Caterpillar Earthmoving Equipment - Modern CAT Machines

CAT has been around starting 19th century, when Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best experimented on different ways the steam tractors can be used for farm or agricultural work. Before the year 1925, it was the family of Holt that pioneered machineries such as gasoline engines and track tractors. These were the predecessors of the Caterpillar earthmoving equipment.

Holt and Best collaborated and created their own company, which had a number of changes until the Second World War, when their company saw phenomenal growth. This saw the great demand for Caterpillar earthmoving equipment and the rise of the company into a major force in the machinery industry.

Today, CAT is widely recognized all over the world as a major manufacturer of Caterpillar earthmoving equipment and machinery. CAT machines include hydraulic excavators, track type tractors, motor graders, backhoes, off road trucks, tractors, wheel loaders, gas and diesel engines as well as gas turbines.

Needless to say, CAT equipment are found in many industries that involve excavation, mining, building of roads, construction, forestry, transportation, energy, material handling and transporting. Caterpillar earthmoving equipment can be purchased in 200 countries all over the world. It has network of more than 200 dealers found in the US and overseas.
Image credit: Mark Sardella

Tractor Front End Loaders - Effective in Loading Materials

The tractor front end loaders, likewise known as a tractor bucket loader machineries, is commonly wheeled type of machineries that utilize a wide square bucket that tilts on the end part of arms that move to lift materials around.

The assembly can be a attachment that is removable, or can also be a permanent fixture on the machine. Likewise, it is also possible to replace the bucket with a variety of useful construction or excavator tools such as fork and as well as the bucket type that is operated with hydraulics.

The big style tractor front end loaders such as the Caterpillar model usually possess just a front bucket and known simply as tractor front loaders. The smaller versions are equipped with mini backhoes and so they are often known as loader backhoes.

These types of machineries are utilized primarily to load materials into trucks and other vehicles and be taken away. Other uses of tractor bucket loader machineries are clearing of rubble and other materials, laying of pipes and digging of grounds.

You can see these versatile vehicles in construction sites where roads are being fixed and pipes and metal bars are needed to be transported from one place to another. During wintertime, they are also great for the removal of snow with the use the bucket. They can also act as snow plow. Streets can be made clear of snow just by the use of these loaders. They effectively dump snow into trucks to be hauled away.
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Caterpillar D11 Bulldozer – Amazing Tractor

The Caterpillar D11 bulldozer belongs to the tracked type series of tractors and one of the world’s biggest conventional bulldozer equipments, second only to Komatsu bulldozer D575.

The D11 bulldozer can be found on the higher end of Caterpillar earthmoving equipment, and ranges in size and power from 77 Horse Power to 935 Horse Power.

The primary usage of the Caterpillar D11 bulldozer is to move huge quantities of dirt and rocks to short distances and confined areas or spaces. The size, weight, power and prize of this Caterpillar bulldozer would clearly indicate that it is primarily utilized for major products. Normally you will see the D11 being used in mining and quarrying operations, as well as forestry and excavation.

The Caterpillar D-11 bulldozer is highly favored for its intense power and capacity to rip through land. This makes it ideal for agricultural as well as and rock ripping tasks. Its ripper is an elongated claw-like gadget found at the back of the D-11. Rippers of the Caterpillar D11 bulldozers either come in groups or single shank. However, you normally just need a single one on order to do the ripping tasks, however heavy they might be.

Rock ripping allows the rocks on the ground surface to break down to small and easy to transport rubble. They are much convenient to remove and hence allows you to grade the areas.

The front blade of the Caterpillar D-11 bulldozer is available in three varieties. The first is the straight type which is rather short and with no lateral curve and side wings. The straight blade is excellent for fine grading. The second is the universal blade, which is tally and curved and possesses big side wings intended for carrying more materials. The third blade is the combination type, which is shorter and possesses less curve and smaller side wings.

The nearest competition for the Caterpillar D-11 is the Komatsu bulldozer D-475. The Caterpillar is distinguishable from the Komatsu by the drive sprocket or even its high drive mechanism that results in triangle shaped, rather than oval, track.

The Caterpillar D11 bulldozer is simply one of the best products this company offers. If you must have bulldozer equipment with powerful strength and capabilities, the D11 is all that you need for the job.
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Trench Equipment - Popular Construction Vehicle

Since trench equipment was used by the home and commercial builders and contractors, these construction vehicles become a staple of the building crew. Indeed, the amount of time as well as labor that were saved with the use of the trench digging equipment is definitely significant. It can be said that the contractor can increase the amount of jobs done at the same quantity of time.


The trench equipment whether the basic unit or one with attachment is a versatile construction vehicle that contractors would love to have around the job site. This trench digging equipment can be called a jack of all trades as it can be utilized for many various purposes such as digging holes to creating trenches for drainages pipes. For areas wherein other types of machinery cannot deal with the land, like those with large tree roots or rocks, the trench equipment is able to do it, minimizing the amount of downtime once experienced with digging chores are done by hands.

The Bobcat Company offers various trenching attachments created to be used on mini skid steer loader equipments. The attachment part models such LT102 up to LT304 can dig depths starting at two feet up to four.

Mini trencher equipment

The mini trencher of today is re-designed to the concept that’s being applied to the standard trench digging equipment. As the name implies, these equipment are small, and weight lighter. Its biggest sized model weighs just under 400 pounds.


Mini trencher equipments are compact; this allows the crew to place them easily at the back of any common pick-up vehicle. They can also dig trenches with width of about a few inches and depth running to 12 inches, with the soil neatly laid on the trench side. Pipes can be covered easily and conveniently with backfill, with barely any obvious seam on the land.

Indeed, these mini trencher machineries are best for use in small or tight places, and on areas with shrubs or trees. This small trench equipment has turning radius of 2 feet or less and fits easily through yard gates. Construction tasks that normally would require a great amount of human labor can now be done by these machines at a lot less time and manpower.
Image credit: Trencher by VRGuy, Craig driving the trencher by straykat

Compact Backhoe Loader

Compact backhoe loader is a popular excavation and engineering machinery vehicle consisting of a tractor, bucket, rear end backhoe and front shovel. These type of loaders, despite being small and versatile, are utilized in small time excavation and construction work and projects.

If the compact backhoe loader has backhoes and loaders as attachment, it must not be referred to as tractor because it does not possess a PTO and utilized for towing purposes.


On the other hand, when a backhoe serves as an attachment, the compact backhoe loader possesses a seat which swivels toward the back in order to reach the controls of the backhoe. Any detachable backhoe attachment normally has a seat that is separate from the backhoe attachment itself.

Backhoe loaders are actually equipment which are commonly utilized for various heavy tasks such as power building, light transportation, construction, excavation, trenching and paving streets and roads and breaking of aspalt.

Actually the backhoe bucket can be replaced with other tool attachments like breakers for smashing and breaking rocks and concrete. There are other various loader bucket attachments that offer bottoms which can retract, enabling it to be able to do emptying tasks quicker and more efficiently.

Compact backhoe loader equipments are available in various popular and established brands, albeit you can have a used or refurbished loader that is still excellent quality or at least in good condition at a much lesser price.
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Compact Excavators and Trenchers - Differences Between Them

Both compact excavator equipment and trencher are popular, affordable and product. They can also do the heavy work load, however, there are differences as far as some aspects especially when performance, productivity and utility installations are concerned.


The average depth measurement for installations in residential application is somewhere between 40 and 50 inches. The ordinary trench equipment digging such depth boasts of 20-25 horsepower engine which costs 40,000 US dollars.

The compact excavator on the other hand is 2 metric ton size and utilizes a 30 horsepower engine at around the same cost. The glaring difference between these two is seen when there is a need to dig much deeper. The compact excavator easily digs deeper to 8 more feet and over, while with a trencher, an engine of 100 HP is need and will cost US$90,000.


Trenchers are between than compact excavator when it comes to straight trenching at average depths. On normal conditions, a trencher works up to four times faster than a compact excavator. Trenchers are also excellent in wooded locations, where logs and roots can cause buckets to perform slow digging.

However, when it comes to overall versatility, the compact excavator equipment can perform better than the trencher, especially with all the attachments on it. On the other hand, an excellent quality trencher digs much faster than the compact excavator.
Image credit: mini excavator by mwboechmann, trencher by straykat

Komatsu Excavators - World's Most Popular Excavator Equipment

Komatsu Engineering Company in the 1990s launched a new line of Komatsu excavators that eliminated the usual counterweight design. And so the tight tail swing excavator equipment was products. These machineries are now used extensively in the US and all over the world.


As in any other brand of excavating equipment, Komatsu excavators are engineering and construction vehicles that consist of a bucket and arm as well as a mounted cab on an undercarriage possessing wheels or tracks. The design of excavators is actually a progression from the typical steam shovel.

Albeit many construction and engineering equipment and vehicle companies manufacture Hydraulic excavators, Komatsu is now the top manufacturer of excavating machines today. For every excavator of another brand model, there exist three Komatsu Excavators. What is great about the Komatsu brand is its wide variety of model designs and sizes. Of course, the much smaller machines, known as mini excavators, are also available from this company.

Komatsu excavators are utilized together with bulldozers and loaders. The wheeled versions as well as the compact excavators possess small backfill blades, which are horizontal and bulldozer like and are attached to undercarriages. Such blades are useful in pushing and placing back excavated materials back to the created hole.
Image credit: mwboeckmann