Got to skin one of the new CAT D7E's today and thought some of you might like to see a short little clip I "attempted" to shoot from in the cab... Click here to see video
Yes AND ?????? Your leaving us in suspense.was the thing any good ?????? Regards
Is that the ELEVATED top-roller version?
The back up alarm seemed louder the the machine itself . Was it really that quite ? Is it as smooth as it looks ? Have fun with your new toy !
Congrats! I agree... penny for your thoughts?
i agree, quit tickling our a** with a feather
Nice looking machine. With the discontinuation of the elevated D-4 several years ago, is the introduction of conventional track D-5 and D-6 and now D-7 a tacit admission by Cat that the elevated sprocket design is not a universally good idea for all tracked machines? I understand the idea of reducing direct tension and shock upon the final drives and tranny, okay. Other makers have taken half measures in this area by elevating the sprocket slightly above the track frame rollers in a still very conventional oval layout to reduce vibration and stress. Can we take from this that elevated sprocket layouts are most feasible in extreme, heavy duty ops while it's not so much in more GP duties? Extra weight, complexity, cost, etc.? The single blade cylinder does a great job of clearing up the view. Did maybe Euclid/Terex have this right 30 years ago? Cat just seems to be deviating from its tenets a bit here although maybe for the better.
they are a good looking robust machine excellent visibility will be interesting to see how they go are they on the market yet I did hear that it's more cost effective to build the oval track frame.
Will be interesting to see how the single cyld. holds up in the long run or if it will get really slopppy. Thanks for the input. Trbo
I'm with Trbo on the 1 ram, I'd sacrafice the visibility for the support of a 2 ram hardnose.Imagine tilting the dozer to take a stump out 10 years from now. Nice looking machine though
Not sure if single verses double rams make much difference as double rams act basically as one anyway. If more weight is applied to one than other,the oil transfers to one with with the less weight,as both rams share common oil. You see that when you have rams free,of blade ,and raise or lower them,one will alway move more than the other. Also as track frames occilate,they have to be able to do that,unless you are unfortunate enough to have a fixed track frame,model. This can be overcome by fitting some sort of special valve,but then the C frame would have to be pivoted exactly at track frame pivot point or would fight itself,[or be a fixed track frame] To me that very high single ram looks somewhat vunerable ,and I have never found that 2 rams restrict visibility anyway,as one normally looks at blade corners. ANYHOW How long do we all have to hold our breaths for a report on this D7 ???? Regards
I also wondered about the single cylinder up front and I asked one of the reps at Con-Expo about it last year His exact line was "It's tough enough, we lifted the cylinder right off the front of the 9T". I am interested in seeing one in person though.
Cool machine. Kind of funny though.......... Cat swears against electric drive haul trucks, even though the competition has proven them. But since no one has ever made a dozer electric, Cat is a pioneer! Lots of other "borrowed technology" on this thing. Obviously the lift cyl. Tilt cab....John Deere 7/850. Isolated planetary final drive, Deere, Komatsu. I was surprised to hear the D7E still use hydraulic driven differential steer. How easy would it have been to make it dual path drive with independant drive motors and eliminated more gearing and hydraulics? Oh, sorry, John Deere has already proven that with Dual path hydrostatics. Still no matter how much of it has been done before, I believe Cat will build it better (stronger, higher quality) than anyone else. And provide better support.
I would be hard to convince that a single ram can support the dozer as well as 2 out toward the corners
to dpete.. after running an 8220 for longer than I would have liked, mostly because I hated the sound, I can say that one ram works no different than two when you crowd a tree or anything else. I actually remember that I liked that configuration way better than the two lift cyls. Although that cylinder looked like about twice as big as what I see on the new e. Space age materials, I guess.
1) Cat doesn't swear against electric drive rigid-frame trucks... not with the 793F AC and 795F AC in their future lineup. 2) Electric drive technology in the dozer isn't quite the same as that in the trucks, and Cat felt it would be a good time to pioneer (no pun intended) in this industry with this technology. 3) I don't think Deere was first with the dozer tilt cab. 4) Dual-path drive implies hydrostatic, no? Or do you mean dual-path electric drive?
1) Well, they always have in the past. Maybe you are privy to info about the future the rest of us aren't. And, when Cat does intro an electric truck, we'll poke fun at it too! 2)Electric drive period is what I,m talking about. Not that trucks use higher voltage, or higher frequency or what ever. 3) Maybe Deere wasn't the first with a tilt cab, not the point, but Cat never had an easily tilted cab on a dozer I ever saw. Track loaders did. 4) Dual path means independant drives for each track, whether it be electric, hydro, mechanical or nuclear (joke). Dual path seems to me to be a more practical layout for a tracked machine, as I think Deere has shown. I'm no operator but most operators I know would prefer dual path over clutches or diff steer. There isn't a doubt in my mind Cat builds the finest equipment in the world. But that doesn't make them immune to being critiqued by their enthusiasts. Thats all I'm sayin.
Hi BoltThrower. There's no secret about Cat's intention to produce electric drive trucks. It's been in their press releases a few months now - just don't ask me to dig them out. They plan to offer either mechanical or electric in the same model. As for dual-path hydrostatic, I haven't used the Deere machines, but as far as Cat go, I love the 953/63/73 set-up, and the now sadly discontinued 943 (why didn't you all buy more?) was an object lesson in how to set up a hydrostatic transmission. Unfortunately in the smaller dozers, give me powershift/diff. steer over hydrostatic any day. My guess is in ten years most of us will be able to give an informed opinion of the electric transmission, if the fuel savings are what Cat claim, they'll fly off the shelf. Another feature, I'm told, is that there are no belt-driven auxilliaries, everything being powered off the main alternator. Don't rag me if this bit's wrong, but I think I read that the alternator doubles as the starter as well. Can anybody yay or nay that?
I wish I knew more about how everything came together in the D7E -- assuming it works (and holds up) as promised, I think it's pretty neat. But unfortunately, I can't answer your questions on the dual-path concept because of a lack of information there. As for the doubt in your mind that Cat is best: there are certainly products that I think Cat needs to improve, but when you lug around a legacy the size of Cat's reputation, it can be difficult to hear everything that everyone says. I didn't mean to question your post and ridicule it, and certainly opinions matter. I just hope the right people (as in people who know how to get things done AND the right people to make it happen) are reading.
D7e cabs tipped on D7g D8K and D9H a long time ago as for 1 lift cyl remember the geomotry of the mounting and length of the single hyd will allow 1 cyl to work as good as 2 cyls Ford farm tractors loaders used only 1 lift cyl mounted on the left side of the tractor. JCB small loaders use 0nly a right side lift cyl on the loader frame. thanks The BIG D
it needs a margarita mixer attachment!
Big gains having fewer moving parts than standard D7's and better fuel economy due to engine operating 1500-1800 rpm instead of 2200. Operational differences, I have no idea. Machine availability? Implementing new technology always includes some growing pains. http://www.cat.com/D7E Electric wheel loaders seem to be a logical choice someday. Lot of potential to capture braking efforts using regenerative braking to charge capacitors or batteries.