Bulldozer Traction
Contents
Industry Standards
Cat, Deere, Case, and Komatsu are the main contenders the USA. [1]
Industry standard traction:
- Cat D11 - 112 ton weight [2]
- Cat D9 - 72 ton drawbar pull [3]
- Cat D7 - 15 ton. 32k lb - with .9 coefficient of traction on dry clay, it's 29k lb
- OSE double drive (2 direct drive motors) chain on 1/2" tracks has 7200 lb of tractive effort max. Thus, a four-tracked machine meets the performance of a CAT D7
- Cat D7 - 21k lb pull in 1947 - [4]
- Cat D7 agricultural tractor - 28k lb in 1959 - [5]
- Cat D6 - drawbar pull only half the weight the machine - 17k vs 33k lb weight - [6]
Links
- Presentation with Definition of bulldozer function - [7]
- Note - coefficient of traction max of 1 seems to be a misleading, as extremely aggressive tracks transition to a different mechanism than traction
Suggestions
A lighter-weight machine, such as 14,000 lb, with Hypertraction, can achieve the full performance of a CAT D7 tractive effort if the machine were robotic and therefore could afford the much larger discomfort (otherwise felt by the operator) of the aggressive treads. This would work on hard clay, but not on rock. Is this possible?
