tomlad
Member
- Location
- nr. preston
Cat D7D restoration
- Thread starter diesel1
- Start date
Zetor
Member
- Location
- Northumberland
It's direct drive, 6000 hours, lgp I thought poweshift would be more desirable?
startinghandle
Member
reading here about crawlers and wartime has given me an idea another novel
startinghandle
Member
it will be about motorway construction in the 60's and a bulldozer driver who 20 years earlier was driving a tank at Normandy, but I will need to do a lot of research first to get my facts correct
- Location
- Essex
I was told that the D7 was the largest bulldozer that could fit into a landing craft, hence the military took it in large numbers. The Americans still have a lot of D7’s in reserve. I owned a D73t for many years, but my late father insisted on selling it because it was not getting used. I purchased it from Mr Brock the father of the men who run Brocks Machinery at Thaxted. It had been owned by the contractors Steward and Waspe from Cockfield near Bury st Edmunds.
- Location
- south norfolk
A lot of drainage contractors still run these old crawlers for mole draining.im suprised anyone will put up with the noise and discomfort these days.great things to use but the novelty soon dissapeared I’d imagine
Nick...
Nick...
- Location
- Down on the edge of the world
depends if you got a lot of fwd/reverse work....the novelty of shifting two levers (or 3 if you want to go backwards faster) wears thin after a while compared to slipping the powershift lever around the corner.......and a decelerator makes it so much smoother to change direction.
Direct drive can generally be better better for long hauls or for Ag work (5 or 6 forward gears compared to 3) which could overheat the torque converter if it was lugging away for miles in 2nd gear.
LGP will be harder on the tracks with all the flex put on the pads and chains and will rip the grass up hellish when you turn it around - but they're great for the intended application
diesel1
Member
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Steve did 4 hrs power washing yesterday, hes blasting the old girl today.
renewablejohn
Member
- Location
- lancs
Pity my dad is not still around he could have told you a lot about ripping up Lincolnshire with a crawler for war ag.
76masseyman
Member
- Location
- Lincolncestershire
Was he doing agricultural work, or airfield construction ?
renewablejohn
Member
- Location
- lancs
All ag work. Started off reclaiming marsh land all the way along the humber bank from Scunthorpe to Skegness with crawler and 6 inch mole then went onto rediculous steep land down the spine of the wolds. Also part of Home Guard and special forces with underground bunkers.
Zetor
Member
- Location
- Northumberland
Thanks for the info much appreciated [emoji106]
Do you have any idea what weight it'll be? And a bit idea price I should be paying, very tidy, good undercarriage
diesel1
Member
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Shes looking a bit bare now, front casting and radiator was a pig to get off on my own.
- Location
- Down on the edge of the world
So the basic weight of a D6C LGP (69U series ran from '72 > '77) is around 17 tonnes. A D6D (6X series '77 > '86) is also similar weight and the book quotes it as full tank of diesel, ROPS frame, 12ft straight blade, all fluids and an operator.
Pricewise I have no idea, you see them on ebay anything from 15k > 25k but some folks have funny ideas about prices......not sure if you know the guys at Fenland Tractors but they would likely be able to give you a good idea on value.
Timo@hattonfarms
Member
- Location
- Warwickshire
Not as bare as mine! might start getting it back together one day when I stop finding bits that need replacing
Attachments
diesel1
Member
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Better go and order the paint tomorrow, while the weather is still good.
Fowler VF
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
I managed to rescue an old war ag plough from the scrapman a couple of years back. A single furrow Massey Harris prairie buster. 24" wide and deep. My father said that the war ag used to plough up scrubland with them, burying gorse, bracken the lot. Big knife coulter attached down from the frame to the point, and a set of chains used as a skimmer to drag the brush down into the deep furrow. I did actually use it in anger this year behind the VF, ran around a couple of fields reclaiming conservation margins that had started to creep into the field where min till isn't aggressive enough. Once it had shone up it did a fantastic job, the open furrow was a bit savage though; but at least the edge of the field is now well defined!
diesel1
Member
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Now that does look like a lot of work
startinghandle
Member
there is a 2 furrow Massey Harris wartime plough on a farm not too far away which I am going to collect sometime along with a 6D engine from a Claays combine, but the plough will need some attention as it has been stood outside for over 50 years, it is quite long and is not heavy made , it does look as if it will bend easy