Cat CT680

The latest addition to the growing on highway Cat Trucks family was revealed the other day. Say hello the CT680

Cat CT680 Truck

Not to shabby if you ask me. Out of the three trucks I like this one the most. Right from the start the CT680 was designed to be a long hood, set forward axle, heavy hauler. During the design phase Caterpillar asked their customers what they would like in terms of styling and the answer was bling. Or should I say more choices when it comes to chrome, external air cleaners and other assorted trim. Under the hood the Cat CT13 diesel engine provides power in the range of 410 to 475 HP and torque from 1,450 to 1,700 lb-ft. If those numbers don’t excite you executives from Cat have confirmed that a 15 liter engine will be available later this year. When production begins this July expect that many of the CT680s will leave the factory with the CX-31 automatic transmission mirroring trends seen in the other two Caterpillar rigs.

Image/News Source: Caterpillar / Fleet Owner

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6 Responses to Cat CT680

  1. Richard M. Gaskill says:

    I hope you realize they are entirely produced by Navistar in Mexico.
    The Cat-branded trucks are built by Navistar Inc. under a contract manufacturing agreement. Navistar assembles the vehicles at its plant in Escobedo, Mexico.
    The CT680 features Cat’s CT13 engine, which is also built for Cat by Navistar. The 13-liter engine features selective catalytic reduction technology to meet emission standards and offers horsepower ratings from 410 to 475 and peak torque ratings from 1,450 to 1,700 pound-feet.
    http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplate.aspx?storyid=38302
    Personally, I see a lot shabby about Navistar and would never buy products from a company that moved production to Mexico and put thousands of Americans out of work and hurt the economy of towns these plants were located in.

    • Eric says:

      Hi Richard thank for stopping by. I am aware that Cat trucks are produced by Navistar at their factory in Mexico. I wrote about this move back in 2012 (click here for story) when the Garland, Texas plant was closed. Personally I find it difficult to pick on Navistar for this move as not one major truck builder has not made similar decisions in the past 20 years. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find any major national company that has not followed the same course of action. My home town is littered with the shells of industry that moved to southern states and beyond. I suppose we can blame politicians or corporate greed but ultimately the jobs are gone and we have to find new ways to support ourselves that don’t rely on the government or some distant corporate boardroom. At least Navistar’s Springfield operations continue to thrive and Ford has moved production of their heavy trucks back to Ohio. That has to count for something right?

      • Richard M. Gaskill says:

        Thanks for the reply but I don’t agree all other manufacturers made the move other than to become global to build trucks to be sold in Foreign markets. How many Volvo , Mack, Kenworth or Peterbilt trucks does the U.S. import?
        In 2005 the Ontario and Federal governments gave a subsidy of $62M to Navistar to “save jobs” at their Chatham plant. The plant employed approximately 400 people per year before shutting down altogether in 2009, a mere 4 years later. The last I heard the Canadian government was going to demand partial repayment.

        • Eric says:

          Freightliner has two factories in Mexico, one of which is responsible for their complete line of heavy duty vocational trucks. On the subject of Mack they are no longer a US based company and import many of their drive line components (axles, etc) from factories outside of the US. Paccar imports engine components from it’s DAF truck unit. It’s really unavoidable in this modern time. I’ll agree with you on Navistar pulling the rug out from under Chatham. They shut down one of their most historic manufacturing plants for dubious reasons at best. I’ve often wondered what impact this had on their Canadian sales as they always seemed to be a strong player up north.

  2. Jason C says:

    I too have mixed feelings about Navistar. Fort Wayne was once home to a huge IH truck plant. After that left, much of the R&D remained here in Allen County. A couple of years ago, they packed up and moved it all to Lisle, IL outside of Chicago. That took upwards of a thousand good paying jobs with it. To this day, the City of Fort Wayne is still buying Navistar trucks. Personally, I feel that if Fort Wayne and Indiana isn’t good enough for Navistar, then they should repay them in kind and move to VoMac and Freightliner/Western Star. In spite of that, I do enjoy the looks of a 7400/7600 and it is pretty cool to see the different setups the various city departments spec and also the color coding of the vehicles. Blue 7600 tandems for the water department, orange 7400 and 7600 single and tandems for the street department, pale yellow for a department I can’t remember, dark yellow for the storm water vac trucks, dark green for Parks and Rec. Maybe I should start taking pictures…..

    As far as the CAT vocational trucks, they are a tiny minority in the various truck fleets around here. I do like the way they look and it’s always good to see something “different”, but it would be nicer if CAT trucks were actually built by CAT. In the USA.

    Jason

  3. Brunno One says:

    MACK TRUCKS makes their truck and assembles them in the U.S with mkst co ponents supplied by U.S manufacturers. They moved production of key components like chassis / frames and axles to be near the MACK plants and brough to the U.S the manufacturing of their M-Drive Automated Manual.

    While my 2012 Navitrash International WorstStar has MADE IN MEXICO in every component from frame, bumper, hood, axles, wiring harness, windshield, window glass, dashboard (cheap plastic)

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