Hybrid, in many minds, means electrical. But the 336E H is what Cat calls a hydraulic hybrid. Like electrical hybrids, it captures and reuses energy, but rather than reuse energy in the form of electricity, it uses hydraulic accumulators built into the counterweight to store swing braking energy and rerelease it on the return to dig cycle.
And what a difference that makes. Instead of the complexity and cost of electrical generators and motors and cabling, the Cat 336E H uses technology that everybody knows and can feel comfortable with—hydraulics.
One of Cat’s goals with the new system was to make sure the 336E H had identical performance to the non-hydraulic hybrid models. The company had to overcome the perception in many minds that the term “hybrid” didn’t also mean some kind of compromise or constrained performance.
And after 10 minutes of digging with the machine that becomes abundantly clear. It’s a fast, powerful and surprisingly quiet machine. Inside the cab with the door shut it’s quiet enough that you could hold a conversation on your cell phone without shouting or idling the machine.
