Agreed, especially an Operation and Maintenance Manual so they know the proper starting procedures and how to properly maintain an old machine. Some dont have a clue, "just get it started and away we go" then this breaks or that wears out and "oh no! what happened?"

234893 - If you think you are going to be able to print anything from the library you are going to be disappointed

Just thought ACMOC should sell a manual for income to the club and help members.

One of the problems that we have is that the antique Caterpillar machines are not as common as say John Deere or International. For example, there were a little over 15,000 Twenty Twos made and this was one of Cat's more popular tractors at the time. There were around 300,000 John Deere model As made and around 390,000 Farmall Ms made. The Twenty Two's production was 5% of the John Deere A's. There just are not as many machines to go around and they are much more expensive to work on. Most Deere and Binder tractors built before 1960 can also be hauled behind a properly equipped pick up. The Deere 830 weighs 8635 pounds. Try that with a Diesel Forty weighing almost 16,000. A 4G D4 tips the scales at around 10,000 pounds. And you can not take a Cat on a tractor ride or road them to the local show.
Sorry for being negative. The people who collect Cats are a special group who are few and far between. I love my Cats and hope to add a few more in the future to fill holes in my collection. I have no plans on adding more Deeres unless it is a rare piece that I can get a great deal on.

yes wheeled tractors out number crawler machines 100 to one. and yes there heavy. our d4 weighs around 5 tonnes so yeah that means a 12 or 15 tonne truck or a drop deck semi-trailer to shift it. not everyone finances stretch that far. yeah it's okay for those in the earthmoving or machinery cartage business they have the gear already. yes what is ideal is a classic truck or prime mover and trailer to go along with the classic crawler and you display both with the truck on special interest registration so it cheaper for a vehicle that is only used at show times.

all of this cost money. it costed us 150 bucks each time we have moved our machine and were only traveling a hr between locations.

maybe one day dad and i will get that classic truck and be able to shift our own gear.

My 2 cents-
Being a somewhat young farmer here in California (36) just outside of Stockton, I can tell you that yes, while rubber-tired tractors now dominate, tracks were a huge deal in almost every farming operation in my area’s past. Many of us still have several of these machines we put to work on a regular basis. Not just me, but up and down the state. Truth is, they are not replaceable. What’s also not replaceable in the ag community here are the old timers that knew how to work on them. And they are getting fewer and further in between. That’s why for me, this site and belonging to the club is pretty crucial.

Being a farmer in California is tough business. We have all the idiots in Sacramento, most who have never set foot in dirt, that incessantly try and make new laws and regulations that attack our way of life and how we do what we do to raise our crops. We are all too busy trying to make a living, that we have no time to go to Sacramento ourselves and fight back. As such, many of us belong to the California Farm Bureau and rely on them to lobby on our behalf.

Where I am going with this is that all state farm bureaus have a newspaper that they circulate to all of their membership. It wouldn’t cost much to place an attractive color ad in them. I don’t know about the concentration of old cat equipment across the rest of the country, but I think you would get some good mileage from doing this in the west coast states for sure. The ad should clearly state that membership gives online access to owners manuals, parts manuals, and service manuals for various equipment models. I have bought many old Caterpillar manuals on eBay over the years. For less than the cost of the average manual, your dues are paid for the whole year and give you access to every manual you’d ever need. You might even put onto the homepage a drop down list for non members where they can see a list of the manuals that full paid members can have access to online. That aspect needs to be pitched hard besides our nice quarterly newsletter.

-Nick

My state Farm Bureau (Utah) has dropped to a one a quarter magazine that is more taylored to the "city" member than anyone who farms. Utah Farm Bureau has way more "city" members than farm members because, if you want Farm Bureau insurance, you have to be a member. The membership has been broken into two classes. associate or non ag member and regular or ag member. I will stop there.

The local IH chapter has placed ads in AgSource Magazine and has been quite effective from what I am told. For what its worth...JM