Not that it's highly interesting, but the dozer used belonged to Hawley Enterprises (my name is Daniel Hawley) a now-defunct construction company based in the Los Angeles area. The driver in the scenes where the drive isn't visible was my Uncle, Jim Hawley.
It's a fun family joke now when we see Jim. He is the commander of KILLDOZER!
>>
The driver in the scenes where the drive isn't visible was my Uncle, Jim Hawley.
<<
Hell, that's better than being Mayor of L.A. Cool.
Yeah, that's a great distinction, if it's true. It'd be so hard to verify it, though, that I wouldn't even ask for proof. Geezus, think of the miles of paperwork you'd have to sift through. I'ma take you at your word, on this one. That'd be a badge of honor, to me, if one of my relatives had been driving the D9.
I was born not long after this movie came out, and my earliest memory as a child is of my uncle, (who has his own construction company), driving his bulldozer around and making the blade go up and down, and turning the lights on and off, and making the puff of smoke. It was a joke with him that never seemed to get old, he did it for years. Years later, I saw the movie and laughed my ass off.
shareMy grandfather hooked on with a construction outfit when he came back from WWII, and later in those years, he started farming a piece of land. He owned a Cat D7 Turbo long track, and my aunts and uncles attest to having to hold the fence posts up while grandpa moved the D7 blade into place and drove them into the ground with the blade.
shareI believe you, Daniel!
Seriously, it is true. Daniel is my cousin, and Jim is my dad.
I just discovered that he is listed on IMDB, and it has completely made my day. Can he BE any cooler? I am so proud.
My dad was also interviewed on the local news (years ago) about a construction project, and the caption referred to him as "Jim Hawley, man of stone". My mom, brother and I still love to tease him about that.
there's a new book on amazon.com called TELEVISION FRIGHT FILMS OF THE 1970S that talks about this film.
shareweird that i come across this right now..... Im working at Caterpillar at this very moment and just did an audit on a D9 'KillDozer' a couple of weeks ago. dang.... CAT is cooler than I thought!!!! I have a meeting in 20 minutes and Im totally going to bring this up!
shareOne of you Hawley Enterprises guys.
I am long time Diesel Mechanic " I got to know this before I die" .
Is that Dozer a Cat D9H one of the first in that series of models?
Them flat track dozers out push them high track dozers any day of the week. But your back will feel sure a lot better after 10 hours running high track models. All of them start to putt out of fuel around 8 1/2 hours or longer if ran hard still to this day.
From my guess it look like a D9H .
Cutting edges just been turned and still today we weld old used pieces of cutting edges to the blade for better wear just like you did on that dozer in movie.
I believe I get cut I bleed Diesel. If you have a good crew there not a better job in the world to do.. Good crew I really look forward to go to work sick, flu nothing stops me as long as the crew laughs and get along together all day long.
I was wondering about the model myself. I was an operator back in the 70's, and I don't recall ever seeing a 9H with a pup motor like 'Killdozer' has. I did however run a D9G and it did have a pup motor. But it looked more like a 9H than killdozer does. I wonder if there was an earlier model of D9. Also, the first D9H was released in 1974, the same year as 'Killdozer', and that is definitely not a new cat.
sharemy Uncle, Jim Hawley.
I just saw KILLDOZER and thoroughly enjoyed it. Nice work
I also just watched the 1973 TV Movie HORRR AT 37,0000 FEET and remembered that the co-pilot played by Russell Johnson was named Jim Hawley. Was that in honor of your uncle as well?
You're a lucky fellow to be able to brag that your uncle was the commander of Killdozer!