last of the sled train tractors

[1270d]

I remember hearing stories about icing the tote roads here in michigan.  This was in the horse drawn days and maybe some little olivers.  Some of the roads are slightly visible in places. Corduroy swamps etc.  I've cut over several old camps in the past ycouple years.  There's usually some earthen outlines of buildings and a dump of some sort.   Ran across this in april.  17 miles into the bush.   

 

[loggah]

pretty neat, did the old pump work ??

[Black_Bear]

Very interesting! I could spend hours looking at old pictures and listening to people talk about them. Anyone interested in this thread should get up to the Logging Museum in Patten, I highly recommend it. Don, I bet you could be the tour guide up there.

Ed

[loggah]

I was up there years ago when Lore Rogers the founder of the museum was still alive,he was 104 then !!!! ya i pretty much remember all the stuff that was in the museum, including the 10 ton Holt tractor, i had 2 of those also,ex Great Northern tractors ,but i sold them on E-bay to a collector from Florida.

[1270d]

pretty neat, did the old pump work ??

No but there was water in the point, so im sure with a new set of leathers it would have been pumping again.   

[loggah]

Heres a picture of some of the "OLD IRON" in the backyard, Cletracs, Linn,cat 35, Allis Chalmers model "K" , and a couple of potential Lombard engines. most of the small Cletracs were used in the logging industry. Don

[thecfarm]

You have a mighty fine looking back yard.

[loggah]

Well there is another cletrac,huber maintainer, lombard chassis ,and a unit 12-20 cable crane just out of sight !!!! Heres a picture of the front yard ,of my mini-museum building. Don

[shinnlinger]

I'll
Just put it out there that if you wanted to host a gathering at yOur museum I'd bring supplies

[haywire woodlot]

My collection of crawlers pales in comparison.

Nice iron you've got there.

[Migal]

Great Pic's all. Got to love old iron. wants me to go get one out and play. Never to old to play 

[thecfarm]

A mighty fine looking building. What's that derrick,I think,sticking up in the background? Looks like a cover to a boiler on your building,above the 2 windows?

[loggah]

Well thats the crane boom on my unit 12-20 crane, and that is a  boiler door from the old Draper corporation sawmill that was in Beebe river  about 2 miles from here,there were three of the big Dillon boilers there ,the boilers were made in Fitchburg Mass.Don

[Al_Smith]

You don't see many Cletracs in running condition any more .I have an OC-6 gasser which is fairly rare .

They were used for ag purposes because they were light on the ground pressure and could track over a muddy field that a person would sink to their knees in walking over .

I've never seen any of the larger Cletracs except in pictures .The earlier,I think A and B models were about the size of a D4 Cat and the OC-6 about the size of a D2 with more power .Then the little ones models HG and OC-3 which were tiny little two ton units .

[loggah]

Al, i have a AD,partsBD,  2 BGSH models and the FDE. They were the preferred tractors in logging because of their ground clearance,and having traction to both tracks at all times. When i was a kid we used a 310 case logging, the case used the same differential as the cletracs. i never owned any of the oc series. Don

[petefrom bearswamp]

Loggah,
You have great collections. 
I couldn't pick out the Linn in your pic.
Is it a half track with skis on the front?
The Town of Blenheim in Schoharie county NY used one like that to plow snow in the early 60's
Pete

[Al_Smith]

The planitary type differentials on the Cletracs did have the advantage of keeping the power on both tracks .However you could not zero turn them .

I've never seen one but have heard on one model of the OC series which was after Oliver took over Cletrac they made at least one model that could spin turn .From what I gather it was the OC -4 which was intended to be a bull dozer from the onset not an ag tractor .Evidently in addtion to the planitary it also had a set of steering clutchs .

What I've found at least on the few I've owned is Cletrac used single flanged track rollers where Cat used double flanged .If the track got the least bit loose on the Oliver Clectracs they were real easy to walk off .Now the fun begins getting the danged track back on especially knee deep in a swampy field ,been there .

Those models were small enough unlike like the A's they carried no top roller .You need about 2" of sag .Too loose you walk off  too tight you knock out the bearings on the finals or the front idler .

They are a different breed of cat so to speak if a person is used to running a manual steering clutch Cat or International and certainly a challange for someone used to a 450 John -Deere with the brakes on the end of the steering clutch throw .

[haywire woodlot]

 
Here's another shot of my Oliver oc-3. It's an ag model with the wide track stance, HG-68 I think

Note the lack of a top roller.

[Al_Smith]

I'm not certain if there was any difference between the OC-3 and the HG other than the OC3 was painted yellow and the HG green .

[loggah]

Al, im not sure of the differences either,i know most of the bigger OC models could spot turn ,OC12,OC15,OC18 ,at least thats what the brochures say. Peter, the one i have has pneumatic tires in front,the "LINN LOGGER" had the skis on front and had a longer frame. My Linn was originally a plow truck for the city of Morris N.Y.  built in 1925, later around 1932 it was rebuilt at the factory and shipped to Ford & Smiley a Buick and Linn truck dealer in Skowhegan Maine. The Linn and snowplow were sold to Joseph  Chinchette who was the original founder of Chinbro, a big contracting firm in Maine.Here is a picture of the Linn,I need to rebuild the cab. Don

[Al_Smith]

While on this subject for those interested there is a book ,"Endless Tracks in the Woods "coauthored by James  A Young and Jerry D Budy published by Crestline. It covers the golden age of tractor logging .Very interesting with tons of pictures .It covers from steam tractors clear up to the big D8's etc .I'm not certain if it's still in print or not .

I got my copy years ago when Surplus tractor of Fargo North Dakota was still in business .Do I ever miss that place .

[loggah]

Al, that book drove me insane on all the inaccuracies about Lombard and the origin of the crawler track. They didn't research that subject  to well. Don

[thecfarm]

But it's a very nice book if you don't know any better. I brought it for my Father many years ago. I have it right behind me. Lots and lots of pictures in it.

[Al_Smith]

I did think of a couple of historic tid bits about the later series of light crawlers made after Oliver took over Cletrac .

The smaller models namely OC- 3, HG and OC-6 were favored among produce growers and often fit with narrow tracks so they could straddle the rows of produce .I met a fellow who owned 26 of them at one time and coincidently was at one time a large produce grower in of all places St Johns Mich right were good old Marty is.

Evidently who ever made the crawler frames and  tracks for Oliver  also made crawler frames and tracks for gang drills used to bore blast holes in quarries .Over the years they wear out and it was worth more to scrap out the little crawlers for parts as to sell them intact . They were the exact replacements for the quarry drills and there were no new replacement parts .

[loggah]

Yup,Joy corp out of Claremont N.H. used Oliver undercarriges 0n there airtracks,oc-3,oc-4. Don