I recently posted about having various Cat parts/tractors for sale. I believe I referred to the D8-2U located way down in a remote very rough canyon as "dead". The wife and I figure that CAT to have been left there untouched for between 25 and 30 years. I was down cutting firewood in that canyon yesterday (thurs.) and just thought I'd dump a little saw gas down the pony motor plug holes. To my total amazement, within fifteen minutes I had the pony turning over by hand. So, I went back today and with the help of a friend we got the main eng. turning over until it could be done by hand (on fan blades) within half an hour! I left that CAT there so long ago when I finished the road after many years of drilling and blasting through all that lava. I was having steering clutch problems where I could only steer one side. The road out is narrow, steep, twisted, and mostly covered by roundish stones that make great ball bearing for sending you over into the deep canyon below. I just never got around to fixing it or trying to get it out to where I could get to it for repair work. Now I have to seriously look at whether or not it is worth trying to fix or to part out. It sure does have nice tracks. I wonder if they'd fit my D8-8R?

Is there a reason you can not put a Cat on a choker and drag it out?

When I say "bad road", this is an understatement. There is good reason the last documented, "living in the old way" Native American (ISHI) was found living just down this canyon. It is very difficult to get there even on foot. The only wild horse herd on the Western slope of the Sierras grazes in this canyon on some of our land. There is one double page photograph of this canyon in the book "ISHI in two worlds" by Theodora Kroeber. Our cabin is built on the rock outcropping in the foreground in this picture. I don't care how big your CAT is, you are not going to pull a dead CAT anywhere uphill here. Loose round rock on hard pan is just never ending ball bearings and very unsafe. That 2U either runs and pulls itself out or its parts.

A Cat with a steering clutch out is very maneuverable. Sounds like you have your hands full sorting parts. Maybe someone will come along with ideas.

Interesting about Ishi. I had heard of him before but your story puts a different spin on it.

Keep us posted, pictures are alwayas a treat here.
Shot of the road would be interesting too.
I am going out on a "proverbial limb here" -- somewhere E of Vina, some very rough country out there to say the least.
One can get a short view of the ruggedness off of SR 32 in a few places.

Re: Manuvering with steering clutch out?
If the clutch is engaged and driving the track, can it not be turned by using the one operating side, forward and reverse. Might not be the easiest trip out but at least on it's own power. If that steering clutch is not holding at all and providing power, that could be another issue.

CTS

You called it, it is East of VINA. Funny thing is, I could have probably gotten it out but it was parked where the road ended, I was done and just never went back. Even if I got up out of my canyon (half mile of very steep/rough) I would still need to get through another mile of the same but through the neighbors property. If things went South there I'd have a dead D8 in the road with no way to move it and no way around it. If I made it to the top I'd only have 7mi. of dirt road to where a truck could get to me to haul. On the other hand it sure has a nice set of tracks that I hope would fit the running D8-8R there but with poor tracks. Any way I can figure it out, I need to build at least one mile of road to the new property down the ridge. And, with almost no dirt but plenty of lava, it will not be easy on man or machine!

And I wanted to guess he was by Cohasset! Lol. Sounds like a fun mess to be in. JM

That is going to be a rough go even getting the tracks off the machine and out of there from your description of the road.
Too bad it can not be put on log skids like they used to move donkey engines in the woods. A cat pulling and one on the back end to help steer it?
Just a shot to put some thinking caps on, sometimes the "old timers" that originally broke trail in the rough country used some very ingenious processes.

Sounds like you have a challenge to meet. Caterpillar might just jump at the chance to use that for a prooving ground. Challenge for the new iron.
Lava is very unforgiving and tough.

I remember in the early 70's there was a project going in the lava fields near Susanville, they had two HD 41's on a single shank and could not cut it! Lots of drilling and blasting to make a trench for utility line.

CTS

For some pics, look on u-tube at: ishi wilderness 2018 (under the name of "Ongaro" The first three minutes are at my cabin/area. We're talking dead cat past the bottom of the canyon below the cabin and over the next small ridge. Very good guess at Cohasset. Not many know of this little town at the end of a dead end road. I say dead end because that's where the pavement ends. Actually this dirt road is part of "Ponderosa Way. which at one time actually extended from CANADA to MEXICO. No kidding! This road is shown on the latter half of the u-tube video. I strongly suggest two spare tires for two vehicles both carrying extra gas and 4-whl dr. for sure. That's Cohasset to the town of Mineral on hwy 36 with nothing but bad road all the way. Sure is pretty though.That section of road is the Ishi Wilderness boundary running North/South on the East side of the wilderness. The jeeps in the u-tube are not in the wilderness but traveling it's boundary or on my property. The big creek is Deer Creek. No shortage of rattle snakes here! This is the place where California's largest deer herd, (Tehama deer herd) winters. In my 40 plus years of running me and my mules through here I would guess I haven't seen more than two dozen people out there.

Link ISHI