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It was never simple to work on a crawler dozer and only the best operator was in a position to get the work done without causing any damage to the machine or to things on the site. Operators working on a crawler dozer were paid more than other operators as they were operating a machine that is not at all easy to work on. However, this is not the case now. With the dawn of new technology, things have started becoming simpler for the operators and also for people who own the latest model of crawler dozers. The installation of hydrostatic transmissions in the under 130 horsepower machines and the introduction of advanced GPS machine control system has completely changed the dynamics of the machine. What was once known for moving at snail’s pace and leaving work undone for most of the time has been transformed into a fast paced next generation machine that has the capability to crumble the mountains or move the minutest of dirt from the site. The hydrostatic transmission that is installed in the newer version of machines is dominating this class of dozers. If we compare the hydrostatic transmission, we see that in the year 1999, there were only 25 hydrostatic transmissions which have now increased to 38. There are only 9 power shifts transmissions which were 33 in 1999. Well, this change in technology wasn’t brought overnight. It came slowly and gradually and with sheer determination of the engineers.
One company to be specific should get maximum applaud for the success of this technologically rich dozer. It is John Deere that has been in the forefront of this rapid change in technology. What they did is they removed the concept of gears from the machine making it gearless equipment. By having done this, they have got a very good control over the speed of the equipment. It becomes very useful on a flat ground where you do not have to shift gears to slow down the machine. The equipment automatically slows down when the machine takes the load and the speed increases when it discard the load. In this process, the machine just does not loses its momentum which otherwise would have been a problem with machines having gears in it.
Other than this, when the machine is moving at a speed and there is a dip in the load, the operator does not have to do anything manually. All that will be taken care by the machine and will manage the load. One very important benefit of hydrostatic transmission is that it keeps the braking system quite dynamic. The operator only has to relieve the throttle and the hydraulic pressure in the machine will do the rest of the work.
