A Tracked vehicle is a vehicle that runs on its own tracks rather than on wheels. Examples include:
They are sometimes called track-laying vehicles, or Caterpillars, after the manufacturer of one make of bulldozer.
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 and uneven ground. 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.
