Born in the USA

Last week’s post on the unofficial Cat D12 customer modification of a D11R certainly got a lot of attention online, so this week I thought we would take a look at a video featuring the birth place of Caterpillar large dozers.

There is one place on earth that is synonymous with the name of Caterpillar, Peoria, Illinois, USA, which is the birth place of the largest construction machinery manufacturer in the world, the globally iconic brand, that has inspired many generations of heavy equipment, owners, operators and enthusiasts alike for well over 100 years.

It was February 16^th 1910, that Holt Caterpillar took over the manufacturing plant in East Peoria, that had previously been home to another manufacturer who was building steam powered wheel-driven tractors, who had sadly gone bankrupt.

Incredibly the Holt Caterpillar business started with just 12 employees, when production of their track type tractors began, the rest as they say is history.

Today, Peoria is home to the plant that manufactures Caterpillars largest track-type tractors, alongside many other machines in the Cat portfolio. These giant machines are perhaps the most well known and widely recognised Cat products around the world. Cat's large dozer range comprises of the D9, D10 and D11 models, and in 2018 the 40,000th machine rolled off the production line of Caterpillar's building SS in East Peoria.

There really is something very impressive about them, I could watch a Cat dozer in action for hours and never get bored of the sight, sound and awesome power of these yellow metal beasts!

This impressive promotional video from Caterpillar really captures that feeling, enjoy.