Antique Caterpillars Rule! – Top 5 Vintage Equipment Stories of 2025

With 2025 marking Caterpillar’s centennial celebration, it’s no surprise that our top vintage stories and videos of the year featured early Cat machines and their predecessors Holt and Best.

Among the top stories was a 1950s Caterpillar “Twin D8” – a side-by-side combination of two dozers and one big blade.

We also got the rare opportunity to see and video a veritable timeline of Caterpillar history with 17 vintage machines from Holt, Best and Cat spanning 1917 to 1979 at the annual Historical Construction Equipment Association show.

This year’s vintage lineup also included one of the last surviving 1930 Cat Thirty track-type tractors with all original parts, a 1925 Holt 10-Ton, and the zany 1931 film “The Great Tractor Race” from the Caterpillar archives.

We’ve listed the top five vintage-equipment stories of 2025 below, along with links on how you can access them if you want to read more and watch accompanying videos. You can also check out our Vintage Equipment section on equipmentworld.com to see our full collection. 

Howard Peterson, founder of Peterson Tractor & Equipment Co., with the King Ranch Hi-Clearance Twin, which was delivered in 1951 to the Texas ranch for land clearing.Peterson Cat1. The 1950s Cat “Twin D8” – 2 Joined Dozers, 1 Big Blade, Double the Power

Back in the late 1940s, Buster Peterson drew up designs for an innovative way to give customers more earthmoving power beyond Caterpillar’s largest tractor of the day, the D8.

Peterson determined that two Cats were better than one and created the “Twin D8” – two Caterpillar D8 tractors joined together for pushing one large dozer blade and running other huge attachments.

As far as anyone knows, none of those original Twins is around today.

Cat lovers, however, need not despair of ever seeing such an awesome sight as the dual D8 creation. Thanks to some antique Caterpillar lovers, the Twin D8 was recreated in 2013.

Not only that, but that Retro Twin D8, which hadn’t run in about eight years, just finished getting some TLC, thanks to Nate Degerstedt, Peterson Cat technical communicator and trainer, who helped get the twin machine running again.

1925 Best 30Equipment World2. Watch Antique Tractors from Holt, Best, Caterpillar at HCEA Show 2025

Antique crawler tractors from Holt, Best and Caterpillar were on display and in action at the Historical Construction Equipment Association’s 39th annual International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition, showing a veritable timeline of the company’s predecessors and earliest machines.

Partner Insights

Information to advance your business from industry suppliers

Presented by Woods Equipment Co.

5 Things To Know Before Buying A Flex-Wing Rotary Cutter

Presented by Shell

6 Strategies for Managing Farm Equipment

Presented by Fusable

Let our deep industry knowledge become your data-driven insights

Presented by Hemisphere GNSS

Stop Wasting Time on Grade Checks

The event paid tribute to Caterpillar’s 100th anniversary, with individual collectors and the National Construction Equipment Museum bringing out their notable historical pieces. Our video, which you can watch by clicking the link above, captures some of the highlights of the Holt, Best and Cat tractors at the show.

Eqipment World3. Rare Survivor! – 1930 Cat Thirty with All-Original Parts Still Going Strong

Kenny Walker feels lucky to have found his 1930 Caterpillar Thirty tract-type tractor.

“Everything on that tractor is original,” Walker says. “It is the most original Thirty I've ever seen.”

You can watch Walker run his Thirty and learn more about it and how he acquired it by clicking on the link above.

Cat Holt rolled out a 1925 Holt 10-Ton tractor to show with its 2025 Centennial Grey Cat D3 that was delivered to the San Antonio dealership to celebrate Caterpillar's 100-year anniversary.Holt Cat4. 1925 Holt 10-Ton vs. 2025 Cat D3 – Cat Holt Shows 100 Years of Progress

Caterpillar’s 100-year anniversary celebration is also a celebration for the Holt family, which owns the Holt Cat dealership group based in San Antonio, Texas.

So when the delivery arrived earlier this year of Caterpillar’s new Centennial Grey D3 dozer, which pays tribute to the color of the company’s first products, Holt Cat decided to bring out a 1925 Holt 10-Ton “Caterpillar” crawler tractor.

Screenshot from Caterpillar's 1931 film "The Great Tractor Race."Caterpillar5. “The Great Tractor Race” – Cat’s 1931 Film Reveals its Early Crawlers in Zany Event

Caterpillar equipment has a long history of appearing in feature films, including a little-known “short” that moviegoers in 1931 got to see in which Cat machines of that era traversed rugged, hilly terrain and crashed through buildings.

It was called “The Great Tractor Race” and gives a humorous look at what the new company, formed in 1925, had to offer, including the Cat Ten, Twenty, Thirty and Sixty. By clicking the link above, you can watch the old film along with commentary from Caterpillar Archivist Lee Fosburgh.