I think the groves that are worn in the track pads are from too much slack in the front idler. I had the same thing happen to my D7 17A several years back. If the front idlers have too much up & down play it will cause the track to drag on the bottom side of the undercarriage. On the extra trunnion balls I think that they could be for pulling a root plow.

OK, I've got the tree pusher concept and point of leverage it offers. What would hold it from being pushed backwards, if the cable is holding it up and gravity is holding it down it seems like if the tractor was at any uphill attitude when engaging a tree it would push the pusher up and just slack the cable. On the cab mounted cylinder, it looks about the correct size for a 5lb fire extinguisher. I was involved in a little anchor chaining back in the 70's, it's pretty efficient for clearing smaller growth, if it was thick enough we'd unhook the chain for each dozer to clear a road ahead then hook back up for knock down. Of course we didn't have communication between the dozers in those days and they couldn't see each other thru the brush which made for some interesting tug o wars and lunch time arguments.

Hi, DPete.
I dunno if anybody ever figgered it out on your side of the puddle but all the tree pushers I ever saw DowNunda had a pretty mean-looking serrated edge across the business end of the unit, which allowed them to bite into the tree to stop them sliding up the tree. When they did bite into the tree, you could put some 'lift' on the tree pusher by tightening up on the cable. This was more to keep the nose of the tractor down than to lift the tree out of the ground. The forward motion of the tractor tended to lift the tree out of the ground as well as adding to the tractive force of the tractor due the the inclination of the tree pusher and shortening the ground side of the triangle. Triangle = ground, tree and tree pusher.

You doing chaining in the 1970s?????? Way I heard it, some feller named Paul with a big blue ox did most of your clearing for you WAY back when. Were you just tidying up any bits that he missed? LOL.

I did most of the chaining that I did in the 1960s. The heaviest arrangement that I ever worked with was 2 X D8Hs and 600 feet of 2 /12" chain, in some places, the cut would be 400 feet wide, which often meant that the only time we saw the other machine was when we both broke clear at the end of a run. We tried to use the 'hang' of the chain behind the machine as a sort of a guide to where the other machine was. TOO much straight chain meant that either we were too far ahead or the cut was too narrow. Too little straight chain meant that we were either lagging behind or the cut was too wide.

The notion of a fire extinguisher pocket occurred to me too and then I got caught up in trying to find the photo that I posted and forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me.

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas, never saw a tree pusher as you describe. On the big ones we used to dig around the bottom then build a ramp up the trunk, get up there and push then back up like hell in case the stump came thru the ramp. We chained some of the Merced river bottom jungle before the greenies took over. I can remember the Fish and Game coming out to see what we were doing, didn't stop us though. Never be able to do it today.

Hi, DPete.
I've had to dig a few out too, even with a tracked loader which has way more reach than a mere dozer blade. I've even had to dig a few out with a D9N.

Fleco and a couple of other manufacturers on your side of the puddle used to make tree pushers back in their day.

Just my 0.02.

First time I saw an excavator take out a big tree my thoughts were, now there's a superior tool!!

Along with the already mentioned oil leak and idler pushed all the way out to take up slack it looks to me like the idler is set in the up position which if I'm correct is NOT the desired position for dozer work. Center of the axle should be in the low side of the slot visible on the side of the bracket. This would account for the tracks running to close. Need to switch the brackets inside to outside and turn over.

Hi, DPete.
Yep, excavators ARE great - - - - for taking trees down. BUTTTT, they ain't quite so flash at getting them into a stack anywhere outside of their own working radius, even with a good thumb. IMHO, a tracked loader with 4-in-1 bucket with teeth and rear rippers is hard to beat for all but the real heavy stuff. If you just happen to have a walk-in stick rake a bit wider than the bucket for it, so much the better. The only other thing that comes close or matches them is a good dozer with timber canopy, stick rake, independent tree pusher and multi-shank rippers.

Just my 0.02.

I kinda thought that steel tube mounted on the canopy post is for one of those oversized cans of beer the guys down under like. I like to have a beer myself on a warm day of bulldozer therapy.

Thanks,

Stewart.

Hi, Snowcountryfarmer.
Another thought that did occur to me was that It might have been a holder for a 'Darwin Stubby'. Sadly, no longer produced.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NT_Draught

Just my 0.02.