Driving impression: Along with Caterpillar’s recent changes to its European distribution – Claas now sells tracked Cat Challengers on this side of the Atlantic – the US machinery giant has also updated its 300hp+ crawlers and tagged them E-series. Big brothers to the popular 35, 45 and 55 models (156kW/212hp to 199kW/270hp), we drive the new E series’ mid-ranger, the 254kW/340hp 75 E
Challenger remains an apt name for the big Cat, according to Claas. The rubber-tracked crawler may be a familiar sight on East Anglian soils, but Claas says that in large tracts of Europe the ‘challenge’ to promote the crawler principle is still very much there.
So, how does the German firm plan to push the tracked principle?
In simple terms, no different to before. Although rubber-tracked Challengers are unlikely to ever completely replace their wheeled counterparts, the crawlers’ two inherent advantages are still widely accepted: First, engine power is transmitted from machine to ground with minimal wheelslip; secondly, at 231kW to 306kW (310hp to 410hp) the Challenger E-series boasts a high hp motor in a relatively compact package. The big E-series crawlers may be no more than updated versions of the original rubber-tracked Cats, models that have largely lost out to the smaller Canadian-built Challengers (35, 45 and 55); this certainly applies to Challenger sales in the UK. Yet Claas reckons the higher hp models still have their place – particularly in eastern Europe. Today the full Claas Challenger E-series line-up stands at:
65 E 231 kW/310 hp
75 E 254 kW/340 hp
85 E up to 280 kW/375 hp
95 E up to 306 kW/410 hp
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