When the Caterpillar D9 was introduced in 1954, it represented the biggest, baddest thing the company had built to date. The machine was designed to compete with the epic Euclid TC-12 bulldozer which was a powerful monster, but an unwieldily one, even on its best day. The Caterpillar may have been down on some power compared to the TC-12 but it had the comfort, maneuverability, and speed to more than make up for the “lack” of grunt. The D9 is still produced today but the ones that roll out of the factories in 2018 are a long way from the early tractors like this one we see. Starting with about 250hp and eventually increasing to over 300 and now over 500, they make these 1950s examples look kind of quaint.
The best part of this video for us, outside of the great footage of the D9s pushing, ripping, and moving Earth are the interviews with the owners of the machines, including a guy from Massachusetts who is the most Massachusetts guy we have heard in a long, long time. In a clear example of how much the world has changed, the D9 in Massachusetts worked at a coal yard used to load trucks that would then make urban and suburban deliveries of the material for people to heat and cook with. Not a lot of people are heating with coal anymore these days, at least not in New England!
Machines like the D9 have quite literally helped shape our lives. From highways and byways to dam projects, money and other jobs, the big yellow and black units have moved untold millions of tons of Earth since the 50s and like all things, the D9 which was once the king of the Caterpillar jungle is now one of the larger units the company makes but far from the largest. This video is great!
