Classic Cat D8K spotted

by Nick Drew | Sat 07 Sep 2013

Classic Cat D8K spotted

Digger Man Blog reader Shaun Bentley was so inspired by our recent Dozing Back in Time blog post, that he sent in a couple of shots he took of a Cat classic that he had witnessed working recently.

The Caterpillar D8K is a legendary crawler tractor that sadly has lived in the shadow of its bigger brother the D9, in its various guises. The Cat D8K was first introduced in 1974, and the power-shift models, as featured in Shaun’s photos, were produced until 1982. During the production span, it is estimated that around 28,900 units were manufactured. After this time, Cat introduced a new larger model the D8L. There are still many D8K's hard at work around the globe to this day, a great testament to Caterpillar equipment's longevity.

The machine featured here was recently deployed to restore a slipped landfill site somewhere in Essex. Shaun’s detail on the machine was sketchy, but it is believed that the machine belonged to Midland Excavations. As you can see from the shot below, the cab is in extremely good condition for an old tractor, all credit to its operator!

As mentioned, one of the great things about my blog, at its various hosts over the years, has been the interaction with my readers, who have very kindly sent in original photos and material for posting here. I would love for that to continue here at Earthmovers, so please, if you have anything you would like to share with us, don’t hesitate to contact me at nickydrew16 at btinternet.com , using the usual email format.

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