New Member & New Owner

[Tractor 850]

Hello Everyone!

I just bought and brought home a 440IC, Ser.#445235 with #63 blade, PTO and 3pt hitch.
I know, the tracks are way to tight!
Also someone took a cutting torch to the linkage for the reverser (?) and the foot brake (!) to build a home made control for the blade on the fender.
Must have been a short operator who went one way and never stopped!
I will keep you posted as I get into it and what I find.
With a 49 year old machine there must be a few worts here and there to fix.

Buying the 440.

Home at last.

Proud new owner!

Unloading, gently now.

[Lavoy]

Pretty nice looking old girl, nice find.
Lavoy

[NNAATZ]

wow! even with a three point, your going to like that.

[Tractor 850]

Thanks for the looks and comments everyone.

I have a woodlot on a hillside too steep to work safely with my wheel tractor.
There are about 75 trees down from winter storms that need to get to the saw mill.
The arms of the 3pt will work great to lift the ends so as not to plow a ditch when skidding them out, saving a potential erosion problem.
After everything is cleaned up I plan to replant with trees that are now in my nursery.
The 440 will then walk up the hill with a post hole digger saving a lot of hand digging.
Some may call this a lot of work but this is my relaxation from a long day of pushing papers.

[Lavoy]

I have a yoke that is used for skidding logs with a 3PT hitch if I can find it. It goes on the lower arms, and has a large loop in the middle. You hook a log chain to the drawbar and run it through the loop to the tree you are skidding. When you lift up on the 3PT, it lifts the end of the log off the ground so it is not digging in, and shifts weight to the crawler for extra traction.
Lavoy

[Ray III]

They make a drawbar that goes between the lift arms. You can get chain grab hooks that have a yoke so they'll pin to the drawbar. That is how my dad gets trees around.

[Tractor 850]

Lavoy,

If you can find that rig I would love to see a photo.

[shinnery]

Lavoy
Shouldn't that be "shifts weight" to the tractor? LOL
Bryce

[Tractor 850]

Either way, it works for me.

[Lavoy]

Yeah, okay I type like shift!
Lavoy

[Tractor 850]

I found this while browsing through my latest Northern Tool catalog.
Looks like it would fit the bill nicely.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... _200335943

[Granddad]

I have a 350 with 6-way blade and no 3 pt hitch. Has anyone come up with a way to skid logs using the blade and driving in reverse?

[Ray]

Now that's a crawler that will do some work.
You look like you're really happy on it. .. Ray

[Tractor 850]

Yes Ray, I'm very happy with my new crawler.
What gave me away?
Maybe my "shift" eating grin?

As for Granddad's question,
I have seen many loaders and dozers with various kinds of hooks attached to the bucket or blade. Both of mine do.
I have used my loader tractor to skid logs backwards but with 2WD and no power steering I am looking forward to using the crawler when the weather breaks.
I also find that my old backbone doesn't twist as well as it used to, so I much prefer to drive forward.
By the way, I just became a Granddad for the first time. Feels great doesn't it?

[Lavoy]

A word of caution on pulling from a hook on the moldboard like you have. There are two cast pieces that you are likely to break on that blade if you do that, both are obsolete, both are worth slightly less than their weight in gold if you do break one. The only other alternative if you break one is to weld the blade solid and loose your tilt and/or angle functions. If you must pull from the blade, weld a hook on the main frame itself and run the chain over the top of the blade so there is no direct pulling force on these critical parts.
Lavoy