Tuesday, August 11, 2020

I'll bet that, somewhere, that old Cat is still running


15 comments:

  1. They don't make 'em like they use to.

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  2. I'm betting somewhere in South america, they buy that stuff up like crazy

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  3. Nah... OSHA probably red tagged it for no roll cage.

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  4. Actually I think my buddy has that at his place of north. Runs like a top, but no brakes to speak of.

    On related note, that old iron can careen down a wooded hill - smashing trees all the way down - and still sit running like a top at the bottom.

    Just needed go pull my buddy out of the tree he lept into on the way down, change o shorts for the both of us and back to work. ;P

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  5. While in college I worked for a local logging company. One contract we had building roads for a timber sale included removing an old Cat cable dozer from the National Forest. It would not have been an issue, but the dozer sat next to the stream. I have no idea what year it was made but after draining and flushing the fuel tank and other fluids we put fired up the pony motor and got it to turn over and fired it up. The left clutch was toast so we had to use another dozer to winch it around on the left turns. Great fun. We managed to walk it out and, on a lowboy, to haul back to the yard.
    The owner still has it sitting out in front of the office buts it’s all rebuilt now. I wonder how many people even know what a pony motor is?

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    Replies
    1. I imagine not to many know what a pony motor is. I ran a d-8 for awhile once at a rock pit dump site. It had one.

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    2. I do. As far as Cats go, the family has a D2, D4, & D6, but the oldest is a Sixty. Also, an old AC crawler, a steamer, and a half dozen or so gas tractors pre 1920.

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  6. That truck is almost a dead ringer for the farm truck my dad had.
    Anyone else remember doing double-clutching, at least until you had enough experience to find the sweet spot of engine speed/transmission speed that let you shift just by letting off of the gas?

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  7. At local Grange Fair years ago dozens and dozens of old tractors from the 1920s and 30s as well as 40s all ran there and often were used out in fields.

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  8. If you ever get a chance, check out the Sycamore, IL Steam Show, usually some time in September. Stuff from the last 130 years.

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  9. That's quite a snorkel on that thing. Must be to get above the wheat pollen & chaff.

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  10. Unable to tell the make of the thresher. Before they became Caterpillar, they manufactured threshing machines under the name Holt-Reinhart.

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  11. This has gotta be early fifties at best. The combine has its own power plant, and those went out with the advent of the PTO.

    My father went out west to work the harvest, and he said he was running a self propelled unit, even then, in late 50's.

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  12. The Dodge looks like my Dad's old 1947...it was a 3/4 PU with a FH 6 3-sp on the floor..6 volt system, vacuum wipers, pop out front window and a fan for defroster/defogger..foot starter, too. I learned to drive on that old truck..

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