As you smarter folks know, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, which probably explains why I keep on dragging home dead Cats that you would happily send off to China as scrap, still, I like the challenge of trying to save our worn out and busted Australian history, it is something I am really passionate about.

This past week I had 10 tons of Cat crap arrive at my place, its journey had only been 400 miles, and it was a challenge to get the dead crawlers unloaded, but we got it done, and there are parts there that will help me save other Cat wrecks I have.

The wide Ten will be a good challenge, it sat out in the open for decades with the head off, and I can see cylinders #1 and #4 will definitely need resleeving due to severe rust damage, hopefully cylinders #2 and #3 can be saved with just a good hone, only time will tell, getting the pistons out will be a good challenge. Serial number is 1687, making it a 1929 build.

There is also a very interesting Cat 22 that was modified for remote driving, I'd seen photo's of these tractors over the years here in Australia, mostly 2 Tons, that allowed the operator to sit on a scarifier or combine and drive the tractor using horse type reins, but never seen one with all the original remote hardware. The engine on this one is stuck, the previous owner did not know why, so I look forward to finding out why, it looks to be in very good condition for its age, serial number is 2F7426SP, making it a 1936 build. I'm sure Neil Paku will enjoy seeing the photo's of this one, he is a 22 tragic.

There were some useful spare parts in the 10 ton load too, including a D2 3J backend, a "Big" 20 carcass, a couple of 2 Ton backends, plus track frames, some tracks, a couple of blocks, and other small parts, all things I need for saving other machines. One thing I know is it isn't getting any easier to find parts for these old Cats as the years roll on, and the older folks who owned them get moved into Nursing Homes, or sadly fall off their perch, and their families can't wait to call in the scrap man to clear all the "junk" out of the yard, or shed, so they can sell the property.

Mike, That is a nice load of gear, good to see it went to a good home, well saved from the scrap industry.

Hi, Mike Meyer.
My parents hadda 22 set up for remote driving on their dairy farm at Denmark, Western Australia (long version for our topside friends who might confuse "W.A." with Washington state). Up to and including a lever to operate the foot clutch by pulling or releasing a rope back to the implement. The same tractor hadda dozer blade controlled by a hand windlass and cable blade lift - NO fine grading with that jigger. I spent a LOTTTA pleasant hours on that jigger.

Just my 0.02.

Nice score there mate.

Real dedication there MM. Hope to follow your progress on these finds. JM

HELLO Mike

I have a Caterpillar Ten.
I need some parts, do you have them?

list:

T-678: hood
T-683: plate right
T-684: plate left
T-710: door
T-711; door
T-381: seat back

Thanks

Cassiano

Hello cat 11patrol, no I don't have those parts, sorry, I'll be looking for parts for my Ten

Nice score on saving those rusty beauties Mike!

Hello Neil, yes, Anna the Saint was in town when the truck rolled down the driveway, how did you know.......

The remote hardware allowed the foot clutch, steering levers and throttle to be operated, but there was no way to change the gears remotely. I can't imagine modern day occupational health and workplace safety would be very happy if they saw one being operated, you can't help but wonder how many operators fell off the plough or combine when using this set up, and got run over by the implement.  Still, these folks had recently gone from using horses for all their farm work, so would have been used to riding on implements.

My best mate Gwyn told me he was around 9 years old back in the mid 1930's when he first heard a Cat 22 being driven through the scrub from a cousins property 60 miles away, he said he could hear it coming for hours, there were no crawlers on his 600 acre family farm which was still largely virgin scrub, being cleared and cropped with 32 working horses.  When it arrived, he was put into the drivers seat and said he couldn't reach the clutch pedal, he was too small, so was told to grab both steering clutch levers and pull them back into his chest if he wanted to stop the tractor!

Looking at the steering clutch levers on this tractor, you can see the eyes for connecting the ropes have been slid to the bottom of the levers, so they were not being used when this tractor finished being used, and the remote throttle was disconnected, however the handle for operating the foot clutch pedal was still being used, and I can see how this would have been really handy when young kids were put on the 22. When I was a 10 year old kid helping Gwyn on his farm, all his rubber tyre tractors had hand operated clutches, and they were relatively easy to drive on those broad acre dryland farms in the desert.