Nortrac 3500 Anyone ever eyeball one?

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I was surfing about Ye Olde eBay this afternoon, and ran across an auction for a Nortrac 3500.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NorTrac-30-HP-bulld ... dZViewItem

Now, I'm not really interested in getting one (actually I'm about as far away from getting one as it's possible *to* get!), but this particular auction has a lot of photos of the thing and they have my curiosity up.

One thing I can't tell is if it has steering clutches, ala the JD's or if it uses differential steering, ala the old Terratrac GT-25 I once had. Looks like pedal steering to brakes only and that implys differential steering to me.

Another thing I note is that it appears to have drive sprockets on both the front and rear ends of the machine on each side. Is this thing made from a 4WD tractor chassis and they're driving the chains from both ends?

I can't see why one would want to do that, as it'd not give any increase in traction with the pads as it does with wheels and tires. All I can see is where the thing would stress itself internally when turning unless they have steering clutches at each end. If the thing is differentially steered, then there would be all sorts of stress on two sets of spyder gears instead of one.

Anyway, I'm now rather curious as to just what they're doing with the thing, and if someone has messed with one of these perhaps you'd be kind enough to enlighten me some.

Stan

[Lavoy]

Northern Tool sells them, I have seen them branded under different names. If you want to buy a bunch of them, I bet they will put your name on the side of them.
Lavoy

[jdzaharia]

The description says:

-Brakes and Steering: Steering pedals integrated with brake pedals
-Steering Clutches: Multiple dry cerametallic disk clutches, pedal control
-Brakes: Band brakes, pedal control

I am guessing the brakes work at the bottom of the travel of the steering clutch pedals.

The front sprocket does appear to have cogs on it, but one of the pictures shows the mounting, and it clearly does not have a drive to it. 12th picture down, I believe.

Quite the machine, I bet.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Hmmm. Dizzy-Trak, perhaps?

I don't think I want to buy even one, actually.

Now, if a nice 1010 Diesel with reverser and PAT blade should come along, well, that's a different story!

We do have a Northern Hydraulics (yes, I still use their old name, mainly out of stubborness) around here. I'll have to swing by and see if they happen to have one on hand and eyeball it myself.

Stan

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Well, that'll teach me to read the description. I had gone straight to the photos, and skipped all that text stuff!

So, it must work as you think - the pedal releases the clutch pack and then applies the brake, just like our steering levers do. I guess to stop dead, one just pushes both brake pedals down.

Sort of like the 'live PTO' method JD talks about in the 420c manual - pull both levers and the machine stops with the PTO still running.

Maybe I'm just stuck in a rut, so to speak, but I like the master clutch, master brake method better. In fact I like steering with sticks. Heck, I don't know what I'd do with my left hand if I didn't have steering sticks!

Maybe I just need one of those new JD 450J units. Anyone got one to lend me so I can learn just how good the new ways really are?

You're right on the front sprockets. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at in a few of those shots, but that one shot does show the front sprocket from the inside of the frame rails, and there's no drive. They must use the sprocket instead of an idler wheel to commonize production steps for both the driven and idler sprockets - at least that's the only reason I can think of for bothering to do it that way.

Well, we have a local Northern store or two in the area. I'll have to drop in one day and see if they happen to have one of these to eyeball in person. I have all this curiosty now (mainly to see if the thing is possibly worth anything at all as far as performing work goes).

Later!

Stan

[Tigerhaze]

Maybe I'm just stuck in a rut, so to speak, but I like the master clutch, master brake method better. In fact I like steering with sticks. Heck, I don't know what I'd do with my left hand if I didn't have steering sticks!

I know that feeling; I've been using my 2010 so much lately that steering it is second nature. My older Bobcat M-500 skidsteer is also lever steer. I don't know what the heck would happen if I ever had to operate a pedal steer crawler!

[digitup]

Got my eye balls on one of those Chinese beasts today . they dont go places my 40 c 5 roller will tread and I payed less for my 350D wide track ! .Didnt have the hart to tell him that I would have brought twice as many of them half as far and dumped them over board . If you want a real laugh see if you can find your local dealer for the XD 7 and XD8 dozers from China even the parts from the D7M and theD8M Cats fit them .all but the engine it is a 855 Cummins.It seams that China wont recognize any patents from other country's.The Ontario dealer is Teraquip if you want to look it up and these things are 70% of Cats prices .I am not sure if they would even have any resale value.Digitup.