O.T. Photos Old Cat dozer Old truck

Cold & wet out side so here goes. Went South 100 miles a purchased as 1937 Cat dozer & grader combination. Man I got it from farther bought the dozer new. Never been repainted , about as original as it gets. Old pull cat grader and
a real original FORD rail way express truck.
Now let see if I can get the photos posted.
Note Dozer has never been fitted with blade in it,s 75 year life, somewhat a rare find.

The combination reminded me of this Cletrac 20K that was in this month's Oliver Heritage Magazine.

Nice find.

What model cat is that--Gas or diesel?

Wow!!Great find.
Richard

D Cat is a model 50 hybrid in that it started on gas then ran of fuel oil. The thing is it has never been more than thirty miles from where it sits. Has been used all it,s life as a pull type tractor , never been fitted with a blade and also never painted in it,s life. Original in about ever way. Trying to find someone to purchase it a fix it up , just did not want to see it scrapped.
I was told that the engine was started 12 years ago and the unit drove to the place it is sitting.

Great pics jm! BTW, my old 18 is going through oil and doesnt seem to be improving, might have to do an inframe on it, do you know where I can get an inframe kit for a reasonable price?? Email me if you want
My name at hot mail dot com

If it has never had a blade,then it is a "crawler".Only if it gets a blade does it become a "dozer".Yea...I know I'm a smarta$$

(quoted from post at 20:28:02 03/01/13) If it has never had a blade,then it is a "crawler".Only if it gets a blade does it become a "dozer".Yea...I know I'm a smarta$$

Click to expand...

I can push more than I can pull, and in slippery conditions, I fall down harder when I am pushing! Maybe that has something to do with wear on these old machines?

Judging from the lack of snow, Its waaaay to far away from me.

What ever.. Califorina is full of these TRACTOR types but back here east most were converted to dozers early on. I may move it home and get it running if someone does not want to buy it for scrap prices. Really a nice old tractor from the photo I have found pretty sure it is a 50.
Got the serial number but lost the paper.

(quoted from post at 20:04:58 03/01/13) Great pics jm! BTW, my old 18 is going through oil and doesnt seem to be improving, might have to do an inframe on it, do you know where I can get an inframe kit for a reasonable price?? Email me if you want
My name at hot mail dot com

Click to expand...

Lyle,
The machinist type guys I know will fix you up if you tear it down. The pull rings on measurements around here even if they aren't supposedly available anymore. But, oil is cheap this time of year somewhere. You need an importer to get some of that. :lol: No I am not one of them. At least you don't have to change oil anymore, it does it itself!

Lyle b-4 you go throwing an OH on it, dump a gallon or so of Marvel Mystery Oil though it. Never figgered out what it does, but old codger down the road swore by it. Stuff would unseal stuck stuff and seal up unstuck stuff. May be sticky rings......

The old dozer would probably scrap out pretty good if you have a way to move it,not worth fixing.

(quoted from post at 21:00:08 03/01/13) The old dozer would probably scrap out pretty good if you have a way to move it,not worth fixing.

Click to expand...

Why would you scrap it? It looks like the undercarriage is good from this angle at least.

My current contract on scrap is $310.00 a ton so yes I could make a hefty profit but the man I purchased it from is on his dying bed and that is the one thing he wanted to see this dozer sold to someone that would NOT scrap it so yes guess it will make the ride home. I have equipment to move it pretty easy.

(quoted from post at 02:57:34 03/02/13) Lyle b-4 you go throwing an OH on it, dump a gallon or so of Marvel Mystery Oil though it. Never figgered out what it does, but old codger down the road swore by it. Stuff would unseal stuck stuff and seal up unstuck stuff. May be sticky rings......

Click to expand...

i Don, I tried some of that lucus oil chit, didnt seem to work. I suspect it could be some siezed rings because the old thing sat for over twenty years, Im going to run it for a while to see if the oil consumtion improves. When the tractor is running it seems to run great and it keeps the mosquitos away! lol

Yep, the sproket teeth look OK and the idlers and rails look to be about 30-40% but thosse ain"t SALT tracks either and if you run it much, after sittin so long....the pins and bushings are liable to fall out.
Also makes me suspicious as to why the visible track is so tight.

I dont have anything to scale it with but is it possibly and RD7?

Your still looking at thousands of dollars of repairs from the engine,tranny,rollers and 50 other things.Old dozers are about the biggest money pit there is.

my old R2 started on gas and then could switch to the main tank with diesel or kerosene.

jm, those pieces are less than 5 minutes from my house. That crawler and grader were used to build the pad for the service station that is in front of the crawler on the highway. (its a car lot now)

Chris

nice find, many years ago the company i worked for had a old 1938 d-8 with a spreader box on it, pony start and the pony was hand crank, soked like a freight train but that old thing never broke down even running every day, it sure sounded good running too, i agree with the old guy this stuff is way too nice to scrap it, it needs to run again

Chris I met the guy there at the car lot. He says I can come in across the lot and get them out. Sure will make it easier. May have to get you help load the things. Going to wait for the weather to get better. They said they were letting him come home from the hospital but probably not going to get any better.

jm.,

GREAT photos!

Have to get to a junkyard soon - need a fix of rust in person.

I would disagree, scrap yard is not the place for that tractor for any reason, and its really a bad thing to suggest it, for the fact that only 1800 were built 1931-1937 its a complete early Fifty. which apparently has a lot of unique parts. Zimmerman in the somewhere in the middle of the country may have parts or an interest in parting a tractor like, that, but to scrap it out, no.

If I am correct,not having a seat tank, looks to be a gas model, I don't see any fuel injection parts on the right side, I do see a magneto. I have never heard of the start on gas, switch to diesel, unless it was a starting engine and diesel motor, like what would be on a Diesel Fifty. It came in 60" gauge and 74" gauge, this tractor appears to be a 74", and it was the predecessor of the RD7/D7. This should be a serial number 5A tractor, being gas.

Original, complete 1 of 1800 built tractor, that could run, hopefully not stuck, is a really nice collectible find, one really needs to know what one has before considering scrap, by the same token, an owner has every right to do as they wish, I would just hope people would not consider scrap or even suggesting it unless they know what they really have or are talking about, a collector would likely snag this one up.

Undercarriage looks worn judging by the pads, but one could easily measure up, use an old track gauge and determine its real wear. Aside from final drive or any major internal problems, say in the bevel gear compartment and or similar, this would appear to be a great restoration candidate. The fact that it never had a "dozer kit" as it was called in those days, is good, because uses like ag/drawbar work are not so hard on a tractor used with a dozer kit, not nearly as much reversing and less shock impact and other forces at work to consider.

Really is a nice find and so is that grader and that old truck !

That is a really nice find, see my post below, hopefully it is not seized up, if so, I'd be real careful in dealing with that, meaning pull the heads and see whats what, thats one of 1800 built if I am correct, not sure how many are left, these are not all that common.

I've never hear of that combination, that would make this one kind of unique, what I am really curious about is if that was a factory set up, gasoline start and switch over to the other kinds of fuel, distillate, kerosene, and or fuel oil/diesel, without having the injection equipment like later caterpillar diesel engines.

Caterpillar used to have a selling point with these new diesels back then as they would run on variants of fuel oil, not sure if bunker oil could be used but there was some variety to what you could run it on.

Very interesting to hear more about this tractor and see more photos.

Another bit of advice, with all the junky mongo thieves around, be sure to secure this tractor asap, that kind of radiator is a commonly stolen item, and hard to replace.

jm that will be fine. If I'm where I can help you I will. What do you have to haul both of these on?

Chris