Olivetroad

I was at a local place that sells and repairs used crawlers for local Mennonite farmers and I fainted when I went in their shop. Here they are converting a D5 into a Cat/Deere farm tractor with a Deere engine, powershift, and three point, new undercarriage - they even fabbed up a new frame and added the oscillation set up on the back of the frame to follow the ground better - that took some work: Here is a finished one with a Deere 6068 engine installed they use to pull a mower conditioner: They get the PTO assembly out of White farm tractors: They had one with a 5.9 cummins and they said it bolted right up to the Cat transmission and was very simple to convert. They tried a 8.3 cummins and it would not fit: They get twice the hours out of a 5.9 than the original Caterpillar/Mitsubishi one. They also had some neat older crawlers they had worked over in the shop: A D2: Row of factory ag crawlers - a long way from western hilly wheat fields! A lot of them had added turbo's: Nice original Allis Chalmers: They also had some late model ones - mostly sold new for orchards I bet: This one needed a little more weight in the back: Here is their shop forklift - on steel! Check out the rubber blocks inside of the steel wheel. Pretty cool place! Nicest guys you ever met - run a good clean shop, and I made a good contact for a new place to sell used engines. The photos don't even show a quarter of what they are involved with - the parts yard around back is worth an hours stroll.

Check this out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170823265121&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A1123 Not my style, but I really appreciate the amount of fundage and sweat it took to build that - wow!

Great story and those are some great photos to back it all up! Pretty rare that those guys would have had a camera with them while hauling a shovel - I bet someone came up that wanted to use the bridge or some state boy to document everything! That is one really large bulldog you are standing in front of in your new ID photo - what do you feed him?

Our family's prayers go out to your family. So sorry for your loss of a great man.

I bought a 1959 van trailer the other day because I thought it would be neat to pull around. After crawling around under it and checking out the brakes, lines, axles, tires on split rims, and all, I sold it to a guy for storage - it was not a real cool looking one to start with, and it just looked like a money pit that leaves you with a big assed box you pull around a couple times a year.

My antique uncle called me a week ago and wanted me to haul a dozer he recently bought to a repair shop to have the rings replaced and a new equalizer spring installed. I have been too busy to do it. I woke up on my birthday yesterday and decided that I was going to do what I wanted to do that day, and that was to haul his crawler. I just sold my road tractor so I borrowed this international from a neighbor: Of course it was out of fuel, so $200.00 later, I am headed out to Forrest's house - I drive by a place on the right that looks familar - oh yeah! That is my place! I don't think my neighbor has used his seat belt in years: YUCK! He also is a little out of date with his calendar: I pull up to Forrest's house and the first thing I see is his fancy chicken house - he built a new house and tore down his old one and used the parts to build this: He kept the cistern and pump and we still use it to clean fish and whatever: He would be embarassed to know I posted these, but he sure has some pretty flowers: We went in the barn to get the crawler out and I notice he has added a tank on the back: Its a homemade tool box - not real original! He stores his milk cans and buggy seat up in the rafters - you never know when you might need them again It is a older D4 I think these were options that are rare for that age: Glow plugs dry air cleaner water proof exhaust cap - you don't have to fool with a coffee can! We load it up - We pass some sheep: Now it is time for dinner - Forrest saved up his pennys so he could take me out to celebrate turning 42 We each had four five six plates at the buffet - that old man can still put it away! That had swedish meatballs, fried fish, baked fish, beef tips and noodles, grits, collard greens, green beans, corn, mashed taters, fried okra, brats and kraut, harvard beets, mac and cheese, a full salad bar, homemade rolls, and our favorite dessert - green stuff - I do not know why it looks white in the photo - it was neon green and it was good! I asked them if they had any pierogiegiesses and they said; "huh?" We get to the tractor shop and are just amazed at the place - they sell crawler tractors to the Mennonites around there to use for farming - they can't use rubber tires. Here is one of their tractors: We get it unloaded and can tell from looking around that these guys are excellent mechanics - it is in good hands. I will post some photos when I get a chance of the goodies they were working on in the shop. They install john deere and cummins engines into Caterpillar dozers - pretty impressive! He talked and I listened all the way there and back - I learned a few more good things about my family and we both really enjoyed the outing! One of my favorite birthdays ever. I was tired from having to keep up with him at the end of the day. As David said on here once before: He is the energizer bunny!

Update on the Belarus tractor - my lawn mower went ka-blue-ee a couple of days ago, so the blushing bride gave me the A-Okay to buy a finish mower for the thing: It works great on there - the only drawback is it does not have live power for the PTO - when you push in the clutch to stop your forward travel, the PTO stops as well. The tractor had a fitting on the three point hydraulic cylinder that leaked a little - I replaced it and then searched for 15 minutes to find the hidden hydraulic oil fill hole - the engineer that designed it should be shot - you have a little over an inch to pour in hydraulic fluid. I had to get a hand pump with a hose to fill the silly thing. Other than that, the tractor has been great - and uses very little fuel.

We use them around here to wash out combines!

I am trying to go by next tuesday to look at the Mack, I have to be in Joplin and they are pretty close.

Man - look at that trailer - do you think it will handle all that weight? The trucks on it are cool too........

Wow! You are lucky to be here!

Very nice!

Scrap the bed and restore what is left - you would have a nice truck! Have you seen a photo of the engine? I could not find one on there.

Sounds like you made the right choice to swap!

You can't expect us "bad eggs" to be able to survive with just one photo can you? That is like teaser torture!

Greetings! Nothing better in the world than a Mack log truck! Did you ever have the chance to meet Finley Hayes out in your neck of the woods?

Isn't that a song? Walkin' in Memphis.................

I had no idea - I had never heard of that - thanks for the heads up!

He's a number speller too.

Looks like you got a deal - I have a couple of those I am parting out if you need odds and ends crap to fix it up.

to quote Other Dog quoting Green Dash: "Yes"

That sounds like a fun day - I have family I need to visit in Cleveland - I am going to try and go - thanks for posting!

I have a 2004 Dodge one ton crew cab with a flatbed. The last time I took it to Chicago (no trailer) I averaged 19 mpg with my lead foot flat to the floor. I think all those Dodge trucks with Cummins get good mileage for the application they are in. Mine is in the shop though right now getting new injectors - it just turned over 100,000 miles.

That battery box really raised the average! I bet it makes you want to finish the rest. Lookin' good!

If you ship me the book, I will do it. I have a great local print shop where I ship my UPS packages that has done this for me multiple times - the last one they did was a set of chipper manuals that were that thick and they charged me $28.00 plus I got it in PDF form! I like the PDF so you can send it to other folks, but I still like a bound copy that you can balance on a fender in the shop. You shippee me bookee - I have nice woman make new bookee - I pay fee - keep copy - Otay?