[AT] Spam> Santa was good to me - Clark Airborne Dozer - Long

Tue Jan 1 11:14:25 PST 2008

That would be worthwhile seeing whether running or not, Keith.

Last year at SIAM, a fellow collector from Georgia brought two of his more 
unique Power Kings up for SIAM and between the two of us we had 8 tractors 
at the show.  Most of mine are working tractors, so they weren't necessarily 
very pretty, but we covered better than 30 years of production.  We were 
joined by a couple other PK owners for a total of 11 tractors.  We're 
planning on doing the same thing again this year and we may even be able to 
work in a tour of Mission Manufacturing up in Princeton.  Since they are the 
major supplier of all PK parts, it's a natural attraction -- they're only 20 
miles away from the show grounds.  If I take all of mine to the show, we'll 
cover 48 years of production and the company only lasted for 49 years.

Larry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Kinney" <kkinney at herculesengines.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 12:54 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Spam> Santa was good to me - Clark Airborne Dozer - Long

> Larry
> If I can get it running I would love to take it out to the SIAM
> show.  I'll bet it will be a hoot to drive around.
> Keith
>
> At 07:59 PM 12/31/2007, you wrote:
>>Keith, are you bringing any of this out to SIAM this summer?  Even in 
>>"field
>>fresh" condition, it would make for lots of tire kicking (or tread kicking
>>as the case may be.)
>>
>>
>>Larry
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Keith Kinney" <kkinney at herculesengines.com>
>>To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 12:02 AM
>>Subject: [AT] Spam> Santa was good to me - Clark Airborne Dozer - Long
>>
>>
>> > One thing I've learned in this hobby is that some times you have to
>> > wait a long time before you're about to close a deal.  This story
>> > starts back in 1975 or 76.  I was in high school and had been
>> > collecting engines and tractors for a few years.  A friend of mine
>> > told me about his neighbor who had some old engines and tractors
>> > parked around the farm.  It was about 2 miles from my house and one
>> > afternoon he took me to the neighbors and we visited with the elderly
>> > man.  He showed us around his place and he did have a bunch of old
>> > equipment.  But, didn't want to part with any of it.  I did notice in
>> > has barn he had several magnetos for gas engines.  After talking with
>> > him he indicated that he worked for a company that did warranty work
>> > for the Hercules Gas Engine company after Hercules had stopped
>> > producing engines.  One thing he showed us was this small bulldozer
>> > that he told us was used during WWII.  They were parachuted into
>> > remote areas to build roads and runways for advancing
>> > troops.   Pretty cool stuff.
>> >
>> > Fast forward to 1991.  I had some frequent flier miles I needed to
>> > use so my dad and I flew out to Oregon and toured to state including
>> > a trip to the Brooks Oregon show.  While in Oregon we ran across this
>> > small little dozer that we were told was used by the forestry service
>> > to reach remote areas.  It was real cute and we thought we'd like to
>> > find one like it someday.  We'll after returning home we kept our
>> > eyes out for one.  We found a pair of them (or so we thought)  for
>> > sale in Spokane, Washington, a long way from Indiana.  Well after
>> > talking with the seller he was able to arrange some economical
>> > shipping and we were soon the owners of two  Clark Airborne
>> > Dozers.  We bought em with the idea of taking two to make one good
>> > one.  After getting them home we figured out they were not the same
>> > dozer we had witnessed in Oregon but we liked them better because of
>> > the war connection and their rarity.  Only 2500 of these were ever
>> > produced.  We got them home and started restoration on one but, like
>> > many projects it got pushed to the side and we still don't have it 
>> > done.
>> >
>> > Fast forward again to about 1998.   While talking to a parent of a
>> > school mate of my daughter I learned that he was the grandson of the
>> > man who I had visited with back in the mid 70's.  The grandson now
>> > lived on the farm and yes he still had most of the old stuff his
>> > grandfather had show us so many years before.  I asked if I could
>> > come over and look around and he was receptive.  We had a nice visit
>> > and did purchase a 1.5 HP Fairbanks Morse hit and miss engine, a
>> > water pump, an Elkhart magneto, several webster magnetos and a
>> > Standard Twin garden tractor.  He still had the little dozer but he
>> > didn't want to part with the dozer.
>> >
>> > Fast forward to the spring of 1997.  I received a call from the man
>> > with the dozer.  Keep in mind this is within a couple of miles from
>> > our house.  He asked if I was still interested in the little
>> > dozer.  Well you know what my answer was.  He said the barn had
>> > fallen down and he didn't think he would ever get around to doing
>> > anything with the dozer.  Dad and I went to take a look and it was
>> > sad to see this jewel sitting with the exhaust exposed with barn
>> > debris all over it.  We talked money and we were pretty far
>> > apart.   After all who needs three of these things. :-)  I happened
>> > to run into him again a few weeks later while standing in line at the
>> > bank.  I made him a cash offer but we were still a few hundred dollars
>> > apart.
>> >
>> > Fast forward to this fall.  I received another call from the dozer
>> > owner and he offered to split the difference on the price.  He didn't
>> > want to see the dozer go through another winter out in the open.  I
>> > agreed on the price and the deal was made.  We finally had an
>> > opportunity to go pick the dozer up on December 26, 2007.  Pictures
>> > of the dozer and the story can be seen here:
>> > http://www.herculesengines.com/clarkair/default.htm
>> >
>> > The thing that appealed to us on this dozer is that it is very
>> > complete with all the little bells and whistles that are often
>> > missing.  Little things like the hooks that were used to secure the
>> > parachute lines to the dozer.   It also came with an extra set of
>> > tracks and extra drive cogs.  So at this point in time we are going
>> > to try to get this dozer running and operable and at a later date do
>> > a total restoration.  We also plan to sell the other two dozers that we
>> > have.
>> >
>> > One other interesting thing about this project.  About 10 or so years
>> > ago I ran across a man who had bought out the remaining stock of
>> > parts from when production was shut down in the 1940's.  He had two
>> > semi trailers full of NOS parts.  We were able to purchase new
>> > hydraulic cylinders for the dozer blade, new set frames and cushions
>> > still wrapped in their original paper, new steering clutches, new
>> > tracks and other misc. parts.  Quite a find.
>> >
>> > So that's the story for now.  We started by getting 2 tractors that
>> > were over 2500 miles from home and ended up with a nicer one just 2
>> > miles from home that we'd first seen some 30 or so years ago.
>> >
>> > Keith
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Keith Kinney
>> > Evansville, Indiana  USA
>> > www.HerculesEngines.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > AT mailing list
>> > http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>> >
>>
>>
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>
> Keith Kinney
> Evansville, Indiana  USA
> www.HerculesEngines.com
>
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