As the engine and drive-train are mounted high in a traditional bulldozer, the half shafts from the differential exit above the drive sprocket, requiring a small gear on the end of the half shaft and another, larger one attached to the drive sprocket. From the back you can pull the transmission out because of the modular design. You can break down the tracks and then pull out the drive sprockets. This elevated drive sprocket undercarriage was built in modular form. It eliminates the final drive system, which tended to break frequently. The high drive (elevated sprocket) design is unique to Caterpillar bulldozers. But some engine problems came up with exhaust system routing which resulted in in 2 exhaust stacks up front to correct this problem. The early D10s came with a single big black exhaust stack up front. This had already proven itself in the Cat 777 off-highway hauler and the 550 hp 10 yard 992/992B wheel loaders from 1968 on. Caterpillar put the 1,786 cid V-12 twin turbocharged D348 in the D10 to power it.
A picture of this D10 can found on pages of a book titled "The Caterpillar Century" on pages 298-297.
One of the first D10s is currently sitting in front of the East Peoria, Ill plant where it was made. The November 1977 issue of Excavating Contractor magazine had a 2 page story on the bulldozer titled "Cat Uncorks The New D10". Later versions weighed in at 190,000 lb The U-blade was 7 ft high and could push 35yd according to Caterpillar's literature. The Cat D10 could be ordered with up to a 19 ft U-blade, and weighed in at 180,000 lb. When the D10 was introduced in 1977, it was the most powerful track-type tractor ever built at 700 hp. For example the D9N replaced the D8L, the D10N replaced the D9L and the D11N replaced the D10. With the introduction of the N-Series tractors in 1986-87 their model numbers were pushed up. The D10 had more sales than the Fiat-Allis/Komatsu competitors similar sized bulldozers combined. Between 19 nearly 1,000 D10s were made at Caterpillar's East Peoria, Illinois, USA plant. The D10 was introduced at a dealer meeting by Caterpillar in the fall of 1977. The D10 was so big that it was about 50 percent more production than the D9H. In 1976 Japanese company Komatsu came out with an even larger bulldozer called the Komatsu D455A at 620 hp (460 kW) and 167000 lb. For example, the Fiat-Allis 41-B track-type tractor had 524 hp (391 kW) at the time, while the D9H had 410 hp (310 kW). In 1974 after AC and Fiat merged their construction equipment divisions the 524 hp (391 kW) 41-B was introduced. Allis-Chalmers introduced at Conexpo 69 in Chicago a 524 hp (391 kW) Allis-Chalmers HD-41, which was the largest crawler in the world (at that time). At this time, competitors were building bulldozers that were more powerful than the D9. The Caterpillar D10 was the result of a need for a tractor larger than the Caterpillar D9. In March 1977 prototypes P-1 thru P-10 would be appear and dispatched to different job sites.
The first pilot D10 was D10X1 and was shown in July 1973 at a big Caterpillar corporate meeting.
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