All right, who's getting me this for Christmas??

[pop pop]

ya i agree with you digitup,
i recall being on a cat D8 2u series that was built to go thru anything,,, and would,,, swamps, rivers, canyons,, mudholes, big cottonwoods,,,
we had several of that series,,,together we would go stumping all day into the evening but i didn't like looking past the glowing red stack, the heat distorted the view and at times got bright enough to sorta blind ya ,, but (at night)we could see where each other was easily ,,,
and also a 14A that was tough but it was dedicated to a job that i didn't run.
crawlers now have plenty of power but can ya really call them BULLdozers?,,,
there are a still a few models/types that will go thru helen back.

when we needed, we had 2 cats on a job together,,, if one of us got into a predicament,,, no problem,,
rivers and swamps were always "white-knucklers",
,we kept a cable teathered between us,
and when one hit a sinkhole or quiksand,,,
whamo,,, would have to snatch (not snap)that cable tight ASAP,
and determine 2nd or 3rd gear, kicking throttle wide open.
scared most guys including me, and if i thought there were going to be complications, we called in the experts, my dad and uncle were a pair of helcats on cats,,, thats when we got the camera around.
pictures are getting kinda yellow now....

[digitup2]

My days of D8 started in the D8H 48A days Dad had one big old Cat with a blade all the rest were little John Deere 450s and 550s & HD21 Allis .With the drainage business Cats will push but you will find don't pull like a HD 21 Allis so we used Allis's for plow tractors right from the 70s to today still got two of them kick'n around .If I need a pull tractor I got a 850C that is usually available.You can do crazy things with a pair of dozers strapped together [large or small].I usually look after that mud work my self as it can get messy .We use a pair of VOX radios for instant communications between operators and several weeks ago I hit a large rock on grade under full pull power with the 850C haul'n big time A** and I only blew a hydraulic hose before I got the pull tractor stooped It can happen in a flash and yes I have experienced quick sand before that is always fun .And a hole other story !!.Digitup .

[Tractor 850]

http://www.tractorshed.com/cgi-bin/phot ... =retrieval

If a new one is a little rich....

Dave

[digitup2]

Dam my back aches just lookin at that !!.Digitup.

[Tractor 850]

I was thinking of mounting a swing out bracket on the back of my 440 and hang one of these from it.
Then if I break down I would have a spare

Dave

[roadbuilder]

If you have a winch and hung a block off your swing out, it would be a yo-yo attachment!
Happy Thanksgiving All!

Dale

[Ray III]

I have some friends that are engineers at Cat. One of them was telling me about the new series of road grader he was working on. To meet emissions, the engine will run at 1200 RPM, FULL THROTTLE!
Lavoy

The slower you can get an engine to run the more efficient it will be because the fuel has more time to put its energy against the piston. Train engines run at 900 RPM wide open, large ship engines take their time at 100 RPM and are the most efficient users of fuel. They're also 2 stroke, plenty of time to change out the cylinder volume at the bottom of every stroke.

For faster running engines though, they're cammed to let in the most air at a certain speed and that's about where you're supposed to run them for economy, which is why I was asking about that...

Digitup, I can't find the connector on my 420 to hook it to a laptop... will you accept results downloaded to a notepad?

[Ray III]

If you gave me the choice of any machine for a crawler I'd probably stick with my 420. It's the only thing short of a 350 with 36" shoes that you can rearrange a flowing creek in the middle of a swamp and make it back out alive. Also fits between those trees nicely. I agree that I just can't see the ultra modern stuff getting into crazy places anymore.