Looking to sell a 1898 Cat Road Grader that recently came into my possession. It's in excellent shape for being 120+ years old. Not many mechanical parts on it to break, so its ready to roll out of the lot.

Sorry to tell you but it is not 120 years old.......

We will need the serial number to provide a more accurate mfg date.

I will look again next time I'm out. But that was the only date I could make out on the tag.

"Tbrown42" wrote:

I will look again next time I'm out. But that was the only date I could make out on the tag.

Patent dates can be meaningless to date of production. Let's say one of the patents is a wheel bearing dated 1890, then that design is used in a grader wheel in 1930. Time was when manufacturers labeled their products with every patent number they could muster, it was just salesmanship.
One case I had was trying to buy a cat 10, it had some early patent dates on the tag and the seller was convinced that it pulled guns in WW1 and was worth a fortune, in fact he claimed that the Cat dealer offered to trade for a new D4.

Those must be the oldest rubber tires in existence!! Harvey Firestone, you have been served!

Look at that retangular rust spit to the right of the two brass tags. If there is not a small brass tag there with the serial number, take some emery paper and sand that rust spot down. The serial number should be stamped in the frame. Good luck!

"STEPHEN" wrote:

Those must be the oldest rubber tires in existence!! Harvey Firestone, you have been served!

It has been used in recent years, it has been modified to be used by modern means

"1898!?? Great Scott!! I remember that year!"

"Tbrown42" wrote:

It has been used in recent years, it has been modified to be used by modern means

That grader is from the 30's and they were available on rubber, but those wheels are probably not original.

"just like these are not original either, but it's all we had back then."