C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. Inc recently purchased the first Caterpillar D7E AC electric drive track-type tractor sold in Georgia. The sale marks only the second D7E sold in the southeast with US Steel in Tallahassee, Fla., purchasing the first one.
After delivery of the machine, Yancey Bros. Co. and Caterpillar representatives gathered Sept. 16 at the C.W. Matthews equipment shop/yard in Marietta, Ga., for a presentation and walk-around of the new D7E. John Faress, sales manager of Yancey Bros. Co., officially presented the keys and power cord for the machine (extension cord optional) to Bill Hammack Jr., president and chief operating officer of C.W. Matthews Contracting.
“For the past 10 years, owners [of construction companies] have been more sensitive to the carbon footprint we leave when we’re out on job sites,” Hammack Jr. said. “This is the latest technology to further reduce the emissions level and the machine also is efficient in terms of using electric energy vs. carbon fuels for power. We’re excited about this. I think it’s the machine of the future. You’ll see more and more machines that are hydraulic-electric like this one. We’re finding the owners we work for, like the Atlanta airport, are very sensitive to the emissions levels that we generate when we’re out there doing work for them.”
Faress said that D7E is what the owner and the operator both are looking for in a machine. He broke it down into percentages: “The D7E produces 50 percent less operator noise, has 60 percent fewer moving parts in
the drive train, requires 10 to 30 percent less fuel consumption per hour, moves 25 percent more material per gallon of fuel, offers 50 percent better steering performance and has a projected 10 percent lower lifetime operating cost.”
David Nicoll of Caterpillar Inc., based in East Peoria, Ill., also spoke to invited guests.
“Lower owning and operating costs, that’s what’s behind this tractor,” he said. “We put together a team and said clean sheet, do what you want. What we ended up with was over 100 patents on the D7E.”
Nicoll added that the electric drive takes the torque converter out and replaces it with a generator and electric motors, which is more efficient and provides more power to the ground using less fuel.
“I believe we need to take care of the earth, because our companies work with the earth every day,” he said. “We move dirt, so we need to take care of it and we need to do it intelligently. We’ve invested money to lower the owning and operating costs while being environmentally sensitive. If you can’t do both,
it’s not worth doing,” he said.
When discussing the fuel efficiency of the new D7E, Nicoll said, “10 to 30 percent increase is what we advertise. What are our customers seeing? They’re seeing the top end of that … 30 percent or higher. That’s about 2 gallons an hour on this sized tractor. There is a significant fuel savings depending upon the application.”
Hammack looks forward to being on the cutting edge with his company’s new “green” D7E.
“Caterpillar has always been on the leading edge of technology and they’ve supported us very well in the past,” he said. “When we built the fifth runway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, they were an integral part of the fleet that we put together to build that. We’re just exited about moving into the new generation of earthmoving equipment. You’re looking at the future right here in construction.”
“We saw the demonstration for this machine at ConExpo three years ago and we’ve been talking about it ever since,” said C.W. Matthews Equipment Manager Joe Gilliam, adding that that the final decision to purchase the machine was made easier because of the ongoing support and relationship his company has had with Yancey Bros. Co.
“Our guys that make the purchasing decisions do a wonderful job of it,” said C.W. Matthews’s Equipment Operator Johnny Jones. “I’m very proud they selected me to get this machine. They know I take care of my equipment and I’m looking forward to operating this one. I’m actually supposed to be on vacation this week, but for the first day of putting this machine in operation, I’m coming to work.”
Immediately following the event, C.W. Matthews quickly transported its new Cat D7E to an asphalt plant in Forest Park, Ga., for moving recycled asphalt material.
For more information, call 800/282-1562, or visit www.yanceybros.com. CEG
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