Participants:

Pierre-Laurent Verdon, industry manager, skid-steer loaders and multi-terrain loaders, Caterpillar North American Commercial Division, Peoria, Ill.

Jon Kuyers: segment manager, utility products, Vermeer Manufacturing, Pella, Iowa

Jim Hughes: brand marketing manager, Case Construction Equipment, Racine, Wis.

Edgar Chavez: marketing director, New Holland Construction North America, Carol Stream, Ill.

Kelly Moore: product manager, skid loaders/compact track loaders, Mustang Manufacturing, Owatonna, Minn.

RER: What is your company doing to make skid steers more eco-friendly?

Verdon: Caterpillar skid-steer and multi-terrain loaders have included eco-friendly features since day one. For instance, joystick controls and foot throttle have always been standard on our products. This option allows the operator to control engine speed to perform a specific task or a specific job instead of running the engine at constant or maximum speed all the time with a hand throttle. This in turn saves fuel because engine speed is only increased when needed. Similarly, our hydraulically driven fan on our skid-steer loader C Series is on-demand, which helps to match fuel consumption to the actual cooling requirements of the engine.

As far as the engines are concerned, we initiated several interesting eco-friendly initiatives this year. First and foremost, all Caterpillar engines installed on skid-steer and multi-terrain loaders became compliant with interim Tier-4 and Tier-3 emission regulations in the first quarter of 2008. This is an important step in our path towards providing our customers with more environmentally friendly products. Those engines (as well as our previous Tier-2 engines) will also accept bio-fuel with a different blend ratio depending on the engine model. Customers should contact their dealers to find out how much bio-diesel their machine can take. Last but not least, we have introduced this year a new solution for customers who own a skid-steer loader or a multi-terrain loader with a 3044 engine and need to replace the engine or some of the major engine components. Remanufactured engines are now available through Caterpillar dealers. Our customers now have the option to choose between a new engine and a remanufactured engine. Remanufacturing is an advanced form of recycling to help our customers operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. This solution is also available on other Caterpillar products such as excavators, small track-type tractors or compact wheel loaders.