Compact Track Loader

Overview

A compact track loader is a skid-steer machine that runs on two endless rubber tracks instead of wheels. The tracks spread its weight over a long footprint, giving low ground pressure and strong traction on soft, wet, or loose ground where a wheeled skid-steer would sink or spin. Like all skid-steers it has no steered axle: it turns by driving the two tracks at different speeds, so it can spin within its own length. A universal quick-coupler lets one machine run buckets, augers, breakers, brooms, and dozens of other attachments.

The machine is built around a rigid Chassis Frame that carries the Diesel Engine, the Hydrostatic Drive, a pair of Rubber Track Undercarriage track frames, and the Loader Arms that raise the Loader Bucket.

How it works

The Diesel Engine is a small turbocharged diesel that does no direct mechanical driving of the tracks. Instead it spins the Hydrostatic Drive: a tandem variable-displacement pump sends oil to one Track Drive Motor per side, each geared down through a planetary final drive to a sprocket. Pushing both joysticks forward swashes both pumps to full flow; pushing one side only, or splitting them fore and aft, makes the machine steer or counter-rotate. Because flow is infinitely variable, ground speed is set independently of engine rpm.

A separate gear pump in the Hydraulic System feeds the loader functions through a Control Valve Bank. Spool valves route oil to the lift and tilt cylinders in the Loader Arms, and an auxiliary circuit at the coupler powers attachments. The vertical-lift geometry keeps the load close to the machine through the early lift, then carries it straight up for reach at truck height.

The operator works from a sealed Operator Cab certified as a roll-over and falling-object structure, with a suspension seat and twin joysticks. The Electrical System system, fed by a low-voltage battery, runs the controllers, work lights, and gauges. Track tension is held by a grease-filled idler in each Rubber Track Undercarriage, and the rubber belt is steered onto the sprocket by mid-rollers to resist de-tracking under side load.