| abstract | - A crawler tractor (also called: track-type tractor, tracked vehicle or track-laying vehicle) is a vehicle that runs on tracks instead of wheels. Typically used as part of an Engineering vehicle once additional attachments have been added. The principal design advantages of tracked over wheeled vehicles are that they are in contact with a larger surface area than would generally be the case with a wheeled vehicle, and as a result exert a much lower force per unit area on the ground being traversed than a conventional wheeled vehicle of the same weight. This makes them suitable for use on soft, low friction and uneven ground such as mud, ice and snow. The principal disadvantage is that tracks are a more complex mechanism than a wheel, and relatively prone to failure modes such as snapped or derailed tracks.
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