977H Crawler

Corley5 · April 16, 2005, 09:50:58 PM

That's my son Zach and his Grandpa on our MC. They are a neat little machine. This one is 48 model too. My Great Aunt's husband bought it new. Grandpa tried for years to get Uncle Glen to sell it to him to no avail. A year ago with both of them now gone :( :'( :( Aunt Barbara and her son Chuck offered to sell it to us 8) We've used it quite a bit around the farm. Pretty handy

johnjbc · June 15, 2005, 09:12:07 AM

Been pretty busy and haven't had time to update this thread. Due to my slow typing I elected to cut and paste from our camp log. So please excuse the format. :

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Camp Report 4/23/05

My son-in-law Tim came down for a visit so I took off Thursday and Friday to go out and work on the right away.
Till we got the Kubota loaded and everything packed it was 10:00 AM So we didn't get there till after lunch.
Unloaded the Kubota and spent 2 hr. grading the road. It's much better than it was during Hunting season. :D

Next task was to hook up the water system. Between getting the valves in the right place, and the pump pressure switch all working in harmony took until 4:00 PM. Left the water on so next trip all we need to do is fill the barrels.

Spent the next couple hours, and until lunch time, cutting and dragging trees, and stumps off of the hill above camp. Still one big tree and several stumps to go.

After lunch Larry showed up. And we decided to work on Big Beaver.
We hooked a 1 ton come-along to the bottom of the track and a 10 ton
Porta Power to the top and tried to pull the track back on. Wouldn't go so, Larry crawled under in the mud, and saw the track was hanging down a foot and jammed side ways agents the bank. Took an hour jacking, prying, hoisting, and blocking to get it up level with the bottom rollers. Then back to the come-along and Porta Power and with a lot of prying we got the chain back on the rear sprocket.
Now for the front sprocket. Not so good. Thought we could use the loader hydraulics to pull the track back over the front sprocket, but after numerous tries all we managed to do was to get the back off again. :

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After getting the rear on again we decided to make a level spot behind Big Beaver with the backhoe and move him onto the level.
It worked, buy using the hydraulics of the backhoe and what little grip a half mounted track gives, we were able to get him moved onto the level.
Now it should be a piece of cake. Started jacking and the light drizzle we had been getting most of the day turned into a down poor. Will try again next week.

We found where the track was spreading, one of the cross pin's appears to be broken between the links on the outside. So once we get it off the side of the mountain the track will need to go into the shop.

Still haven't heard weather Jane left Larry into the house without a strip and hose down to get the mud off.

Saturday Tim and I started working on the other end of the right-way as I need to talk to the neighbor in the new house. We cut and bucked the trees along the road to his house and when he heard the Chain saws he came out.

We got the trees on the far end all cut but they still need to be dragged out.
A couple more days should do it.

Will be going out again this Friday weekend if the rain holds off

Game report
Larry saw the only deer on the way back the road.

Attached is the picture of the tank I promised to send last trip

Camp Report 2005-05-01

Went out to camp Thursday evening pulling George's old trailer to use to bring fire wood out of the woods.
G showed up Friday morning and we worked on clearing the camp end of the power line. By lunch we had removed everything but some stumps we couldn't move. So we start pulling the trees up the steep grade at the far end with the winch. We had a couple causalities, first the cable came off the winch drum and then G had a little problem with a vines getting caught in his feet and needs to be awarded a Purple Heart for executing a swan dive over a tree top. He lived but was sore for a week. Found that It was much quicker to use a cable and the Kubota to pull trees up.

Next we decided to try to finish rescuing Big Beaver. Took the Kubota and started cutting a road back to him from the far end. About half way a hose on the backhoe came un-crimped and sprayed hydraulic oil all over. We were stuck without pressure to the hoe, we couldn't remove it or lift the jack pads to drive out. :

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Some how we managed to crawl under and get the hose loose.

Saturday morning we were at the Kubota Dealer at 7:30 when he opened and got the hose repaired. By 11:00 we had the hose on, and the road open to Big Beaver.

We put all the jacks , chains, and come-along in the loader and went to work on Big Beaver's front sprocket. By 2:00 we had the track back on and drove him out the gravel pit. Time to celebrate, with the help of TIM, Larry, and G over 2 weekends, Big Beaver has been rescued. 8)

Sunday morning I made a couple passes out the new road and back with the Box Blade and made the first Traverse with the Dodge. Wouldn't try it with a car yet and Ford's and Chev's should have a rescue plan in place before attempting it.

Next I made a level place below camp to work on Big Beaver. The track has to be removed to go to the shop to have a new pin installed.

Jacking him up pushed the 12" log sections into the ground about 2' before he came up. After getting him up in the air just high enough to clear the idler wheels I used a hydraulic jack to collapse the adjusters. Got ~ 5" of slack. With a cable to a tree at an angle, the high lift jack some wedges and a digging bar I was able to get the track off of the front sprocket. Then with the Dodge pulling the top back at an outward angle I used the end of the forks to push the track free of the sprockets. Then with the truck pulling at an angel and the Kubota pulling side ways The track slid out from under the sprocket.

Now to get it on the trailer to take to the shop, only problem is the Kubota can't quite lift the track. The solution was to use the loader without a bucket or forks and then I could just barely lift them.

Loader is rated 3000 pounds at the pivot pin and the hydraulic pressure has been set up to 2900 pounds. Track weigh is well over 1 1/2 tons.

Only took 8 hours from the time I started jacking till the tracks were loaded on the trailer.
Took the tracks to Danny's and dropped off the trailer and back to Carlisle by 11:30 PM. Boy did the bed feel good.
With a little luck Big Beaver will be back in service this weekend better than new.

Camp Report 5-31-2005
Over Memorial Day Weekend I went out a dug 400" of ditch across the neighbor's back yard, and buried conduit for power and phone. So there is 1 span of overhead, 400" buried, and the remaining 1850' is overhead

Camp Report 6-10- 2005

Going out to finish up the power line work. The poles are in and I can fill in the holes shown in the pictures and plant grass.
Also need to mount the meter box on the service pole so I can get it inspected. Then one more trip to get it inspected and we should have power.
Can't wait for my first warm shower.

Camp Report 6-12-2005

This weekend went pretty well. When I got there Valley Electric had all of the poles in, the wire in the air, and the conduit hooked up on the underground section.
First task was to put the sweeps on the conduit I installed for phone service and secure it to the pole. Next step was to backfill around the poles and make about 200 passes with the York rake to get the neighbors back yard ready for grass seed. I pulled the rock out into the woods and left it spread over about 150 foot of the road. There was enough rock for about 12 foot wide and 8 inches thick.
After hand raking the stones that the York Rake missed I spread grass seed.
Just as I was finishing the sky opened and it started poring down rain.

The next morning I started mounting the meter box and fuse panel. Took the 12 foot step ladder to the pole and I could only get half way up. Pulled the Kubota over and the loader just cleared the top of the ladder. Maybe Big Beaver will go high enough.
Took the new O-Ring up on the hill and installed it in the hydraulic line and put the oil back in.

At this point I got side tracked and decided to work on a tree-stand. I had saved a multiple trunked Maple Root ball when clearing the power line. I cut the multiple trunks of at about 20', dug a hole and stood it up in the hole. After the dirt packs down round the root I will build a platform with a roof and be able to watch about 100 yards either way.

Drove Big Beaver down the hill and backed him up beside the service pole.
I assembled the conduit wire and service head. I leaned it between the bucket teeth and was able to slide it up the pole and get the bottom brackets installed.
I climbed up the ladder into the Kubota bucket and then into the Cat bucket and was able to install all but the 2 top brackets. Will need to go back out with a ladder to get them. Next step was to assemble the Meter Base to the Fuse panel and there is a problem. One has a 2" hole and the other 1 ¾" have to take them back so it looks like I will need another trip before I can get my electrical inspection done.