Back in the ‘50s and early ‘60s the Euclid TC-12 was the biggest, baddest, and greenest bulldozer known to man. Few were built and their mechanical complexity often rendered them silent aside from the click of a mechanic’s ratchet.
The machine weights about 35 tons and is powered by not one, but two 6-71 Detroit Diesels. The secret to the tractor’s power is the fact that each motor drove one side of the tracks. In the video clip below you can hear this thing in all its cantankerous glory. Those two-strokes certainly sound good when they are working hard.
The first version of this beast was built in 1953 after GM had acquired Euclid. Engineers figured out a way to join two Euclid C-6 bulldozers side by side and make one humongous machine. Everything was doubled. There were two motors, two Allison transmissions with torque converters, two hoods, two radiators, but only one operator.
The machines were in all honesty too large for the day. Trucks that could move them really didn’t exist and they were so massive, the only real use for them was in mining operations and other large-scale settings.
Here’s a link to a guy that was crazy enough to restore one.
Here’s one at work down in Austrailia. You’ll hear it referred to as a Terex, which is correct as the machines were also sold under that name.
It looks like both sides of the “Euc” were moving independent of each other. You can see it between 1:30-50 marks.
I remember that there was a Euclid dealers near Newcastle upon Tyne where I live. It was on the coast road and every time we went near it I used to ask my father to park the car so I could ogle the monsters on show. Happy memories and a great machine!