This old TD9 has the full rat rod flavor...should I buy it? it's only a grand, and the owner says that only one steering clutch is stuck.
hey, that's a wife type question! but I'd probably make the 1/4 mile long driveway totally impassable with it.
Damn!! Always wanted an old CAT. I think you should buy it, then shed the excess weight, rattlecan it black, throw an old bomber seat in and enter it in the HAMB drags!! I wonder if you could jack up the front end for a gasser style CAT? hmmm
I was thinking that along with what you mentioned, I could paint the sprockets red and the tracks white.... The same guy also has a D7, about the same vintage (late 40s), the cat has a cable operated blade. And it still steers.
On a more serious practical look at a project, you would be looking at mucho dinero to rebuild either the engine, hydrolics, or the tracks, especially the tracks,as the pins& rollers are all hardened machined steel.I have subscribedto "Antique Power"{antique farm equipment mag.} for a few years & have read many accounts of restorations. If the cable ever brakes on the old blade lift it can take you head off.Just my 2 centavos, I would love to have one, can't afford it.
On a serious note as someone who spent 20 years working on this stuff steering clutches can get real expensive real fast.Same for under carriage stuff, but ain't too many things more fun than pushing dirt around or building a surprise pond in that bitchy neighbors front yard.
Damn, that would be a great thing to take to a cruise night. Think of how fast the billet-mobiles would scatter when they saw it coming!! What a cool way to free up the spots the power parkers take. Hehehehehehehe
That nine is something like 12000 lbs.+ My TD-6 with a loader and ripper is almost 14k .... Bit hard to take to a show. I'd do for the Cat ... They have a higher value if your going ta go big ... I'll post my lil' 1932 Cat 20 .. She's a kick in the butt ta run ... thought it would be fun to flame ....
Ixnay on the TD9 ay. To begin with a hydraulic blade on a dozer is hardly traditional. Traditional dozers have cable blades and NO hydraulic assist on the steering clutches. A stuck steering clutch is not the end of the world,if you need to turn the other direction just disengage the side that works and back up. It is possible that this dozer is the correct vintage and some misguided gold chainer added the hydraulics. Keep in mind that International has been out of business since the seventies when they pissed Carter off by selling combines to the ruskies during his wheat embargo. This makes parts next to impossible to find,well maybe not all parts but usually the ones you'll break. Sadly I sent my TD 15 down the road ten years ago and a TD 18 years before that.
The only bit of vintage tin I own at present is a 1961 jd 1010 dozer. As far as dozers go, it's a light weight at 7000 lbs. Everything about it when it needs to be fixed is heavy though, from a practical stand point. I need to change out the steering clutches and brake bands on my JD this winter. This will cover removing the tracks with shoes (they weigh in at 400lbs per side, imagine picking up a 400lbs necklace), the drive sprockets (100+ lbs each) and the final drives (200-300lbs each I'd guess). If you're into old tractors , dozers and such I'd say dig into the thing and restore it. Having a dozer is a nice thing from time to time. I'm using mine at the moment to build my new shop and clear land for a bigger yard. But keep in mind, that grand is going to grow into 7k+ really quickly. If you want to turn a quick buck, you might want to figure the price of scrap steel and the weight of the dozer, you may come out ahead.
thanks for the ideas, guys! the hydrualics on this one were added on, the blades (front and rear) are a real classic cobble job. There's a car rear axle used as a pivot pin on the front blade! gotta love it. The steering clutches are dry, manual control. Apparently they get rusty and stick just from sitting. New disks are $20-25 each, and there are 11 fiber and I think 10 steel on each side. But folks say you can pull it apart, clean off the rust, reuse the old ones and they'll work ok. They also have a tendency to crack the head, if overworked or not cooled off sufficiently before shutting down. The crawler is a 1947 vintage, going by the serial number. Diesel 4 cyl that starts on gasoline. Funny thing, my teenage sons didn't ask me what I'd do with it if we got it. They know that a bulldozer is the ultimate toy.
Thats what I'm talkin about! Pure Hell's lil duece Cat20 screams traditional. Now I don't know what he's pulling with the chain but judging from the background in his pic he's been Pure Hell on the landscape...
Pick it up, it'd be a kool dealio to have, I think... Then again, I'm 14, so I'd only push dirt around with it... hehe... What you may want to do is pick it up and turn around and sell it at a higher price, there are guys ou there who are seriously into that type of stuff and would love to have it and pay a good sum of cash for it... For it's vintage, it looks to be in really good condition, most of the time they're just left out and are totally rusted out pieces of junk, but that one looks fairly solid, and for the price, I'd pick it up... Later. Troy.
I know what you mean...if I do get it I'll put my spare pennies in a jar to pay for parts, that way it won't cost much. If it's mostly broke but it still works, don't fix it.
The only thing more expensive than Cat Yellow is John Deere Green. Jay (who's a Cat engine tech by trade)
OK, I didn't realize you had teenage sons,in that case I'd go for it! I grew up with dozers and wouldn't change it for the world. It'll blow their minds to watch a motor start on gasoline and switch over to diesel (I always imagined we were firing up a top fueler). Our 18 had twin stacks and would randomly blow perfect smoke rings ten feet in the air at idle, maybe you could split the exhaust... Its not about the machine,its about the experiences that you'll share with them.... and the new cuss words they'll learn.
I'm so disappointed in you guys...I figured by now someone would have posted the obligatory "$1,000!!! I've never paid more than $200 around here!" response.
Playing in the dirt with the kids is a blast ... If the Nine is a runner thats a good price .... You can pull the clutches from the top if there worn out ... That blade will work better than you think ... Hang a boom off that blade and ya can pick up all your yard treasures .... That is part of the TD-6's jobs Where you can start spending money if the pins in the tracks are wiped ( tracks will walk off the sprockets ), cracked head or bad injection ( thank god I was able to fix my own ) .... What started to add up on my TD-6 were all the hydraulic hoses I had to replace and she needed a radiator ... What's the story with the D-7 with the headache bar ?
my father and I were restoring a 1928 cat 'orchard special' crawler. the seat and all the controls were located lower go to under the trees. We eventually lost interest and sold it for next to nuthin (thought I did learn a lot about the history of cat in the process). the tracks(rails, pads, sprockets, links.....) usally are wore out. those old boys ran em till they fell apart. Im a operator in the earthmoving indist., so I eat all that kind of shit up. if I was a wealthy man I would definatly attack one of those projects again. Its fun just searchin out the parts for the old girls. put it in your garden and plant a flower out the top. better yet, take out a loan and keep the old iron alive. Thats the equip. that built this country, it at least deserves a playfull tickle. great pic, i love it.
that's what my wife keeps telling me! but she makes too darn much money for me to take her seriously.
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