Tony,have you any spare viagra?

Martyn , the last time I used Viagra I sucked the pill , all it did for me was give me a stiff neck, have you sorted what day you are heading up to Malvern , dont let Sprocket set off without the sheave block he has been teasing me with, have you heard about his latest toy, there is no stopping him ????, at least he has the right recovery kit to fetch these old birds out of the worst black holes, lets hope he takes a few " Snap's ",
tctractors
P.S. Colin P. called me last night saying that he is going to sell a few of his D8's also he has a load of scraper's 435/463 that he would like to see the back of as well as a CCU controlled towed ripper that is in fine Ex Army order, it would go well behind a D8 R or 2U tractor,

Hey Guys

Isn't this interesting! back in the late 70s I went on a tour of the several Cat plants from Peoria to Aurora Ill and between. Along the way we met and talked to a pretty high up Cat exec in one of the engineering departments who said the same as was said above. That Cat had availability to every part ever made. He also said that they have never thrown away a form, special tool, or a mold for any Cat part or componant and they keep all their specs for all parts made from gaskets and O-rings to engine blocks and machine frames and everything in between. They are all stored away in warehouses in the various cities where they were made. If they wanted to, they could reproduce any part ever made all the way back to the Best and Holt machines. Those were his words at the time. 1978.

I have an uncle who recently retired from John Deere in Waterloo Iowa and he knows a guy who is a retired exec from Cat in Peoria who says the same thing. That they have never thrown anything away from day one. This information is maybe 2 years old. No one at Cat will tell you this, but it is true.

I guess that all just gets down to the attitude of Cat and why they won't make the parts again. It just boils down to dollars and cents. Set up time and actual production of these parts are just not profitable, (That's hard to believe considering Cat's never being bashful to charge high prices for anything they've made in the past).

And if you really think about it, the powers that be at Cat probably don't have much time for a bunch of old guys tinkering around fixing old iron, (Even if some of it is superior to some of the stuff made today). They have their hands full trying to keep their worldwide sales profitable and from keeping the Chineese from going around their patents and making their own copycat machines like the Japs did back in the 70s,(Komatsu).

Cat has always been kind of aragant to the little guy and they have also had that hard headed "good ole boy" thinking that big companies seem to get into and do as they please no matter what the request "just because they can", regardless if it makes sense or not.

In the end it's too bad, because every old Cat machine still in running order is proof of Cat's incredable engineering and durability. You'd think they would see that and promote it just for the incredably positive publicity they would get. I guess we'd best not hold our breath.

Thanks

Chris B. Weilep

Tony,I have been emailed the pictures,looks a good project.I will ring KJ services next week also Dai Walters to sort out a visit from the cat club.Will rig Karl about Malvern,Dai tractor will be there.
Chris,I have read a books that also stated that Cat can manufacture parts from ANY machine they have made as they have patterns/drawings.


Pictures show Dai Morgan at work down at Cardiff bay last year on a D6