Photos: Cat CT660 Photo Gallery

Caterpillar recently showed off its new CT660 vocational truck at a special ride and drive event at its Edwards Demonstration & Learning Center located just outside of (appropriately) the town of Edwards, IL.

A mock up of the CT660's unique cab sits in the Demonstration Center's lobby, complete with a video screen detailing the truck's specifications, placed where the engine and grill should be.

The CT660's dashboard is designed so that drivers can quickly scan all of the critical gauges in approximately 8/10ths of a second simply by looking down through the upper part of the steering wheel.

Round air vents, instead of square or rectangular shapes, were found to provide increased air flow into the cab -- and thus why Caterpillar used this design in its CT660 cab.

Three different seat models will be offered with the CT660 to maximize driver comfort. Note too that the transmission selector box for Caterpillar's proprietary CX31 automatic will be located on the seat itself, not the dashboard, within easy reach of the driver's right hand.

In a grandstand encased in protective glass, Caterpillar demonstrated to reporters the capabilities of the CT660 in a special indoor 2-acre "arena" the company uses to show off all of its products, including bulldozers.

This is Caterpillar's largest production bulldozer, which is capable (as seen here) of being operated by remote control.

Caterpillar's CT660 are built upon Navistar's PayStar chassis, but that's all the similarity to two vehicles share, as Caterpillar stressed that the cab design, C11, C13, and soon-to-be-released C15 engine options, plus the its CX31 automatic transmission, are unique to the CT660.