Hi, Folks.
A Little Bit Of History - Rubber Tired D9. The relevant article appears about 1/2-way down the page. Don't let the end of the site URL foolya. It'z there about 1/2-way down.

www.constructionequipment.com/topical/hi...champion-100t-grader

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas, this will save a bunch of scrolling! lol. Thanks for posting it.
Craig

 

I just noticed how short the exhaust stack is! It's far below the height of the Fleco brush canopy. I hope that operator had hearing protection. The roar of that D9 must have really reverberated under that canopy.
Craig

My dads was that way too, either short or get the pipe bent back by limbs.

Hi, seiscat.
Thanks for that but the reason that I posted it as a link is that there is a fair bit information there about the history of the beast, including mention of them having done the same to a D8.

Just my 0.02.

Rome K/G, here is a little restoration of that photo in 8X10. PM if you want a copy. I can make other sizes also. If you can remove the fingerprints it would help.
Craig
 

 

Ok, thanks, I had a photo shop make me some better prints a few years ago.

Here you go Deas,The image shows a large Caterpillar crawler tractor on rubber tires, wielding a clearing rake against heavy vegetation. There was no hint—negative number, caption, or anything else—to indicate who took it. The tractor clearly wasn’t one of the famous Sugar Baby wheeled D6s; on the contrary, it was a modified D9. This was news to me, and I put the word out that I needed help with it.The resulting series of e-mail conversations produced an unprecedented outcome: All three of the experts I usually consult about such matters—Eric Orlemann, Roger Amato, and Keith Haddock—were stumped. Eric noted that it was apparently a D9D and suggested I ask Eileen Grafton, historian for Peterson Cat, if it might be one of their conversions. No, she had nothing either.In the late 1950s and early 1960s, St. Joseph Land & Development Co. was clearing scrub oak and wiregrass from thousands of acres of west Florida land, and replanting the land with pine tree plantations. Warren Settlemire supervised the operations, and he designed and built a custom root rake for use on a D7. In addition, a rubber-tired tractor was used to stack the debris. Setttlemire had converted a D8 and a D9 to rubber, and the St. Joe shop apparently did the work.In the meantime, a friend of Browning—Richard Campbell of New Zealand—sent information on what he referred to as a King Ranch Special. The rig was what model railroaders call a kitbash, assembled from parts of unrelated sources. It consisted of a 19A series D9D, riding on the tandem axles of a No. 14-D motor grader and driver wheels and tires from a DW20 wheel tractor. The 19A was chosen because its torque converter (as opposed to the 18A’s direct drive) enabled it to skid-steer and not stall in a turn.

Sorry about the extra post.