historical information photo news on the largest crawler loaders ever built

[Old Operator]

Lovely pics of the agricultural BTD6 . Had a look at my old B100 handbook which shows track frame pivots on sprocket shafts needing weekly greasing - along with an engine front support likewise with a grease point - can only presume this is an equaliser bar. Seem to have memories of having to remove track frames to change sprockets but was so many years ago might be wrong. Seem to remember that if the frames did not pivot off the sprocket shafts this was called a 'floating final drive' as boasted by some makers.
I'm pretty sure the IH 'Hydrospring' was a fudging device to allow arm rams to contract if the bucket hit a solid boulder in the ground, allowing the tracks to lift & lose traction thus protecting the transmission case etc from stress as the loader frame was an add on. The 933g being all solid between track frame & loader frame did not need a hydrospring. Bristol / Track Marshall small loaders had a sort of accumulator for the same purpose.

 

[Bri963]

Lovely pics of the agricultural BTD6 . Had a look at my old B100 handbook which shows track frame pivots on sprocket shafts needing weekly greasing - along with an engine front support likewise with a grease point - can only presume this is an equaliser bar. Seem to have memories of having to remove track frames to change sprockets but was so many years ago might be wrong. Seem to remember that if the frames did not pivot off the sprocket shafts this was called a 'floating final drive' as boasted by some makers.
I'm pretty sure the IH 'Hydrospring' was a fudging device to allow arm rams to contract if the bucket hit a solid boulder in the ground, allowing the tracks to lift & lose traction thus protecting the transmission case etc from stress as the loader frame was an add on. The 933g being all solid between track frame & loader frame did not need a hydrospring. Bristol / Track Marshall small loaders had a sort of accumulator for the same purpose.

It may have shown it in the book but I think you’ll find the frames didn’t pivot. We need Muckyman to walk out to his yard and have a look. The hydrospring did the same job as an accumulator, and could be turned on Or off. Early Drotts and traxcavators had either flat plates or more commonly triple grousers to allow the tracks to spin more easily with a mechanical transmission when turning or ramming into heaps, to reduce shock loading and ground damage. Double grousers didn’t really appear on track loaders until powershift transmissions, and then pretty universally on hystats as you have so much more control over traction.

 

[Old Operator]

Back in the day local hirer Hollydale had many Drotts. Thier manager told me they went over to the 100B / 125B from the manual models because as he said 'you do not get the back end trouble you do with the manuals' I think the manual range by IH was phased out about '75 or '76. It may have been that the torque converter absorbed shock loads or maybe the later steering clutches ran in oil. I know a bugbear of the early Drotts was that the oil seals between the crown wheel housing & steering clutch housing used to leak & fail, contaminating the clutch linings. There were drain plugs for the clutches, some owners drilled these plugs leaving a loop of wire jiggling in the hole to keep all drained - providing the machine was never to work in water! I seem to remember that many operators turned the accumulator off for fine work, then forgot to turn it back on leading to damage - or left it fully off not understanding or reading any handbook (if even present)

The last front engined crawlers still made are a little Chinese 3 tonner sometimes called 'Eastwind Dozer' & this little range made in the USA
https://www.struckequipment.com/owners/older-machine-manuals/ Shows what they made over the years - now gone to dual path hystat on the bigger ones, a sort of pair of zero turn hystat mower drive units on a middle size, a budget model with a belt variator & vee belt steering

https://www.struckequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/OlderTractorModelGuide_2023.pdf

Very costly and I think maintenance heavy with open 'navvy type' chain final drives. Would imagine all chains / hoses USA std rather than BS -EN
They do have a following but cannot see them doing anything more than a decent mini (more affordable too )

 

[muckyman]

The IH did swivel on the sprocket as old says it made it a pig changing sprockets having to drop the track frame off,but he is wrong over them being unhirable or what have i been doing for 50 years still nothing to compare with levelling sites off making roads etc etc etc used to be the only thing you saw on demo sites versatility in the right hands its just that no one likes to do a shift in one because its hard work and needs skill,not knocking 360s but any one can drive them rant over, Drooling over the 977 mines a k slightly smaller than the L international killed their market with the power shift spending more time being repaired than working at least the direct drive was reliable enough to finish a site, we saw this and moved to komatsu ,best crawlers by far

 

[barracane]

https://www.earthmoversmagazine.co.uk/digger-man/view,komatsus-largest-tracked-loader-spotted_4749.htm

Komatsu D155S tracked loaders

IH TD-24, which was the most powerful crawler in the world when it was introduced in the late 1940s and a direct competitor to Caterpillar. The model was rushed to production, but was ultimately an embarrassing, costly failure for IH.

https://www.earthmoversmagazine.co.uk/digger-man/view,cats-big-old-tracked-loaders_1037.htm

IH TD-24, which was the most powerful crawler in the world when it was introduced in the late 1940s and a direct competitor to Caterpillar

Caterpillars big tracked loaders the 977 and 983.

 

[V8Druid]

guess what Clara's stood in

 

[Old Operator]

Yes it is swings & roundabouts, a Saville fitter told me that with the B100 anything could be repaired in the field, whereas with the 100B it sometimes needed return to depot to diagnose / fix some problems. Both Tarmac & Anslow's locally ran the powershift models but had them from new on a rolling 3 year replacement - maybe before too many problems appeared! Anslow's was virtually all IH at one time but by the early '80's had gone down to one crawler (a Kom D41S) - along with three 4WD 3CX that the owner reckoned could do 80% of what the Drotts could but without the track costs. An ex Saville salesman told me he went from selling a new Drott a day to one a week then to one a month at the end.
It is just you would need good connections to bigger firms to owner operate a crawler shovel. I do not have these, anyone I knew is retired, passed on or emigrated. If I go back in a small way it would have to be a mini. Agree about the skill thing, I started on small crawlers, went over to 3CX's now I am told it is all mini's. That said my former apprentice is mulling selling his 1.5 & 3t minis for a 2CX not sure how this will sit

 

[barracane]

 

[Bri963]

I hope that you (Barracane) realise that TD24 was a wooden mock up for display, twice the size of the real thing.

 

[barracane]

TD 24​

???????????

 

[Old Operator]

I seem to remember the MF 400 & 600 were actually built by Hanomag late '70s onward till the collapse of the IBH group took many firms including them. The little MF 244 was built by Agusta. Late '60s around the time of the 200 MF took this in house but kept production in Italy.
Perhaps buying out facility from Agusta?? I have somewhere an article about the smaller Hanomags & Graveson's from early '60s onward. They ran at least one K7. The IBH trouble also bankrupted Hymac as well as MF construction equip. There were 10 crawler makes available in the UK late '70s if you include JCB who only made loaders. Few survive & several who do have withdrawn from selling in Europe, (Case crawler & Deere construction) Dressta split from Luigong after going hystat on the small ones - looks as if Luigong took the design for the hystats as Dressta only make huge machines as do Leibherr. It may be that dozer sizes now start where blades on 360's finish, at least in the UK.
A new entrant in crawlers seems to be Develon (I saw one on a US treasure hunting show) I did wonder if it was Case by another name because Develon started out as Daewoo - themselves starting as aftermarket track part makers for Case - a popular make in South Korea

 

[V8Druid]

I seem to remember the MF 400 & 600 were actually built by Hanomag late '70s onward till the collapse of the IBH group took many firms including them. The little MF 244 was built by Agusta. Late '60s around the time of the 200 MF took this in house but kept production in Italy.
Perhaps buying out facility from Agusta?? I have somewhere an article about the smaller Hanomags & Graveson's from early '60s onward. They ran at least one K7. The IBH trouble also bankrupted Hymac as well as MF construction equip. There were 10 crawler makes available in the UK late '70s if you include JCB who only made loaders. Few survive & several who do have withdrawn from selling in Europe, (Case crawler & Deere construction) Dressta split from Luigong after going hystat on the small ones - looks as if Luigong took the design for the hystats as Dressta only make huge machines as do Leibherr. It may be that dozer sizes now start where blades on 360's finish, at least in the UK.
A new entrant in crawlers seems to be Develon (I saw one on a US treasure hunting show) I did wonder if it was Case by another name because Develon started out as Daewoo - themselves starting as aftermarket track part makers for Case - a popular make in South Korea

pretty sure Develon is the re-branded Doosan (God knows why?)

 

[barracane]

Liebherr L 636 Track Loader??​

LR631B, LR632

LR 622 B LR 632 B??

 

[Old Operator]

Liebherr produced the first Hystat crawler in 1954, a company called Bagnall Burns produced one in 1956 here in Stafford - I think an offshoot of the shunting loco maker Bagnalls. I am not sure when the first hystat Liebherr crawlers sold here. I remember a local civils company buying a Liebherr 360 late '70s. It was written up Construction News - I gather they were a premium machine, like Akerman. There were a few O & K machines round here, I gather O & K no longer exist as a maker. I think the Liebherr 611 was about the size of an IH 125B but never saw one in real life. Not sure when Hystat transmissions became affordable & recognized as reliable. I remember JCB captured less than 5% of the loader market with their 110 & had moved out of crawler shovels by about mid '80s - giving more room for 3CX production which were selling well.