Crawler Dozers Dismantled Machines in Canada

About Crawler Dozers

Crawler dozers, sometimes called “bulldozers,” use steel tracks rather than the tires of a wheel dozer to propel them and maneuver. Although they move more slowly and are more expensive to maintain, tracks provide better traction and weight distribution than do tires, which allows them to get around better on a variety of surfaces and in adverse conditions. Crawler dozers are common to construction, agriculture, landfill, and other jobsites because of their ability to move sizable amounts of soil, gravel, rocks, sand, and other materials. They’re used to prep sites, grade surfaces, clear debris, demolish structures, rip rocky or packed soil, and more.

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CASE 1150M LGP Crawler Dozer

Smaller crawler dozers may have as little as 68 net horsepower (51 kilowatts) and weigh around 7,167 kilograms (15,800 pounds). Caterpillar fields compact models optimised for mulching and shiphold and port-handling duties. At the high-capacity end, Komatsu’s giant D475A-5 boasts 890 HP (664 kW) and an operating weight of nearly 108,900 kg (240,000 lbs). Komatsu’s 500-plus-horsepower product line includes models designed for work on mining operations.

Early Beginnings

Crawler dozers date back to late 1923 in Morrowville, Kansas, where farmer James Cummings and draftsman J. Earl McLeod patented an “Attachment for Tractors” consisting of a front blade and supporting arms. The inventors’ patent included a diagram of the blade mounted on a wheeled tractor, but within the next several years it began to show up on tracked models manufactured by companies such as Caterpillar. Besides agriculture, construction, and mining, dedicated “bulldozers” started to serve in the military as well, constructing defenses, airfields, and the like, as well as clearing forests, mines, and obstacles.

Modern Features

Today, the dozer market includes a huge variety of small, medium, and large machines equipped with hydrostatic, mechanical, and hybrid drive systems. Advancements in dozers have included the implementation of intelligent, automated GPS and other systems designed to provide machine, power, grade, slope, and blade control. With 3D grade control, even operators with little experience can achieve precise results, and can do so in fewer passes and less time. Automatic traction control and extra-wide or low ground pressure (LGP) tracks (also known as “swamp” tracks) can help a dozer operate on soggy or unstable terrain.

The advent of wireless telematics is as important a development to dozers as it is to other modern heavy machinery, keeping fleet managers apprised of machine location, productivity, and status. The industry has also taken its first steps toward crawler dozers that can be controlled remotely or even autonomously.

Find The Right Crawler Dozer

Popular manufacturers of new and used crawler dozers available on MarketBook include CASE, Caterpillar, Deere, Komatsu, and Liebherr. Some of the most plentiful models you’ll find on the site are Cat’s D5, D6, and D8; the Deere 650 and 850; and the Komatsu D65.