The Caterpillar Sixty is a 60 horsepower crawler tractor that the Caterpillar Tractor Company built from 1925 until 1931. At the time it was the largest tractor in the company’s range, and it had begun life six years earlier as the C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer.
Caterpillar Sixty at a glance
| Type | crawler tractor |
|---|---|
| Power | 60 hp (45 kW) at the belt, 35 hp (26 kW) at the drawbar |
| Introduced | 1919, as the C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer |
| Renamed Caterpillar Sixty | 1925, after the merger of C. L. Best and Holt |
| Built as the Caterpillar Sixty | 1925–1931 |
| Engine | four-cylinder overhead valve petrol |
| Track gauge | 72 in (1.8 m) |
| Weight | 20,500 lb (9,300 kg) |
| Total built | 18,948, from 1919 to 1931 |
| Factories | San Leandro, California, to 1930; Peoria, Illinois, to 1931 |
The English Wikipedia article gives no photographs, and the free image search for the model returned nothing, so the page has no photographs; the film below shows a Caterpillar 60 being started.
History of the Caterpillar Sixty
From the Best 60 to the Caterpillar Sixty
The tractor was first sold in 1919 as the C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer, built by the C. L. Best Tractor Company, and it was the most successful machine in the Best line. In 1925 the C. L. Best Tractor Company and the Holt Manufacturing Company merged to form the Caterpillar Tractor Company, and the Best 60 was renamed the Caterpillar Sixty.
The specifications
The Sixty was powered by a four-cylinder overhead valve petrol engine that produced 60 horsepower (45 kW) at the belt and 35 horsepower (26 kW) at the drawbar. It ran on a 72 inch (1.8 m) gauge and weighed 20,500 pounds (9,300 kg).
Numbers produced
Caterpillar built the Sixty at San Leandro, California, until 1930, and at Peoria, Illinois, until 1931. In total 18,948 C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer and Caterpillar Sixty tractors were manufactured during twelve years of production.
Design and features
- 60 hp at the belt: 45 kW, and 35 hp (26 kW) at the drawbar.
- Largest in the range: the biggest tractor Caterpillar sold in 1925.
- Petrol four: a four-cylinder overhead valve engine.
- Heavy for its day: 20,500 lb (9,300 kg) on a 72 inch gauge.
Caterpillar Sixty versions
- C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer (1919–25): the original machine.
- Caterpillar Sixty (1925–31): the same tractor after the merger.
- San Leandro and Peoria machines: the two factories that built it, the second until 1931.
The Sixty is the large tractor of the 1920s, above the smaller Caterpillar Twenty-Two of 1934, and the ancestor of the track-type tractors that led to the Caterpillar D8; more machines are in the Caterpillar collection.
Video: Caterpillar 60 Start & Footplate Ride
Video by Rainhill1829 on YouTube.
Sources
- Caterpillar Sixty, English Wikipedia: origin as the Best 60, merger, engine, gauge, weight, total built, factories
