In 2010 my Grandfather fell ill and had
to move into an assisted-living facility. We were left to
clean up his old 3-acre farm that was just jam-packed with
all kinds of junk...there were also dozens and dozens of old
plows and implements, 17 old cars & trucks, several old
tractors and Caterpillar crawlers, and tons and tons of garbage
as well as scrap metal. I took charge of the cleanup and sales
of vehicles and equipment, which took almost a year; I also
had to make 1100-mile roundtrips twice a month during this
period with my truck & trailer in order to get all of
this accomplished. It was incredibly difficult, expensive,
and time-consuming, but we got it done and the property sold
to cash buyers during Christmas 2011.
This is my Grandfather's old 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T. It does
not have hydraulics, but instead operates all of its attached/towed
implements via a Cable Control Unit (CCU) made by LeTourneau,
and is shown here mounted to the rear of the old Cat. Many
of the implements towed/utilized by this crawler were heavy
enough to let gravity work with the CCU, by allowing the weight
of the item to lower each implement piece (such as dozer blades,
rippers, scraper blades, and so on). The engine is a Caterpillar
diesel, but is started by a "pony motor." The pony
motor then engages the main diesel motor via a clutch lever,
sort of like a primitive starter. The old coffee can is placed
inverted over the exhaust stack in order to keep rain water
out of the diesel engine cylinders.
Some views are before I cleaned around the old crawler; she
had been sitting there for more than 30 years and plenty of
debris and weeds have gathered up around her. She was originally
parked there when a head unit on the engine was damaged during
a period of over-revving. Grandpa had a replacement head unit
stored nearby in an old pickup, but never got around to installing it. Other views show later efforts to recover her by her new owner, Daron Dustin of California City, CA (helped by his friend Peter Bloom). |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Cable-operated Crawler/Dozer |
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Dozer Blade for 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Crawler/Dozer |
Dozer Blade For 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T Crawler/Dozer |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit For 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit For 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Cable-Operated Ripper Unit For 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Attempted Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Forlorn 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Forlorn 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Forlorn 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
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Successful Recovery of 1950 Caterpillar D7-3T |
Caterpillar D6C Dozer with PowerShift Transmission |
Caterpillar D6C Dozer with PowerShift Transmission |
1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
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1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
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Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
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Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
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Recovery of 1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper |
Recovery of Cable-Operated Ripper Unit |
Recovery of Cable-Operated Ripper Unit |
Recovery of Old Ford GTB with Gin Poles (aka "Burma Jeep")
and D6C Dozer |
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1950s LeTourneau Carryall Cable-Operated Scraper at 2011 Best
Harvest Spectacular |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit in action at 2011 Best Harvest
Spectacular |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit in action at 2011 Best Harvest
Spectacular |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit in action at 2011 Best Harvest
Spectacular |
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Cable-Operated Ripper Unit in action at 2011 Best Harvest
Spectacular |
Cable-Operated Ripper Unit in action at 2011 Best Harvest
Spectacular |
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