Digger’s Conexpo Highlights: Kress Motor Scraper

I have always had an eye for the unusual and bespoke products, and during my time at Conexpo I was not disappointed to discover a variety of rarer machines one of which was the Kress K13 motor scraper.

The American Kress Corporation is a manufacturer of bespoke transport systems based not far from Illinois. The company has a long and illustrious history in manufacturing and indeed, Ralph Kress was one of the driving forces behind famous off-road hauler businesses such as Le Tourneau-Westinghouse (Wabco) and Caterpillar. The company is probably more well known for building slag pot carriers, but with the decline in steel milling they are diversifying into other products, the most recent being the K13 elevating scraper.

The Kress K13 is an 11yd3 (8.4 m3) single engine powered elevating motor scraper which is heavily based on well proven, tried and tested Caterpillar components.

Based on the Caterpillar 613G, power for the Kress K13 comes from a Tier 4 Final and EU Stage IV emissions compliant Cat C7.1 engine which offers a power output rating of 202hp (151kw) and drives a Cat powertrain transmission.

According to a Kress spokesman on the stand, the K13 features a simple elevator design that is easy to service. It is also equipped with a heavy-duty elevator pump designed to run at high speeds which equal fast cycle times to help get the job done quickly and reliably. A large capacity fuel tank allows machine operation for up to 10-12 hours.

Kress can also offer this machine as a custom rear dumptruck, or as a water tanker/dust suppression unit.