092-44-02496 pin. Losing a pin costs you the tooth, so the hardware is never the place to save a few dollars.