New D6T Pushes Like a Dozer With Ease of Driving a Pickup | Cat | Caterpillar

D6T

New D6T Pushes Like a Dozer With Ease of Driving a Pickup

The Caterpillar engineering teams charged with improving the total owning and operating costs of the D6T dozer understood the gravity of the task. “One of the biggest challenges has been to make it stand on the shoulders of the machines that have come in the past,” says Jason Carter, Transmission Technical Team Lead for Medium Tractor Products. “We had to deliver the same level of durability, the same level of reliability as our predecessor products, our trusted Cat® machines of the past.”

Mission accomplished.

The new Cat D6T dozer is a transformative machine, making high-efficiency dozing as easy as driving a pickup truck, and saving fuel without sacrificing durability, power or productivity. “The objectives of this project were very simple at the beginning: improve the efficiency and be best in class; best in class in yards moved per gallon of fuel used,” says D6T Product Engineer Eric Stemler.

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The objectives were simple. The results were revolutionary, starting with a new, fully-automatic four-speed lock-up clutch transmission.

“This new machine has an Auto Shift feature that works both up and down the speed range,” says Medium Tractor Product Chief Engineer Wes Holm. “You put the tractor in the speed you’re comfortable with and the tractor will figure out what gear and what engine RPM to run at.”

“Basically, an operator can just select a desired ground speed and the tractor will continuously change settings in order to maintain maximum power to the ground,” says Eric Stemler.

The new D6T is up to 2.5% more productive, moving more material per hour than the previous model, yet delivering unprecedented fuel efficiency.

“Day in and day out, we’ve heard reports from the field where we’ve had these tractors running up to 20% fuel consumption reduction, even 30% in lighter-load applications,” says Todd Baker, Project Manager, New Product Introduction. “That’s money back in the customer’s pocket and doing the same amount of work a lot easier.”

“DAY IN AND DAY OUT, WE’VE HEARD REPORTS FROM THE FIELD WHERE WE’VE HAD THESE TRACTORS RUNNING UP TO 20% FUEL CONSUMPTION REDUCTION, EVEN 30% IN LIGHTER-LOAD APPLICATIONS.”

“And with the Auto Shift, it’s easier to use, coupled with our suite of grade control products from Cat Stable Blade to Cat Slope Assist, the integrated Cat grade control 3D, we’ve made this tractor a lot easier to run for the average customer, and made the good operators even better,” says Wes Holm.

And because of all those breakthroughs, the new D6T dozer takes its place in the line of legendary Cat machines.

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