Working with my Lindeman crawler

Show us pictures of your JD crawler and attachments.
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Ray
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:04 am
Location: Madison, Indiana

Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Ray » Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:29 am

While I'm already posting things about working ON my crawler, I thought I would also share some photos from earlier this spring of working WITH my crawler. .............


There is an area out behind my barn that looks like someone had started to level off .. maybe to put up another building ?
They dug into a raised area on the north side leaving an embankment about 20 foot long.
The embankment is about 1-1/2 foot high in the center and tapers down to the ground at each end.
The dirt that was dug out was then dumped in a pile on the south side of the leveled off area.
I'm able to mow along the top of this embankment and along the bottom of it but that still leaves a strip of tall weeds that I can't cut down with the mower
so I decided to use the Lindeman to dig the mound of dirt back up and fill in the embankment.


Up until 2001, I used this little crawler on a regular basis for doing yard work and maintaining the gravel driveway.
I lived up in northern Michigan then and so I also used it to knock down the snow banks in the winter when they got to high.
I live in southern Indiana now and so far, there hasn't been any snowfall that I couldn't clear off with a broom.
I retired the crawler in 2001 and haven't done any work with it since then.


The reason that I no longer work with it is because it is 75 years old and if I brake something in the final drive, it is going to be very hard to find parts and if I can find them ... it's for sure that they will cost a lot more then they did when I first built this crawler up many years ago.
However, this was a very small job and it wouldn't put a lot of strain on the crawler so I decided to go ahead and use it instead of renting a skidsteer.

When I first decided to use it to move the dirt, I hadn't planned on taking any photos so I don't have any that show what the embankment and the dirt pile looked like before I started.
About half way thru the job, I got to thinking .... because I haven't worked the crawler in 19 years and I'm not likely to work it again, this may be my last opportunity to get photos of it actually being used.
I got my camera and took a couple of shots.


I have this ripper for an Agricat crawler that is a future restoration project.

Image


I fastened this ripper onto the forks of my lift truck and used it to loosen up the pile of dirt.

Image


Here is a photo of the crawler ready to take another bite out of the dirt pile.

Image


And ready to dump the load of dirt.

Image


Once I had all the dirt moved and the embankment filled in, then I got out my old Bolens Ridemaster tractor with the grader blade and used it to do the finish leveling.
Behind the Ridemaster, you can see the embankment filled in with a nice slope now so I can mow it.

Image


This is what the area looks like now where the dirt pile was.
All that is left is to pick up a few big rocks that showed up.

Image


Of coarse ... after I used it to do all that digging in the dirt, then I had to spend about an hour getting it clean again.

Image
Ray

45 John Deere Lindeman ( modified )
46 FMC Bean Cutler ( flat belt drive )
(2) 48 Bolens Ridemasters ser. #R230, #R1051
37 Shaw Du-All tractor conversion
"R/T" home made tractor
1925/26 Centaur tractor conversion

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Stan Disbrow
350 crawler
350 crawler
Posts: 2894
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:13 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Stan Disbrow » Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:54 am

Hi,

Nice. It got the job done. I have never seen one with a loader on before. And that has to be the smallest motor grader I have ever seen.

Stan
There's No Such Thing As A Cheap Crawler!

Useta Have: '58 JD 420c 5-roller w/62 inside blade
Useta Have: '78 JD350C w/6310 outside blade
Useta Have: '68 JD350, '51 Terratrac GT-25
Have: 1950 M, 2005 x495, 2008 5103 (now known as 5045D)

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Ray
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:04 am
Location: Madison, Indiana

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Ray » Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:57 am

Stan Disbrow wrote:
Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:54 am
Hi,
Nice. It got the job done. I have never seen one with a loader on before. And that has to be the smallest motor grader I have ever seen.
Stan
Thank you .
They never made a loader for the Lindeman crawler.
The loader is off an old Massey Harris Ferguson tractor and I adapted it to fit on the crawler.
Ray

45 John Deere Lindeman ( modified )
46 FMC Bean Cutler ( flat belt drive )
(2) 48 Bolens Ridemasters ser. #R230, #R1051
37 Shaw Du-All tractor conversion
"R/T" home made tractor
1925/26 Centaur tractor conversion

Josey
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:36 pm
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Josey » Sat Nov 14, 2020 11:08 pm

That was really cool, thanks for posting that.
Josey
Minneapolis, MN
440ic Rookie

jkemp43
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:21 am

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by jkemp43 » Tue Nov 17, 2020 7:34 am

How do get that started with the loader on there?

User avatar
Ray
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:04 am
Location: Madison, Indiana

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Ray » Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:01 pm

jkemp43 wrote:
Tue Nov 17, 2020 7:34 am
How do get that started with the loader on there?
This has an electric starter on it.
Ray

45 John Deere Lindeman ( modified )
46 FMC Bean Cutler ( flat belt drive )
(2) 48 Bolens Ridemasters ser. #R230, #R1051
37 Shaw Du-All tractor conversion
"R/T" home made tractor
1925/26 Centaur tractor conversion

jkemp43
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:21 am

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by jkemp43 » Wed Nov 25, 2020 2:36 pm

Very cool piece

User avatar
Ray
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:04 am
Location: Madison, Indiana

Re: Working with my Lindeman crawler

Post by Ray » Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:01 pm

My daughter was down visiting me this last weekend and she took a short video of the crawler.
While we were doing this, it dawned on her that this crawler is only one year older then I am.

https://youtu.be/6keFqaMOklI
Ray

45 John Deere Lindeman ( modified )
46 FMC Bean Cutler ( flat belt drive )
(2) 48 Bolens Ridemasters ser. #R230, #R1051
37 Shaw Du-All tractor conversion
"R/T" home made tractor
1925/26 Centaur tractor conversion

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