Executive Summary.  Almost unique to the business (Caterpillar taking the lead) is the elevated sprocket design dozer.  Probably more commonly known as the high track dozer.

High track dozer.

Dozer without a high track.

Why a high track?  The elevated drive sprocket design (see photo above of a D6 on our site) originated on the D10 dozer in 1977.  In 1985, Caterpillar decided to bring that design into their medium dozers by installing it in the H-series dozers:  D4H to D7H.

What are the pros and cons to this design?  Caterpillar says one thing and users another, so this is of course highly variable.  Below are some comments.

My story.  I owned a high track D5 or D6, honestly can’t remember which one.  I had thought that the high track directly correlated to distributing a lower ground pressure. That is that I thought all LGP (low ground pressure) dozers were high track

I had one roll out to my jobsite, and because of this I thought it’d make for a nice quick little tidbit of information.  At right is a great video on the workings of a dozer undercarriage – take a peek!  Work safe!