Neil: I didn’t want to highjack the D4E thread; I did reach out to the ex Mrs. Finch, and she does remember them having an 8L!!! Go figure! Scary part is she remembered too well, as it’s nickname was “the boat anchor”.
Apparently a lot of transmission issues she said.
She will see if any photos are available if it for your lurking pleasure. JM

Part of the SA was that it was not a power shift. Cat engineers under built dozers as compared to ag work. In that in dozing they figured half the time backing up to get another load of dirt to push. In a ag work more or less a constant high degree of load. One of the weaker points of D8 Hand K was in vineyard ripping they ran hot all the time. What convinced one operation here to run 3 or 4 Fiat Allis FD 30's for ripping. I was surprised to see one still out and ripping last fall.

The only first hand information on a D8 L SA I have is a cousin drove one with a YIELDER no till grain drill. The drill was such that it held 20 ton of seed and fertilizer giving a lot of weight on the tongue. They had a lot of track roller and rear bogey issues.

After reading the other thread no need to look for this D8 L SA it was a rental from Quinn Cat over 25 years ago.

Turns out it belonged to the Kaiser Ranch, not Finch, but apparently everyone knew of its "issues". It may possibly be there still; she will talk to her ex hubba bubba some more.
She says that I OWE her now. Someone please explain what that might entail? The things I do for you guys! JM

 12 ? or so came to Queensland Australia , all came up fpr Aution on the same day ,i think they where used on cotton farms ?

Interesting where some might have ended up. The initial spotting, I said that HAS to be the oddest looking tractor (being a hightrack) pulling a drag disk of things. It is supposed to reside along with other crawlers this guy owns, and nothing for sale sadly. Nothing. They hold tight to their stuff. JM

Are you sure Neil, what Bruce has posted agrees with what I was thinking. But my information is just memories of the sales brochures, so I sure could be wrong. As I understand the reason for the SA tractors was to build direct drive tractors and to make provision for weight on the front, since the base machine was designed to balance with a blade on the front.

I have direct experience discing a orchard, the same mountain with different old 9u D6's. My first had a hydraulic hardnose and 20 inch track shoes walked right up. A number of years latter I asked to disc again. Different 9u no hardnose, but 24 inch shoes and it was a fight to climb that hill every pass. And plain dug a hole and was never going to make it up in that row. It was the same size disc as many tight places limited how wide could be used. So balance is important on how much traction is available even with tracks. But I don't think they would had a separate designation to just denote a tractor without a blade.

clutch and counter wieghts