View from the "top"

Many stories, many that should be left un-explained, but in all honesty, just maybe someone will benefit from the honest facts?

I know there are many CAT stories out there - and mine are just personal experience growing up in Northern Sacramento Valley farm country.  Often the equipment was beyond tired, it was well used and in some cases held together with a promise, baling wire and bubble gum.  I do not ever recall operating a NEW piece of equipment except the 1954 Ford NAA grandpa bought for the 48 acres at home.

I was helping a good friend and neighbor - a hot summer day, pulling checks (contours if you like) with a pull disc ridger  (two wheels supported a tool bar) behind a Caterpillar Standard Tread Orchard Seat Thirty ( aka - sidewinder).  He said he needed a break and gave me the seat along with the caution of being careful when crossing the cross checks.    I heeded his advice!  Was in second gear, doing fine, came to the junction of a cross check, threw the clutch, put in Low Gear, pulled the clutch in, pulled a friction and slid up on the half built check, all fine -  ha ha ha!
Tractor was well onto the cross check and I was confident it was all ok, when the tractor BROKE OVER and I left the seat!   I was half astride of the gas tank, looking at that RED HOT EXHAUST MANIFOLD AND PIPE, as I was grabbing for the clutch!  FEAR IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT -   A lesson I never forgot -   ( you can view a posting of me loading the Wide Gauge Thirty - it will show you I heeded my lessons! and yes, those lessons served me many times over with many types of equipment!)  I am certain to this day if I had been above an idle and in second gear, I would have been thrown off the machine!  (WHAT YOUTH PROVIDES ONE - ALMOST INVINCIBLE)

Now for my 3J D2 story --- Juiceman was very kind and took that particular tractor off my hands!   I think he was just being kind hearted and caring, did not want to see it run over a cliff or me getting hurt!    I honestly thought I said goodbye to it when I left high school.   Well some "good" things have sticky habits.   It was gifted to my father when the owners passed on, steering clutches beyond frozen, many other details needed 'fixed'.   Dad and Florin Tractor (supplied the parts) got it back running and it sat under cover for many years.  At Dad's wishes, I was tasked with finding homes for his "accumulation".

Nothing rides like a tail seat CAT --- NOTHING I have ever experienced.   I am not too sure they were not the model for those mechanical bulls.  Certainly no operator protection or comfort, maybe a few burlap sacks for seat cushion and that wonderful device that was 5/8" round bar around the seat, that grab bar - only if you had the chance to grab it!

A Standard Tread 3J D2 in soft premium river silt/loam is about as helpless as one could find.   They get stuck pulling a straight line and do not expect them to turn with a load.  
Well, this particular "tractor" was always stored outside, never under anything but a sheet of corrugated iron roofing and maybe a tarp.   It was near impossible to start cold and if warm it was worse.  Couple that with my XLARGE hands and 6 foot frame - struggle to get the rope around the flywheel of the starting engine and pull till the air turns blue!  Oh - I should say I was about 13 years old too - no quality of patience for cantankerous starting engines!  
After getting started and hooking to a 7 1/2 foot offsett disk, first pass in the tall Johnson Grass after the winter high water flooding, I went over a hidden "LOG" if you will, all of about 6" in diameter and almost square with the tracks.  YEP --- launched onto the hood, of course there is nothing to hang on to but the levers you catch with your unmentionables!  Feet hanging in the small "wells" and thinking NOW WHAT!   [In case you do not know, there is little or nothing protruding above the radiator cap, if there was, you invite a limb to take you off when it released from whatever caught it!   Exhaust to the side, generally straight out of the manifold over the track, makes a great dust storm besides being deafening!  If we only knew then what we know now!]

Another D2 story --- working in the same orchard as I was with the Thirty above -   Spring first discing,   Wide Gauge Cruiser Deck D2, mustard as high as the tractor or higher.
I knew where the irrigation pump was and it's discharge - always washed a big rut there.  I was in low gear, just above an idle, dropped in and climbed out of the depression.  Watched the disc come through and on flat ground.  Stopped, shifted to 3rd gear and eased the clutch in, pulled the throttle back and moved maybe 10 feet.  That Tractor literally JUMPED up, 
scared the britches off me - I threw the clutch!   All stopped, out of gear got off and looked at the left track!  Rollers still on the rails, idler in place, sprocket was fine, track still on the top roller BUT there was a separation in the track --- RAILS BROKE BETWEEN THE PAD BOLTS!    Nothing beats worn out tired equipment, going for the last inch one can get out of it.

John Deere 55 combine used D2 tracks -- and the owner new where there was a 55 available - a few days later, "new" rails and new pads on one side, cut the pads to fit with a torch.
Ran all season that way, I do not know what happened to that tractor.

Now the question --- ARE YOU HAPPY JM?

Stay Safe out there!
"keep 'em crawlin"

CTS
 

So far I see nothing off topic a bit. Rusty Cat's what is more on topic.


I could tell several stories too, but no time now. And do we keep this just ones JM is interested in?

CTS you are just reinforcing everything I have ever heard about tail set tractors. And maybe D 2's as well.

Hmmm, death grip on the seat railing? Okay, that confirms things, as I assumed your "grip" was attained from milking your herd of cows at 3 AM before you went off to school.
We gladly accept the exploits of others, even if not on a Caterpillar tractor. Please feel free to share! My stories are pretty dull compared to most. Maybe I was such careful operator of our own "Deathtrap D4" at the tender age of 11-12, my brother called it, that I did not wish him to be correct!
Good times on that old worn out #7901, made so much dust with it, my dad was always fooled thinking my brother was working (bass fishing or hunting), but it was me driving that thing pulling a 10' scraper thru the orchards. I would be so dirty, I had to do a double/triple wash in the bath, and amazed my poor old mom could get the mud ring out of it. LOL
Man, I sure hated greasing that thing. That pump stayed in the orchard where the tractor was parked. If I didn't know any better, I would think everyone was afraid of DeathTrap as well as that darned tub of grease. Tracks worn well beyond its limits. Very, very worn...so worn I had to always make a 2-3 point turn, otherwise it would derail. Sprocket so sharp you could slit your wrist with them. I was so short then (still am) that I needed a periscope. I had to always drive looking along the fender on the left side just to guess where I was really going. I'll stop rambling for a moment so someone else can share a story! Great times! JM

well heres my own adventure with a tractor and a rock. i was using our ford 4000 to slash the grass that was about 3ft or so and dad told me to beware of the sandstone boulders that were in the truncation of the front fence for the the drive way. yeah i know there there and off i went so some time later and i had been watching for those boulders i found one and parked the right front wheel right on top of it almost at max pivot on the front axle. well by the time i saw it i was halfway up so keep going. good thing it was pretty sof and we still had granddad's spalling hammer a few hits and it crumbled and the wheel dropped gently to earth.

another incident with the ford: mum's eldest brother was giving us a hand and doing some slashing one day, dad warned Norm dont go over that side its too wet. well where did norm go over that side and he bogged her right to the diff housing which isn't that deep as ours is the lcg model not a cropping tractor. while this happens dad is brush cutting under the fence line and next thing a rather sheepish Norman taps him on the shoulder "i just bogged the ford". luckily the neighbour was home and he bought his old nuffield over and a snatch strap and after disconnecting the slasher they snug the ford out. we bought our own strap the next week.

the icing on the cake is norm has worked on farms most of his life and should have known better. and he positively shrunk a bit when the other neighbour came over and rubbed it in with couldn't you see it bloody wet.
what makes it like that is there is a shelf of sandstone underneath a foot or so of soil with about 10 to 12 inch of sand under the soil so it gets water logged some what and once you breakthrough the top layer you go down.

I have always maintained there should be a bounty on tail seat tractors as part of cal osh regs.

Outlaw this as well? PTOs on a tailseat! We know of one very large enterprise here that used to have the crew run a 7U orchard unit pulling a Servis brush chopper in peach orchards after pruning. I don’t know what was more dangerous, the shaft spinning between your ankles or shrapnel from the prunings that may have flown forward from underneath.
Our own trusty 7U had brakes that barely functioned, it was always a treat to back onto a homemade tilt trailer; unloading was more fun possibly being catapulted off as you made your way down hill…and I did hang tight on the metal seat, because there was no stopping! JM

Tailseat Tractors -

There is nothing than replaces a tailseat tractor in orchard work when they were in common use - before NON-TILLAGE came into the norm.
We did not have the luxury of solid set drip lines or sprinklers, depended upon flood or furrow irrigation. Ground prep for harvest etc, all done with these machines.
Standard "Cruiser" decks were used but not commonly in peaches, prunes, walnuts, etc. They were just too tall. Most often the D2 and D4 with some of the other color machines too. AC (Model M's) and IHC but I do not recall many IHC that were tailseats. I never operated anything but CAT crawler with a tailseat.

Some of the tail seat machines used a clutch lever that was set up to release as it was pulled back --- like a John Deere - often called a suicide clutch. This was an effort to help the operator if a limb came "flying" over the hood at you, often the clutch lever was extended a bit too.

If one goes back and looks through the early tractors -- which of those had anything but an IRON HAYRAKE seat ? Color of the machine did not change the operators precarious perch. "riding" a tailseat sure beat heck out of iron wheels and those lugs busting your elbows when you forgot to keep them in and were seeking to turn that balky wheel. Rubber tires had the same elbow busting capability too!

Caterpillar was the "cream of the crop" and we were very happy to have it.

Yes - I have some memories and some that are pretty scary in hindsight - would I go back to those days - NO! We had little choice, we worked with what was available, and were understanding of the hazards and tried to always protect ourselves as best we knew and could.

Something to think about - you can tell us what you would do --- should be interesting to see the responses

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Replies are encouraged!
Scenario --- you are on the tailseat pulling a disc in an orchard with heavily laden limbs hanging nearly to the ground with the ripening crop. A limb is caught on your tractor - you "throw" the Clutch and the lever is not actuating the clutch! Clutch is engaged and it will NOT release! (remember - that limb is aimed right at you and you have no place to hide!)
IF you could get off the machine fast - you have that disc right under your backside! and it is coming after your fast, you have no place to go!

HOW DO YOU STOP THE MACHINE -- Remember you have to back up to release the tension on that limb - it is "loaded" and looking for release!
How well do you really know the operator's controls and functions?

"keep 'em crawlin"
cts

I hate to say it, Cats ruled the orchards, but lucky me, I found the holy grail of crawlers a couple years ago via SilverStreak and TractorDon. This TD6-62 International will blow the tracks off of any D2 and most D4s in the orchards. It DOES have a Caterpillar seat pan at least!
Here is old, orange, ugly and loud…2-71 or 2-53?

Some photo's of Tailseat Cats -

Juiceman - I hate to admit it, but I do have a photo of that "beloved" 3J D2  -- one sorry excuse for a tractor!  
It and the wide tread thirty were taken at Santa Margarita ACMOC 2017 National Show --- 3 of Dad's "accumulation - his term for the "herd" -- were there with their new owners.

I am not certain - the drawbar on the Wide Tread Thirty in one of the pictures does not look like any I ever saw before --- note the lock to keep the drawbar from swinging.

The D5 --- would have never worked in an orchard dressed with headlights and that tall stack!  

You can readily note in the photo's Juiceman and I have posted here along with others - the distance from the sprocket center to the location of the seat - thus that "catapult" effect when crossing any obstruction!

Enjoy -

"keep 'em crawlin"
CTS

Here is Mr. Magic Rope himself, in launch sequence.