Caterpillar D5 series
Built: 1939 · Series: Other models
More machines from model year 1939
Not the right version? The data comes from vehicle registers holding many near-identical versions side by side. Photograph the data plate — we read make and type from it. Open the scanner e-mail address required
The D5 series from Caterpillar is a crawler tractor with a diesel engine, listed in the register with the model year 1939. As with the brand's dozers, a track undercarriage transfers the power to the ground, giving the machine good drawbar pull on soft terrain, on building sites and in road construction. The engine is water-cooled.
The name D5 places the machine in the middle weight class of the Caterpillar crawlers, which were designated with the letter D for diesel and a digit for the size step. The word series in the name indicates that the entry combines several closely related versions rather than a single model.
That the database names only one year matches practice with older crawlers: exact production spans could often be fixed only for serial-number blocks. Anyone interested in the technology will find in Caterpillar's history of the D crawlers the path from drawbar tractor to heavy dozing machine.
Caterpillar – other models: the collective page of dozers and crawler loaders outside the named ranges, from the historic Sixty and Twenty-Two to the D9 and D11, 11 to 698 kW, Caterpillar engines
This page gathers the Caterpillar construction machines the register could not assign to a named range – the historic Sixty, Ten and Twenty-Two models from the brand's early years, the crawler loaders of the 933 to 983 range, and the dozers of the D range from the D2 through the D5, D6, D7 and D9 to the D10N and D11. Caterpillar was formed in 1925 from the merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company with the C. L. Best Tractor Co. in California; the Sixty, Ten and Twenty-Two models of the 1920s and 1930s still carried their approximate power in draft horses in the name, before the D numbering was introduced from 1935, in which the digit roughly gives the machine size. The 933 to 983 crawler loaders extended the range from the 1960s with wheelless loaders for earthmoving and forestry.
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The register lists here 23 versions with 11 to 698 kW (15 to 936 hp) from four- to six-cylinders, with Caterpillar's own engines of the D330, D333, D343, D353 and 3204/3408 series, mostly diesel.
Caterpillar's D-range dozers are, alongside Komatsu, the industry reference in earthmoving, mining and forestry; the historic pre-war models are sought-after collector pieces today, the big D9 and D11 stand for open-cast mining and large-scale earthmoving.
On used crawler loaders and dozers, operating hours, the condition of the undercarriage (tracks, rollers, sprockets as the most expensive wear item), the condition of the transmission and steering clutches, the blade and hydraulics count, and on the historic models completeness and originality; parts run through the Caterpillar network, for the oldest models also through suppliers specialising in vintage construction machinery.
Sources: SpecCodex register, model data: Caterpillar (weitere Modelle), Caterpillar Inc. (manufacturer)
Technical data
Engine
| Fuel | dieselcorrect |
|---|---|
| Cooling | water-cooledcorrect |
Drivetrain and chassis
| Drive | tracked undercarriagecorrect |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
When was the Caterpillar D5 series built?
Production years: 1939.
What to check before buying
- Check the hour meter against the service records — a replaced instrument is the most common gap.
- Compare the data plate and chassis number with the papers.
- Load the hydraulics and watch for sag.
- Ask about parts availability for this build year — the running costs hang on it.
A general list for this type of machine — no substitute for an inspection or an appraiser.
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This page carries 5 individual figures for this model. They come from 2 recorded sources; every figure can be traced there. What we cannot document is not here — we leave gaps open rather than estimate them.
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Other models in this series
933 Crawler Loader
941 Crawler Loader
943 Crawler Loader
951B Crawler Loader
977H Crawler Loader
977K
983 Crawler Loader
D10N
D2
D6 series
D9 series
D9G
Sources: Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki (retrieved August 2026) · Wikipedia (retrieved October 2026) · How we check the data
Excavator in 3D section
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