Cat D1 Spotted

Back at the end of last year Caterpillar announced that it was making changes to the nomenclature of its machines, in layman’s terms this meant it was dropping the model last letter and numbering the machines in a more simplified way.

There is also a more radical change to its dozer model numbering system which is a bit of a shock for the Caterpillar purists, but when you look at it logically it makes perfect sense. We have already seen the new D6 and D6 XE the world’s first dozer equipped with a high drive electric drive powertrain rolled out in Europe but now all the other new models are gradually being phased in across the different territories. Our friend Matt Gardner over at sprockets_and_tires on Instagram recently got up close and personal with some of the new D1 models, which was previously Caterpillars smallest tractor the D3K and he has kindly shared some photos of the machines with us here on the Digger Man Blog.

Matt who works for Iron Planet, snapped these shots during a visit to Cat dealership Gregory Poole in Raleigh, North Carolina. Personally, I still can’t get used to seeing the D1 logo but like everything we will get used to it.

The official line from Cat is that the simplified naming of its machines will aim to better align with faster product development cycles and make it easier for its customers to do business with the company. It is understood that all the dozers will be released with the new numbering system by 2021.

For future reference here is the existing line up and what they will become.

D3K becomes the D1

D4K becomes the D2

D5K becomes the D3

D6K becomes the D4

D6N becomes the D5

D6T becomes the D6

D7E becomes the D7

D8T becomes the D8

D9T becomes the D9

D10T becomes the D10

D11T becomes the D11

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank Matt for sharing these photos with us and we look forward to more input onto this blog from him over the coming months and years.