Donko- dont know of anybody around here farming anymore with a cat with a pony motor but there are plenty of the old dozers, like our 2T that are.

98J- nice looking 9u, makes the faded yellow paint on ours look kinda shabby

Bruce- nice pics, in color too. The only working pic I know of of our old pull type is in black and white, need to find it and scan it in.


Well I never thought this thread would last this long but I guess I should be able to add some spring work pics on here soon. Weather has been fairly dry with the snow all melted off, right now it is 50 degrees and mostly sunny up at home so I went and checked the low elevation ground that will be planted to spring wheat and it looks like all the south slope will be dry enough to cultivate. Plan to move the D6C and wil-rich cultivator down tomorrow and see about getting one pass on the lower ground before it rains again Tuesday night. The wheat stubble was chisel plowed and harrowed last fall, with chiseled ground it is important to get on it early in the spring to prevent the weeds and volunteer from getting a good start, one cultivation should hold the weeds off until it becomes spring for real and we can fertilize, cultivate, and seed. Some years when the volunteer starts to grow too much before we can cultivate we will hit it with roundup first but on years like this we like to save the expense.

This will be the second earliest date we have ever started spring work, most years there is still snow on the ground or water running off the fields now. We like to get in the fields just as soon as you can pick up some soil and not squeeze it into a mudball. We also usually broadcast the fertilizer on the winter wheat first thing in the spring but this year we will wait a little to make sure winter is really over. The winter wheat looks pretty bad right now, cant hardly see any green in some of the fields at all, all the leaves are dead or injured from a subzero cold spell with limited snowcover in early December.

"Well I never thought this thread would last this long but I guess I should be able to add some spring work pics on here soon."

Hold on NIF, I've got baggage to unload! Here's a few shots from the 80s of grass seed harvest. These were during the "good 'ole days", I guess, of pre-burn. Sure don't miss the smoke and chance of a fire getting away, but the yields did fall off enough a lot of guys got out. Now that building has shut down the future looks bleak for a while.

This one is a PT270 Cougar pulling an R&R subsoiler in sod before it was rolled over. Depth around 17" with seven shanks, all the Steiger wanted. That's a heavy tool and loves to go in the ground. The pipe behind helps break up clods.

Now we have to bale the straw and deal with it...a lot of work but sometimes it can turn a nickel. I like to bale at night, does a better job and by 11am it's to dry to go anyway. Bales are stacked with the Pro-Ag stacker made over in Montana and hauled out over the course of winter. Seed makes lots of what we refer to as "cotton", resulting in morning and afternoon radiator blowouts. Otherwise, it's pretty gentle on the machines. Two of them have spike tooth cylinders, one with rasp bars. In the old days of heavy seed the cylinder rasp bar IHs would plug fairly easy. Don't see much of either now.

Stacker at work on a hot day, baling somewhere on the north side of 0 dark thirty, combine radiator fuzz--dirty stuff.

Good pics bleedinred- in 2007 when Idaho outlawed field burning for one year off the reservations the guys baled and then heavy harrowed the bluegrass fields.

I would like to grow some bluegrass if the market goes back to what it was.

"Atlas" wrote:

Hi 98J You appear to have one of the last 9U built hydraulic clutch etc.The Turbo is not a manufacturers cat i presume. what H Power does it turn out with the Turbo. Congratulations on such a nice restoration out of all the cats grey and yellow the D69U is one of my favourites. thanks Atlas

Didn't add that much HP, Atlas, but it sure made a lot of difference in operation.
Probably put her up around 85 or so ( at the DB) I pulled 10 sixteens with this
9u. The turbo really added a gear in operation. On a pull where the Cat would
start dropping RPM's in 3rd gear forcing a shift to 2nd, with the turbo you could
stay in 3rd.

The unit was not Cat.....it was a kit offered by a company in California that I
purchased through a Cat dealer. The dealer did the install for me. Other
farmers in my area did their own......a pretty simple kit really. At the time
(mid 80's) there were still beaucoup 9u's running around out here, both ag
Cats & construction.

I added a manifold pressure gauge at the time of install.....interesting how much more boost on a cool damp morning.

Forgot to mention the fuel tank extension......a big improvement done by
the original owner. Boosted the fuel capacity from a rather meager 48 gals
up to much more manageable 75 gals. Who ever did the welding did a real
nice job on the extension. Really nice to be able to run all day without a worry about running out of fuel. A shot showing the tank extension and the
hydraulic tank. Front mounted pump with the tank, filter & spools all mounted
aft.

Drying up over here too, NIF. Won't be long now. Got the lens all polished up
on the 'ol Canon.........

NIF and 98J
Some more great pic's. Thanks sounds like your getting close to playing in the dirt?
98J do you know who made the hydraulic system on your 9U? I see you have the D6B carrier rollers on the 9U, nice. What kind of hydraulic system is on the D5B in the last couple of pics. I see an outboard mounted tank on the back??
Nice looking fuel tank. Is it a direct electric start or still have the pup motor on the 9U? Paint it yourself??

Atlas, there were quite a few turbo kits around the northwest for the late model 9U's and cat did offer one on the 1959 model as an option. Halton Tractor made up a kit and so did Arrow Machinery back when they were a combined Cat / JD dealer. We own a 1958 model with a turbo kit installed, made quite a difference, a gear better on the pull. There was a 9U for sale at the Moscow Idaho JD dealer with a 3306 in it. Note sure if its still their or not. Lots of modifications on 9U's in the northwest. One thing about the turbo it will pull longer on the hill than it would before, less shifting involved.

I got to jump in this long thread and post a pic! Here's my old D47U.

North Idaho Farmer
I have been kicking around building a cab for my HD-11, cousin Casey and I were discussing the cabs that you have, I was curious as to your thoughts, pro or con, on the angled doors on your cabs verses conventional cab straight sides and doors. Obviously less glass and less material, smaller footprint and easier to get around when the doors are open, but is the access/visibility as good or better than a square cab? I see in the pictures that the doors don't appear to go all the way to the bottom of the cab, is that a problem cleaning? I have built conventional cabs before, very similar to 98j's, but thought it might be time for a something different. Thanks; Tad