Hey Gang,

Today was such a great day. Drove the old Mack with a D6-b on board and met up with a great group of true professionals. I was so impressed. What a great Team.

Hi, Glen.
Wottza matta, M8????????????? You've gotta WHOLE month. Get those donk's, trannys and controls in, get the blade on a semi and get D4e under the tractor - - - and get it headed South. LOL

Lookin' pretty darned good, M8. Thanks for sharing. And my hat is off to the whole bunch of you.

Just my 0.02.

I'd be interested in hearing how that suspension is designed to work.
Apparently some articulation is accommodated by the cross bar. The center pivot bracket looks able to allow the frame rails to slide and the saddles can move relative to the cross bar also. Makes for some strange surface motion. Are the two cases allowed to pivot on the dead axle axis?

Hi, OM.
As I understand it, the original siamesed D8s had no oscillation but were a totally rigid frame like the earlier Cat front-engined track loaders. This would explain what Andy above was saying about the one on the Ohio coal stockpile cracking its frame(s) when they started using it to pull a scraper 'cos they would have been climbing over windrows and driving over uneven scraper cuts and all sorts of things that it was not designed for.

But, like the immortal Swishy, eye do stand 2 B kee-wrecked-ed.

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas,
Look closer, this is not a rigid equalizer bar like early loaders. The ends and center are pined. The center pivot bracket does not appear to be fixed to the frames and would allow vertical movement. A totally rigid frame would get destroyed in short order. This appears to be the best of frame combination, allowing at least some movement to deal with the stresses. What I'm not clear on is if the cases are rigidly connected or allowed to pivot (thus the two separate draw bars). I'm also wondering about wear surfaces if the frames are allowed to move at the center pivot and at the attached cases.

OK, in looking closer I think I see a row of bolts on each side of the center pivot top of block which would lock the system as rigid frame.
Would be better to let the frames float stress wise but then there is the challenge of pivoting the case connections. The pinned connections would then just be an assembly advantage.

Hi, OM.
Yes M8, I KNOW that this one has an equaliser bar built in. I have known that for about a month, maybe more. My comments were about the original 3 that Buster built.

From what I can see of this 'replica', the frame is gonna be rigid with the oscillation in the track frames, as with a normal crawler. Except for the fact that it wasn't built heavy enough and used to sometimes bend the pivot shaft, there was a lot of merit in Euclid's idea of having the TC12 engines rigid mounted to the track frames and the 2 halves of the machine oscillating around said pivot shaft. It was a LOTTT easier to get some respectable level of oscillation that way. Euclid employed roller guides top and bottom at the front and at the bottom of the steering clutch case at the rear to help keep the 2 halves in alignment. Here are a couple of photos of the arrangement.



Just my 0.02.

OK, that would work as a pivoting equalizer bar but the ends would need to be rollers of some type, not rigidly pined, for that to work. Some drawing details would explain it all.

"Deas wrote:

Hi, OM.
Yes M8, I KNOW that this one has an equaliser bar built in. I have known that for about a month, maybe more. My comments were about the original 3 that Buster built.

From what I can see of this 'replica', the frame is gonna be rigid with the oscillation in the track frames, as with a normal crawler. Except for the fact that it wasn't built heavy enough and used to sometimes bend the pivot shaft, there was a lot of merit in Euclid's idea of having the TC12 engines rigid mounted to the track frames and the 2 halves of the machine oscillating around said pivot shaft. It was a LOTTT easier to get some respectable level of oscillation that way. Euclid employed roller guides top and bottom at the front and at the bottom of the steering clutch case at the rear to help keep the 2 halves in alignment. Here are a couple of photos of the arrangement.



Just my 0.02.

Does it look like the pivot flange bolts are loose in that second pic?.....Seems like if you didn't keep things tight there the machine might come apart in the middle.

Hi D6c10K.
Yep, it does look like there are some loose bolts there but that is not a pivot flange or any part of the pivot. That is the bottom guide roller arrangement to help keep everything in line as the 2 halves of the tractor oscillate - - which is possibly a pretty good reason for keeping those bolts tight.

The oscillation pivot shaft is in a tube hiding under the cover immediately in front of the sprocket in this photo. Each half of the tractor has a tube extending from the outside of the track frame through to the center of the tractor and the actual pivot shaft goes right through both halves from one side to the other. As you can see from the second photo in my previous post, there wasn't exactly a whole LOTT of oscillation range, not nearly as much as a D9G or H.



Hope this makes it clearer.

Just my 0.02.

Hey Gang,

As stated in another thread, on Tuesday after Memorial Weekend, I promised Ferdie Wilkerson that I would set up a transportation move. We are going to load the Chasis of The Siamese Twin D8 at the Peterson San Leandro shop. We will haul it up to the Peterson Santa Rosa shop. The transmission work and engine install will happen there.

Also, Mike Mcginney contacted me about a Siamese Watch Fob build. I ok'ed the set up fees. It will be here in time for Peterson's 80th year in 2016.