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Dozers get a wake-up call.

Article Excerpt
Dozers get a wake-up call

by Kay Falk

Equipment users want lower costs and more productivity. New machines from Caterpillar and Deere promise both.

In chemistry, a catalyst brings about a change, often increasing the rate of change or the reaction. In off-road equipment, one catalyst that's caused a big reaction is emissions regulations. As the requirements become more stringent with every tier, they challenge off-highway OEMs and their engineers to look for new approaches to component, system and overall equipment design. When you add in customer requests for lower operating costs and an increased ability to get more done in a day, OEM designers get creative.

The new 764 high speed dozer (HSD) from John Deere and the Caterpillar D7E electric drive track-type tractor are excellent examples of innovative machines. Both were introduced at the recent ConExpo/Con-Agg show in Las Vegas.

Listening to customers

Both Deere and Caterpillar have a formal means of obtaining customer input on new equipment.

"In working with our customers through our Customer Advocate Group (CAG) process, Deere was able to identify a gap in the ability of current machine forms," Scott Bayless, product consultant for Deere, explains. The result is what Deere calls its first new machine form in decades.

According to Bayless, motor graders can work at a relatively fast speed. They are quite mobile and because of their rubber tires, disturb the finished grade very little. "There are some challenges that face a motor grader, however," he says. "They usually require a very skilled operator, they are somewhat limited to ground conditions due to a relatively high ground pressure, and they have a large turning radius limiting their ability to maneuver tight areas."

He continues, "Track crawlers have the ability to operate in a wider array of conditions due to a much lower ground pressure. They typically don't require...

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