70 Years of the Cat D9

I’m indebted to our Canadian friend and industry colleague Mack Plovie for pointing out that unofficially this year marks 70 years in production of Caterpillars iconic D9 tractor.

Image above courtesy of Keith McClure.

The Caterpillar D9 first appeared in 1954 as a 286-horsepower prototype model, before its official launch one year later. As years went by the tractor was upgraded to the D9D, D9E, (first to receive Cat’s power-shift transmission) D9G, and later the D9H model which was by that time fitted with a 410-horsepower engine.

The D9G model was probably the most famous model, built from 1961 to 1974 at Caterpillar's East Peoria factory; the tractor had a maximum engine power of 385hp and weighed in at around 31 tons. These machines and the later upgrade the D9H, were at the time, the ‘go to’ big dozer for earthmoving contractors and were highly respected machines.

The D9L was the first 9 to receive Cat’s innovative elevated sprocket design which had been launched with the introduction of the D10 in 1977. Interestingly enough Cat’s 25,000th elevated sprocket track type tractor was a D9N, rolling off the line in 1988.

As Mack summarized, “Some 70 years later, the era of open cabs and cable-controlled blades is bygone, today the D9 next-gen is making an appearance on job sites all over, with technology and features aboard its predecessors could have never imagined.

The D9 platform is arguably Cat’s most popular tractor, the power of a D10 with the nimbleness of a D8, those who run em love em!”.

Checkout this fantastic promotional video from Cat Mining.