Caterpillar has launched five new nursery and landscape attachments for its Cat Skid Steer Loaders (SSL), Compact Track Loaders (CTL) and Compact Wheel Loaders (CWL).
The purpose-built attachments are said to be designed to cover multiple tasks including the handling and scooping of trees, shrubs and bushes, removing and carrying stumps, and loading mulch.
According to the manufacturer, the new Cat nursery fork, tree scoop bucket and 0.76m3 mulch bucket attachments improve machine utilisation for Cat SSL, CTL and CWL models, while the new Cat stump buckets and nursery grapples are specifically designed to efficiently work with Cat SSL and CTL machines.
In early September 2022, Caterpillar inked a deal to replace the haul truck fleet at a Chilean mine.
The full range of new attachments feature durable construction for reliability in the field, and deeply serrated steps integrated into attachment design, so operators have secure footing when entering and exiting the loaders.
Cat nursery forks come in manual and hydraulic designs. Both offer a hydraulic pivoting fork that allows the left fork to swing open to fit around multiple root balls. Similarly, the new Cat nursery grapple can wrap around root balls ranging in size from 711 to 1372mm without damaging the root system or tree, the company explained.
Meanwhile, the new mulch bucket, with its narrow 1421mm width, can load material “inside the bed of most pickup trucks without concern for contact or damage,” the company says, while the stump bucket for Cat SSL and CTL models has been purpose designed for removing and carrying tree stumps.
Late in September 2022, the company said it had surpassed five billion tonnes of material hauled autonomously.
The other new attachment, the Cat tree scoop is capable of digging and scooping up 901mm in diameter and can move shrubs and small trees at nursery sites and in landscaping applications, the company concluded.
In late October 2022, Caterpillar expanded its Tilt Rotate System range to work with mini excavators.