The picture in the D5 video with the arrow antique strikes a nerve with me. I have used Cats for most of my 50 plus year farming career, my grandad and my uncle bought a diesel 35 and a 40 in 1936 plus still kept mules for everything else remember those were still depression times, Cats made sense then and they still make sense today!  The later Special Application  Tractors of the 70s and 80s Were and Are very fast and efficient, cost effective Tractors. Steel Track Tractors are still the best for low ground pressure and not packing your ground , much better than rubber tracks because the weight is spread across the full width of your track shoe. Cat SA tractors are very rebuildable with no electronics to drive you CRAZY and you are not  married to some overpriced hard to get along with dealer. In the area I grew up in there is almost nobody left from the 70s and 80s all of you younger ones are all about electronics and speed, I can tell you that in the end it’s about SURVIVAL and not spending one more dollar than you have too. I may be OLD School but I am still Here that’s really all that counts!!!   17AFARMER

You said it again Mike!!! right on!!!!!!!!! My dad used to say about the rubber tracked crawlers, "look at all those weights hanging on there" you dont see that with a steel tracked crawler.

Thanks Mike i really appreciate your opinion on this subject. i am actually in the process on paper at least trying to compare the the steel tracked crawler tractor to a wheel tractor for agriculture work. i am familiar with all of the older 70's and some newer era wheel tractors but have absolutely no one to ask about the crawlers. I am in need of a larger tractor to use for some field work and am seriously considering a D5 S.A. if you have any other information please share????

well a tracked tractor will have more pulling power for a given weight compared to a wheeled machine simply due to more surface area on the ground and less compaction due to that surface area.

yes older machines may be harder to get parts for and dont have the wizz-bang feature the new machines do but you can fix them with a screwdriver and some spanners.
right to repair is a big issue with the modern day stuff, and not all dealer workshops can train people in these electronic systems as the workshop has to be approved to do so &that alone is a complex & costly process. let alone what they would charge you or your mechanic to train. its even as bad on some models you cant change or clean a filter without the computer program to tell the machine your changing or cleaning the filter.

older machine have none of that they dont have the creature comforts either. you could however make a cab or atleast a wind screen to keep some of the dust at bay.

In the spring of 1978 we had a 175 hp. IH 4 wheel drive rented ,at the time I had a 6 cylinder D6, I started with a 3 cylinder 2h 1939 model it was gone by then, I was not impressed with the 4 wheel drive slow ,clumsy too awkward, before we finished spring work we got a chance to rent a D6C 17R and a 10 bottom plow from agri till the D6C was pumped up way over factory hp. setting The D6C made that IH tractor look silly, stupid, and just plain unproductive!!! Plus it was a lot easier too drive more maneuverable a real pleasure from that time on I never looked back! If you buy a new tractor now you get caught in a green or red or what ever color spider web that’s hard too get out of and with out warranty you can afford to fix them and that my 2 cents worth 17afarmer

Hi, Folks.
A steel tracked crawler tractor is likely to have as much pulling power as a wheeled tractor, even a 4wd wheeled tractor, weighing anything from 50% to 100% more and with anywhere from 50% to 100% more power - with a LOTTTTT less ground packing.

See my story, post # 8 on page 1 of this thread for a comparison: www.acmoc.org/bb/discussion-d72/29277-d4-sub-soiler

Just my 0.02.

my operation is a little unique to the area as all of my acres are pretty much contigious with only a one mile stretch of dirt road from the two properties. most of the farmers around here are scattered all over.   i don't want or need a new model tractor or the price of one either and speed isn't really a matter either but i wold like to be able to get over the acres efficiently. the new fad is high horsepower tractors pulling small implements real fast.  i would just as soon like slow and wide.  and there is quite a bit of cheap unpopular implements right now.

Hi, bursitis.

Will this hitch do???????????????





And the Baldwin DP600 tractor:

tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Baldwin

Just my 0.02.

Soils play a huge part of what is best, Steel or Rubber? Some soils will rip the lugs off rubber in say 500 hours and steel will last for 10,000 hours, yet other soils play out differently, just wear steel like it is butter and rubber lasts for thousands of hours. As they say, horses for courses. Where I farm, the silicon just eats tracks, so rubber it is.

Wombat

Deas, When I saw the trees in the video I thought "oops" but the GPS handled it very nicely. One of the problems with big rigs one cannot turn short or the outside gangs back up and usually get plugged with dirt. Even happens with smaller 40 ft drills. Here in the parched plains of KS the wheel tractor is king because equipment must be moved over quite some distances and the road guys get upset if one uses steel tracks on the road. Nothing wrong with farming with the yellow tractors if one doesn't have to move them from farm to farm. I have got most all my land rented out so now I don't have to worry about such things. My tenant has both modern wheel tractors as well as an old D7 for pushing trees and filling ditches. (I'm up in the wee hours of the morning shooting at Coyotes that are sneaking up the driveway. They tend to reduce our mousers and our small calves)