Another non-Simplicity tractor (Caterpillar)

[Hick 2,229]

Found this back in 1995, hadn't run for 20+ years.  1928 Caterpillar Twenty.  4 cylinder gas engine, 4 tons. The engine was out of a road grader, that is why the radiator sides do not have the "TWENTY" on them. Worked on the mag (filed & adjusted the points) and cleaned the carb (put it back together with homemade gaskets). Cranked for 2 hours (literally: Hand crank). Wife stuck by in the garage for that time, then decided it wasn't worth it. About then the (tiny) wisp of smoke that had been coming out straight came out as a curly-cue.  Something happening? She stuck around. Then it popped once. Then it started, ran, died. Fiddled with the carb, then it started and kept running!
Any time after that, a cold start required four compressions. A hot start? One, EVERY time!

A real blast to have! And the wife didn't seem to mind (too much) that her car was outside and the Cat was in the single car garage. Once it was running, her car got the garage again.
We moved to another place, and there was a lean-to on that garage so the Cat was sort of protected. When I built my new machine shed, I looked at the new concrete, then the grousers, and decided I'd had it long enough. Sold it (for a profit!) to a feller down in Kansas.  Funny thing, I owned the tractor for about ten years, and could never find the serial number. After I had it advertised, I found it; stamped RIGHT where all my information had said it would be. No grease hiding it. Cannot figure out HOW I had missed it all those years!!!

Loading it is another story: This was the FIRST tractor he was carrying on his new slope-tailed semi-trailer. The slope was smooth.  He had me drive it up onto the trailer. The ramps were set as narrow as they could so the inside of the ramps were centered on the track (the tractor is 42" center on the tracks). So half of each track was inside the ramps. For an idea of what this means, the grousers were 9" wide, so 4 1/2 " of grouser on each ramp. Just as it was rocking over from the ramps to the sloped (smooth, remember?) tail, one track spun out and the tractor was sitting at an angle! I surprised myself that I got it stopped before it fell off!  DILEMMA: Do I brake the uphill track and try to make the downhill track grab the sloped tail? (Bad idea, since that was the track that lost traction!)
Or brake the downhill track and back down onto the ramp, HOPING to get it centered again? (only choice, really)
And either way, be prepared to launch OFF the tractor in case it decided to go tracks-up!  With my wife guiding me, I carefully backed it down to the ramps, she signaled I was centered (TRUST is strong in our marriage!), and I backed down onto the road. Then cleaned out my shorts! (not really, but the adrenaline was running a bit high!) Looking at the picture, the trailer isn't all that tall. But sitting on the tailend with the Cat catty-whompus, is seemed like I was 8' off the ground!!
We put 2x8s on the ramps and over the smooth tail, and she walked right up onto the trailer then. He said he would be welding cross pieces onto the tail for future loading! AND make the ramps so they would handle a narrow Cat.

[720nut 4,225]

Heard some pretty scary tales over the years and loaded a lot of equipment, had them spin a time or two but just lucky I guess

I remember unloading a dozer off the side one day, didn't make Dad to happy and the boot didn't feel real good either.

[plastikosmd 975]

Nice cat

i would have been sad to see it go

i have an Oliver crawler w bucket and a t340 w drott that I am rehabbing 

[Hick 2,229]

58 minutes ago, plastikosmd said:

Nice cat

i would have been sad to see it go

 

Let me tell you, it was difficult! Some days I wish I had kept it.

I bought it for $600 non-running (scrap price at the time) with a loader. Sold it w/o the loader for $1100, running, 9 years later. Had very little money in it, and not a whole lot of time. I did use it to pull a 10 x 20 wood shed out of the way for the new machine shed. Need to get that video converted to digital and post it. 
Funny side story: My wife asked what I was going to do with it. I told her, "nothing, really, it's 67 years old, so it's retired!"
Then when I put to work pulling the shed, she said, "Poor thing, you're making it work!"
Wimmin! 

[dhoadley 1,747]

I'll bet it didn't have to work very hard.

[macallis180 296]

That is a really cool story and pix. Think we have all been in some loading/unloading situations before,  but mine, thankfully,  haven't been this eventful!  

Thanks for posting.

[fishnwiz 3,290]

That thing would be AWESOME for cutting ATV trails in the woods!

[Hick 2,229]

I was looking through my "Memories" file on my computer and came across when we sold this:
------------

After they left, Shari asked me if I was sad to “see her go”,  Not really, had it for ten years but no real emotional ties.  Fun little tractor, but too many projects.  Shari had kept mentioning that I should sell it.  So I asked HER if she was GLAD to “see her go”.  She said, “No. Actually it’s a little sad!” 

WIMMIN!