Page 438 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
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     the magneto and the carburetor on the starting engine and got it to run. There was a lot of clean- ing to do because it was pretty dirty with baked-on grease. Then we painted it and shipped it down to San Leandro.”
In October 2009—exactly 73 years to the month of its original manufacture date—the revitalized RD4 came back to Peterson headquarters, now in San Leandro. It came complete with the orig- inal parts catalog and packing list, the operator’s manual and all the original bills and documenta- tion. Even down to Peterson’s original letterhead.
Top left, clockwise: December 31, 1936 journal entry—Hazen A Dennis third line down; The Dennis & Doyle families celebrated the restored RD4 in November 2009; Original invoice for RD4 dated December 8, 1936
Unfortunately, Hazen Dennis Jr. was unable to en- joy its big return. He had passed away earlier that year on January 27 taking with him a bit more of the RD4’s oral history. However, his wife and fam- ily all came down to Peterson on November 19, 2009 for the grand unveiling. Today their father’s RD4 is parked proudly in Peterson’s front entrance at 955 Marina Boulevard in San Leandro. Back home and revitalized after all those years.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE RD4/D4
The Dennis RD4 was part of Caterpillar’s origi- nal run, launched in 1936. There were 8,857 RD4s in that original 4G series, produced in 1936-37. According to Caterpillar’s online history site, “The RD4 was based heavily on the Cat R-4 spark-ig- nition, gasoline powered, track-type tractor but without the gasoline engine. The RD4 was pow- ered by a Cat D4400, four-cylinder diesel engine that produced 41 horses-worth of Cat Diesel Power.”1
Sometime in 1937, Caterpillar changed the name by dropping the R to become simply the D4. The same applied to the entire RD series including the
1 Caterpillar archive website, www.caterpillar.com/en/company/history/archive/thehistoryofcatd4dozer.html
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