Equipment spotlight: Komatsu D575A dozer

With its gigantic size and capacity, it’s easy to understand how the Komatsu D575A crawler tractor has earned the bragging rights as “the largest operational crawler tractor in the world.”

Everything about the D575A crawler tractor is super-sized: From track bottom to cab top, it averages 16′ high, dwarfing an average-sized man by over 10′. With a standard blade attached, it measures 24’3″‘ wide by 38.5 ft. long — over three times the dimensions for an average car — and weighs in at close to 300,000 lbs.

Ground material that would take the average person approximately 720 wheelbarrow loads to move, the Komatsu 575A can effortlessly clear in one pass of its patented 90y capacity Super Dozer Blade. The Super Dozer Blade alone weighs in at a hefty 22,000 lbs. and stands 11′ tall.

Komatsu D575A vs. Caterpillar D11

The D575A’s closest contender, both in size and blade capacity, is the Caterpillar D11. However, when compared to the D575A, the D11 comes in short both in height and blade capacity. The D11 is only 13.4′ tall and its blade capacity is 74.9y — a difference of approximately 3″ and 15y.

Size differences aside, both the D11 and the D575A are machines built specifically for the mining and quarry industry and the environments within which they operate.

The first D575A produced at Komatsu Ltd.’s Osaka, Japan facility was the D575A-2 SR (Super Ripper) which followed an earlier prototype which never went into production because of a downturn in the economy.

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Komatsu field-tested the D575A-2 from 1989 until 1991, and then began full production of the super crawler tractor.

At the Mining Site

In 1996, Komatsu added a super dozer model, the D575A-2SD, to its line of super-sized crawler tractors. The first D575A super dozer produced went into operation at a West Virginia coal mine.

At the mine site, the D575A helped increase the average yards per scheduled operating hour from approximately 375 yards to 750 yards, proving the decision by the mine owners to purchase the machine was the right decision for increasing production.

Today, the 1,065 horsepower (794.2 kW) 12-cyclinder D575A is available in two updated models: the D575A-3 bullldozer/ripper and the D575A-3 SD (Super Dozer), a dedicated bulldozer.

With such a prodigious crawler tractor included in its product line, it was only fitting that Komatsu also produce a complementary machine in 1995. Komatsu’s 930E-2 was dubbed by many heavy equipment enthusiasts as the “world’s largest capacity dump truck.” It enjoyed this title until 1998, when Caterpillar introduced the Cat 797.

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