John Deere MC

[flyboy16101]

Hello I have a John Deere MC that I am rebuilding and plan to use to skid logs to my sawmill. I stumbled across some early advertising from Deere that claimed it would revolutionize logging. My question is has anyone used an MC for logging, and or have any information about how well they worked and possible problem areas to look out for. Any info would be helpful thank you. 

[deere540]

We had one of these when I was a kid in the early 80's.  It worked ok for skidding logs as long as the distance was short.  Pretty slow, but if you have time, it will get the job done.  Nose heavy too from what I remember. The only problem we had was a stripped out bull gear in the final drive, and a connecting rod bearing that went bad.  The 6 volt starting system left something to be desired in the winter.  Anyway, we fixed the bull gear and  rebuilt the motor when the bearing went, then we sent her down the road.  Parts might be a little scarce, some parts of the "M" tractor fit if I remember right (engine, trans parts).  It is a Deere, so most parts wont be cheap. 

[36 coupe]

Look for cracks in the final drive housing.The 3 roller was real nose heavy.I spent a lot of time replacing final drive housings. in the 50s.Track adjustments gave trouble.Oliver had a small dozer that I think was a better machine.Case 310 would be good if you could find one.

[coxy]

be vary careful when skidding short logs had a family member get killed when the log hit a rock and flipped it up hitting him in the back of the head       if you can put a roll cage on her  other then that what ever one has said so far

[coxy]

don't know how far you are from Scranton pa but there is a guy that has all kinds of parts for jd dozers  pm me and ill give you his number

[Rick Alger]

I had one. Cracked the final drive housings several times. Mine was used to haul a scoot or a pulp trailer. No winch.
A horse was much faster pulling a single log.

[flyboy16101]

thank you for the info, when I bought it, it had a winch and a very flimsy roll cage. Bought it mostly to use for small dirt pushing jobs and drive way maintenance with no intentions of keeping the winch but started thinking about using it to skid logs instead of my Farmall Super M, I have a lot hills and it is less than ideal. I noticed when I began tearing it down to paint that the one final drive had been welded and was planning on replacing it even though who ever fixed seamed to do an excellent job, do you know what causes them to crack, and is there anything I can do to prevent it?