Caterpillar (Africa) (Pty) Ltd | Anvil Rd, Isando, Kempton Park 1600, Gauteng

In 1977 the first thing everyone noticed about the Cat® D10 was it was different It did not just look unusual it was big Fully equipped with ROPS cab multi shank ripper straight dozer blade full fuel tank coolants lubricant and operator it weighed almost 180 000 pounds It was over 31 feet long and measured 15 feet from ground to top of the exhaust stack The Cat D10 was 12 feet wide even without its dozer blade and had a standard track gauge of 114 inches for dozing and ripping applications To understand why Caterpillar designed a machine so large and unusual looking we must go back to the early 1970s when it became apparent there was a growing need for a tractor to do massive ripping push loading and dozing work that was beyond the capabilities of what was Caterpillars largest tractor the Cat D9