[AT] Iron and lots of it

[Grant Brians]

My D8 is a 13A and has a rare feature that is very valuable. It has the
contemporaneous third party add-on hyraulic steering clutch assist feature.
This has the advantage of no longer having "Armstrong" or "Bowflex" efforts
needed to steer the tractor. It also means that at least in theory it is
possible to get similar productivity to a later unit (except of course for
the turbocharger power increase of the later series of tractors also.
     The weight on the tractor is of course approximate as the basic tractor
is claimed as 37,150# in the Caterpillar reference book and then the Blade,
front cable control unit, full roll-cage, miscellaneous items and rear dual
cable control units. This tractor was a quarry tractor apparently for nearly
all of its life. I acquired it from up in the back country hills of our
county and it was previously in the San Jose area working in quarries. To
get it to me , my hauler had to take a late model D7 and pull start the
tractor to drive it out of the muddy gravel of the ranch it was on and drive
it onto the Cozad trailer. The road the truck took to get to me has one spot
where the 16' total width of the road with the cliff on the up side and the
rocks sticking up on the other side in the curve contrasts with the 11'6"
blade width and the 80' truck length makes for a challenge.
     In addition, there is a total of over 40 miles of very curvy and/or
steep road. Also, to get the tractor on the ranch here, I had to take down
part of the fence so the D6 could pull the D8 straight off the trailer and
get it up closer to the shop. I made a mistake in that process by using a
heavy chain, not the steel cable as I now have a broken and STRAIGHT /
RIGIDpiece of metal that is 22 feet long from the snapping when I tried to
start the D8 in its pull start. Sigh.
     I am looking forward eagerly to getting the starter engine to be an
easy to start engine and then using this animal. Before I do either, I am
going to fix the cracked water jacket on the diesel engine.... Then we can
turn the pins and build up the rollers and have some BIG "fun". The D8 is a
nominal 150HP drawbar and the D6C SA is a nominal 140HP drawbar (versus the
1960's D6C at 125HP drawbar nominal. I have a lengthy list of tasks for both
crawlers to do already....
            Grant Brians
            Hollister, California

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of
toma at risingnet.net
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 11:02 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] Iron and lots of it


Quoting Grant Brians <sales at heirloom-organic.com>:


. It is a 1954 Caterpillar D8 with
> full double cable controls and a cable bulldozer blade. It "only" weighs
> 57,000 pounds.

Hi Grant,

What Series is your D8? 13A, 14A or ?

I have a '39  1H 5XXX  D8 with a later cable blade. I love the old
beast and it is a true antique besides.

Tom
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