Small History On Bulldozers

• September
• 25

11:08 pm Construction Equipment

A new or used bulldozer for sale is a crawler (caterpillar tracked tractor), equipped with a substantial metal plate (known as a blade), used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc, during construction work. The term “bulldozer” is often used to mean any heavy engineering vehicle (frequently loaders and in particular track loaders), but precisely, the term refers only to a tractor (usually tracked) fitted with a dozer blade. That is the meaning used here.

The first bulldozers were adapted from Holt farm tractors that were used to plough fields. Their versatility in soft ground for logging and road building led directly to their becoming the armoured tank in World War I.

In 1923, a young farmer named James Cummings and a draftsman named J. Earl McLeod made the first designs for a bulldozer. A replica is on display at the city park in Morrowville, Kansas where the two built the first bulldozer.

By the 1920s, tracked vehicles became common, particularly the Caterpillar (60). To dig canals, raise earth dams, and do other earthmoving jobs, these tractors were equipped with a large thick metal plate in front. This metal plate (it got its curved shape later) is called a “blade”. The blade peels layers of soil and pushes it forward as the tractor advances. Several specialized blades have been developed for high volume loads such as coal, rakes to remove only larger boulders, or blades with razor sharp edges to cut tree stumps. In some early models the driver sat on top in the open without a cabin. These attachments, home built or by small equipment manufacturers of attachments for wheeled and crawler tractors and trucks, appeared by 1929, widespread acceptance of the bull-grader does not seem to appear before the mid-1930s, and the addition of powered down force made them the preferred new and used excavators for large and small contractors alike by the 1940s, by which time the term “bulldozer” referred to the entire machine and not just the attachment.