Agricat garden crawler

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

Agricat garden crawler

Post by Ray » Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:21 am

1949 Agricat model-C garden crawler.
6 HP Wisconsin AEH engine with electric start.
2 speed forward and 1 reverse.
Dozer blade and garden plow are raised and lowered manually.

These were made back in the 40's and 50's by Joost Manufacturing Company - Berkely, California.
They were sold by Earl H. Pence & Co. - San Leandro, California.
There were about a dozen companies that made small crawlers like this back then and most of them stopped building them when the rubber tired skidsteer/bobcat came out.

The most common little crawler is the Struck Minnie Crawler. They were advertised in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science as a kit that you put together.
Struck still builds a small steel track crawler today.


I was really lucky when I found this because it still had all the manuals and paperwork with it.
It also had some letters from the original owner ordering some parts and responce from the company.

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The engine is very worn out.
Both front rollers need bushings.
Bushings in the left final drive and side plate are worn. ( the right final drive is still tight, so I'm going to leave that side alone )

The track chains are OK.
Transmission and drive chain are OK.
I already rebuilt the steering clutches when I first got it in 2006.
Both track idlers are OK.

This is what it looked like before I rebuilt it in 2008.

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To start this .. you had to lift a metal panel that covered the starter pulley ( under the lift arm for the front blade ).
Then you had to run the starter rope down between the blade lift arm and the engine and wrap the belt around the pulley.
Once you have it wrapped, then you have to stand in front of the blade and lean over it to pull the starter rope.

My old back muscles were not going to take much of that.
So before I started the restoration, I added an electric starter/generator.
It is mounted in front of the engine and I made a shroud to cover the pulleys and V-belt

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The panel that holds the starter switch and amp gauge.

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Disassembling the Agricat.

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Undercarriage parts.

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I bought bushing with a standard outside diameter and a smaller inside diameter.
I've reamed the parts out to accept the standard outside diameter of the bushings. Then I machined the inside of the bushings to
fit the shaft diameter.
Reaming front roller for new bushing.

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Machining new bushing.

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Final drive cover back on.

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Stripping old paint off parts.

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Painting the crawler.

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Transmission, chain drive, rear axle and steering clutches.
Most of this will be covered by sheet metal.

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Tracks are reassembled and the interior and drive train are painted.
The holes in the fenders are for mounting rubber pads that fit on the foot rest, up the front of the fender
and on top of the front half of the fender.

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The engine is torn down and new parts have been ordered.

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Last summer I put a headlight on it.
The light housing and bracket came off a tractor from the 40's.
The mounting bracket is being bolted to the support brcket for the dash.

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Painting all the headlight parts.

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Finished headlight.

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Photos of the finished crawler

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Here it is being used a little to clean up the side of the road where the county snow plow had scarfed it up.

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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

roadbuilder
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 100
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:25 pm
Location: Allegany, Oregon

Nice work

Post by roadbuilder » Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:00 pm

Very nice Ray!
If it's worth doin', it's worth doin' right.

MADJACK
430 crawler
430 crawler
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:58 pm
Location: www.homegunsmith.com

Post by MADJACK » Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:10 pm

That is sweet, Excellent job!

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Pammark
440 crawler
440 crawler
Posts: 195
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:04 pm
Location: Marysville, Ohio

Post by Pammark » Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:05 am

Looking good, Ray.

I just hope my project looks as shiney in the end. See "2010 repair" for my pics.

Mark
JD 2010 Crawler with Loader

ELAFENT
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:45 pm
Location: Martinez Ca.

Re: Agricat garden crawler

Post by ELAFENT » Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:33 pm

Hi Ray
I'm new on this forum.
I have an Agrict mini dozer with no paper work. ☹
I see here in your message that you have the original documents that came with your crawler.
I have done extensive searching for them for the past year since acquring my little dozer. To no avail! I'm hoping you would be willing to share a copy for a fellow crawler owner. Possibly a PDF or what ever is convenient for you.
Thanks in advance.
Robert

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