Been following this thread along----real interesting----so, what and when was the first diesel tractor produced as a "factory production" model by Caterpillar?? Were some of the last 60's factory diesel?

Delta Dirt

The first production diesel tractor was the Diesel Sixty, produced in 1931 (only) in both San Leandro and Peoria. Total production in both shops appears to have been 14. In 1932, it became the Diesel Sixty-Five, which was produced only in Peoria, with serial numbers 1C15 through 1C157. Production was discontinued by 1933.

As I recall, the next diesel tractor produced was the Diesel Thirty-Five.

GWH

There was a post on this BB a few years ago from a guy who purchased an Atlas. As I recall he was looking for a 60 and spotted an Atlas conversion parked next to it. I think i saved the post will look to dig it out. It was an interesting account an Atlas acquision.

I wish to make a correction to this thread. The name of the owner of the tractor I pictured is Doug Veerkamp. My apologies to the owner. With the tools available to me as a moderator, I was able to modify the title of thread to correctly spell his surname. GWH

Gentlemen, This post is very interesting. thanks for all the information. George or anybody, Didn't Cat also make a diesel conversion kit for the Gas 70? Thanks for the info.
Biggastractor

The interesting thing about the first Cat diesel, the D9900, is that the engine was a most expensive and unprofitable exercise for Cat.
The D9900 was a full 1300 lbs lighter than the Atlas, but owed much of its basic block design to the Benz diesel, which was one of the 4 ''opposition'' diesel engines purchased by Cat for study.

The D9900 owed much of its design ancestry to the late 1920's period, of corporate excesses, design extravagance (the days of silver and gold plated Marmons and 16 cyl Deusenbergs and Cadillacs), and spending, where costs were not tightly controlled.

1932 was when the realities of the Great Depression hit Caterpillar in a big way. Caterpillar sales slumped to a trickle, as the Depression really took hold .. and Cat fired nearly half its workforce .. and lost money.
For the first time in history, building tractors and producing expensive developments such as tractor diesels did not pay.
No more, would there be extravagances in design or costs.

1932 saw a massive re-organisation at Cat, as management set about realigning costs with sales, and coping in a market where deflation, in the form of severely reduced sales prices, (and wages, fortunately for them) were the order of the day.

In 1932, the Engine Sales Group was formed, as a separate entity, to sell engines .. and particularly diesel engines. It was seen that the diesel engine, could be a saviour for Cat .. because, if they could sell a heap of diesels for other uses, as well as put them in their tractors .. the cost of production for the tractors could be brought down, and profits increased at the same time.

Most important, was a total redesign of the current Cat diesel, the D9900. It was a magnificent piece of engineering .. but it was expensive to build .. and new engines had to be built that were cheaper to build, but just as reliable, and with all the features of the D9900. The writing was on the wall for the D9900.

In 1933, the new design, D11000, and D7700 were revealed to the market. These were the new line of engines, that had all the benefits of the original D9900, but were a leaner, meaner engine, as far as Caterpillars bottom line was concerned.
Markets were identified in the power unit field, for crushers, pumps, gensets, compressors .. in the marine field .. and in a host of "opposition" manufacturers machines .. which would help spread the word of Caterpillar Diesel strength, reliability, and economy. It was the new era of "better, quicker, cheaper" ..

The D9900 was doomed. It was taken out of production in 1934, as it was too expensive to produce. The 3 cyl D6100, the 4 cyl D8800, and the 6 cyl D13000, followed the D7700 and D11000 into production in late 1933 and 1934, as the D9900 fell by the wayside.
The first .. the most expensive .. and the most magnificent Cat Diesel was gone .. after barely 3 years of production .. a victim of the Great Depression, and the severe cost-cutting that came as part of the recovery from that Depression.

Cat returned to profitability in 1933 .. and never looked back, as diesel engine sales grew, and turned in more than a third of their income by the late 1930's.
Cat never lost money in any year again, until the next major world recession, in 1984 .. when it was again forced to re-organise, but in a less painful manner than in 1932.

Those engines designed and produced in the period from 1932 to around 1938, went on to provide power for tractors and other uses, up to 4, 5 and 6 decades after they were introduced to the market, and made Cat diesels a familiar sight, worldwide.

Hi, Folks.
Some interesting info has come to light in this thread. And I have another one to throw in the pot. I could be wrong here and so I'm only putting this forward for clarification, not as FACT, but I wouldn't be surprised if R. G. LeTourneau had something to do with those Kaiser Atlas diesel conversions.

Kaiser and LeTourneau were thicker than thieves around that time and LeTourneau makes mention in his autobiography, "Mover Of Men And Mountains", of asking Cat to consider using diesel engines in the tractors and of Cat laughing at him. R. G.'s reaction would be fairly predictable in that situation. He wrote that he put a diesel engine into a crawler tractor himself. He admitted that the diesel engine shook itself and the tractor to pieces and Cat just pointed to the result as proof that they were right.

He and/or Kaiser must have set some people at Cat to thinking with this 'failure' though. Three years later, in 1931, Cat introduced the Diesel Sixty. The first two built were 1C1 and 1C2. If my memory is right, 1C1 was fitted out somewhere during its life with a double-deck logging winch and ended its working days stacking logs in a timber mill in California. I think it was featured in Cat's blurb when they celebrated 50 years of manufacturing mobile diesel engines and diesel powered machines in 1981 and much was made of the fact that it was still working.

The same tractor is now at UC's Davis campus under restoration or maybe the restoration is finished by now.

tractors.ucdavis.edu/News98/news98.html

When last heard of, 1C2 belonged to the Fred C Heidrick Museum.

Anybody got any more gems to throw in here?

Rick, I'm not aware of any kits made for the gas Seventy to convert it to a diesel Seventy. Let's see. According to the Serial Number book, there were 266 Seventies made from 1933 to end of production in 1937. There were thousands of gas Sixties made from 1919 through the end of production in 1931. Much more of a market for Sixty conversions than there ever would have been for Seventies. Of course, I could be wrong.

Deas Plant, I think you are right about the first two Diesel Sixties, their locations. Not sure if the restoration of the first one has been done yet.

Talked with Lavern at Jim's shop this (Friday) morning, and learned that they are putting in replacement steering clutches in my diesel-conversion 60. Might as well do this while she is torn down.

GWH

George,
i'll have to get down and see your conversion. I need to pick up some things there anyway. Bart told me he had a converted 70 and that he thought it was a factory job. I'll try and verify at this weekends chapter 3 meeting.
Happy New Year
Biggastractor

Rick, why not take some photos of my tractor torn down and post on the bb? It is a little to far for me to go for a few pics. Besides, the roads here are icy and wretched from the third storm within 2 weeks. GWH