by Nick Drew | Tue 12 Apr 2016
Cat’s big old tracked loaders
While most social media channels will be wall to wall with Bauma coverage this week, here on the Digger Man Blog we continue to try and bring you varied and interesting content in addition to our Bauma topics. Here in this blog we take a look back at Caterpillars big tracked loaders the 977 and 983.
The Cat 977 was first introduced back as far as 1955/6, these machines proved to be powerful and highly regarded machines for medium to large scale earthmoving projects and also were favoured by demolition contractors at the time.
The one featured in these first two photos from the Digger Man Blog archives, was operated by Harvey Plant Hire from their Newton Abbot depot in Devon and unusually features what appears to be a pusher blade on the front in place of a loading bucket.
The 977K upgrade came along in 1966 when it was officially launched in the USA. About a year later a Cat facility in Japan started production of the model for different regional markets. A similar scenario was repeated a year later in Scotland which saw machines being manufactured for the UK and European markets. The 977K saw an increase in power from its Cat D333 turbocharged six-cylinder engine which offered a power output rating of 170hp. In this scanned photo we see a 977K loading a wagon, an application that these machines were very good at.
Check out this video of a restored 977K in action and enjoyed that sound!
[youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cU9Dn6oL4I[/youtube]
The other big daddy in the Cat tracked loader range was the mighty 983 which has of course been featured here on the blog in previous posts. In the late 1960’s there was a demand for a larger track type loading shovel. Caterpillars solution to this was to introduce the 983 in 1969, which took many of its components from the hugely successful D8 tractor.
The 983 took its power from a Cat D343 turbocharged, six-cylinder engine producing an impressive 275hp, driving a three-speed powershift transmission. The production run of these giant tracked loaders wasn’t that long in the wider scheme of things and the machines suffered from front idler issues mainly due to the weight of a full bucket bearing down on them. However it is estimated that around 1,600 were built, all of those being manufactured in the USA.
Here is another video featuring a restored 983 in action, enjoy!
[youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_x3QIte6a0[/youtube]