We do not only have many stories and anecdotes to tell, but also many pictures to show! Have a look at our small selection from photos then and now – and find out how Zeppelin and Caterpillar have grown and developed throughout the years!

• Left: Caterpillar has been present at big and international fairs and exhibitions right from the start in order to inform their (potential) customers about their machinery. In this picture (taken in the 1930s) you can see the models Best “Sixty”, and “Thirty” as well as Holt “2-Ton”, “5-Ton” and “10 Ton” (from left to right).
• Right: At bauma 2019 in Munich, the world’s largest construction equipment fair, Zeppelin and Caterpillar were a major draw for visitors at their shared stand in hall B6; (and at the open-air exhibition area). Around 70 exhibits across all size categories reflected the advances made in construction equipment and for excavation, civil engineering, road construction, gardening and landscaping, demolition, recycling, and the extraction of raw materials. bauma 2019 has been the most successful bauma of all years: With 614,000 square meters of exhibition space, bauma 2019 was the largest trade fair in the world. A total of 3,550 new and used construction machines were sold and incoming orders of 461,8 million euro were achieved.

• Left: 1932 was an important year for construction machinery: Caterpillar introduced its emblematic yellow color (before that, the machinery and equipment used to be grey). The rare picture (which was colored later on) shows a tractor of the type RD8, a forerunner of today’s D8R dozer model.
• Right: Yellow is still the landmark color for Caterpillar machinery and equipment. Not only the color, but also the dozer models (which were further improved, of course) proved to be a success.The Cat dozers [Cat D8R] is designed to be durable, especially in challenging conditions like extreme heat and cold, sandy deserts and rocky terrain. It offers renowned productivity, along with ease of repair and service to keep the machine hard at work.

• Left: With its “No. 944 Series A Traxcavator” model, Caterpillar entered the wheel loader market in 1959. The model weighed 10.1 t, featured a rear wheel steering and was available either with a Cat petrol or diesel engine (105 PS).
• Right: Today, Caterpillar and Zeppelin offer a variety of different wheel loaders in multiple tonnage classes. Wheel loaders make your material handling and loading jobs safer, faster, more precise and profitable. Cat front end loaders set the standard for reliability, productivity, fuel efficiency, versatility and operator comfort.

• Left: With more and more Caterpillar construction machinery and equipment sold, there was also an increased demand for service. The picture – taken in the 1960s at Zeppelin’s central spare parts house in Cologne – shows our modern fleet of service vehicles (VW and Ford Transit).  
• Right: Service has always been an essential part of Zeppelin’s business model. Also today our service technicians are well-equipped with modern service vehiclesto travel to our customers, wherever they are, around the clock.

Further information:

1994: Zeppelin and Caterpillar celebrate 40 years of successful partnership: a movie

1925: American Pioneering Spirit – how Caterpillar started out

1904: How the caterpillar got its name