latest D7 Purchase

Gday

Looking forward to seeing the cat cab painted and fitted! Thanks for posting pictures of your new tractor!

What type of work has the 7F been doing? Im interested to know what the lugs welded to the rear side of the ripper shanks are.

Cheers
Billy

Hi Mate. I’m also looking forward to the Cab as well. Been a big project. I’m not sure what the Dozer was doing for those lugs. It came from a Farm in QLD. Pretty happy with it, jus5 needs some tidying up. Will look good with paint on it.

Hi, Billy
Dem lugs? A couple of thoughts come to mind, either mole drainage or laying poly pipe underground. With one on each shank, I'd suspect mole drainage would be more likely.

Hi, Raeme.
Nice catch. You may find that it is about 2 tons lighter on the front end than the 'E' series but you also may not notice it until/unless you take the tree pusher off. I operated 1 for about 3 months in 1970. If you couldn't back up a slope, it was pointless turning around and trying to climb it face first 'cos it was so light on the front. We 'cured' it when we put 1" -25 mm - reinforcing plate on the moldboard for push-loading scrapers instead of the more normal 5/8" - 17 mm - plate.

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas. I remember reading a few years ago your comment about the F being lighter and reskinnig the blade. I think your right about the pusher. The E feels a lot different to operate compared to this one. The F is a lot more nimble and responsive to the turn brakes. At the moment I’m looking at fitting a new blade assembly I’ve got next to the shed off an E. This one is worn out behind the mouldboard. It looks like it’s a heavier blade set up. Might leave pusher offit and see how it goes. Chalk and cheese between power shift and DD. Cheers

Hi, Raeme.
Quote:

"a lot more nimble".

Unquote.

Back when Cat introduced the D7F at the same HP as the standard 'high-horse' D7E's, one 'armchair ex-spurt' claimed that it was a sure sign of a manufacturer losing its grip on the market. I think it would be a pretty safe bet that he had never had his favourite rump steak on both to compare them - or maybe not even on either one to have any chance of knowing. That was about the first thing that I noticed when I got on the D7F, just how much more nimble and responsive it was than any D7E I had ever been on.

The one that I operated came 'brand spankin'' from the dealer with a canopy and tree pusher very similar to the set-up that you have there and so I didn't really notice the light front end until I went to a pure earthworks job with it and the tree pusher was removed. Then it really showed up. Then the boss told me that its next job was going to be pushing Cat 621 scrapers and he was going to plate the blade face. I suggested doing it with the 1" plate instead of the more normal and lighter 5/8"plate - different machine after that.

We chamfered the bottom edge of the reinforcing plate so that scraper push blocks could still ride up from the cutting edge 'cos of my style of picking them up on the run and it worked almost like it was done by somebody who knew something about it. LOL.

Direct drive for drawbar work, especially constant heavy pulling. Powershift for dozer work - NO contest.

Funny thing about that second pure earthworks job. Most of it was trimming excess material, all sand, off building pads and car parks for a new shopping centre. At one point while I was trimming a section of the car park, I though I felt some 'popping' sensations under the tractor as I passed over one particular line across the car park and couldn't see any reason why - turned out there was a concrete storm water pipe line laid through there about 10 inches - 250 mm - under the sub-grade level and I had busted about 150 feet - about 42 metres - of it as I worked over the top of it.

All the rest of the storm water was laid a fair bit deeper. Why that one was so high, I never did find out.

C'est la vie.

Just my 0.02.

[quote="Deas Plant."]Hi, Raeme.
Quote:

"a lot more nimble".

Unquote.

Back when Cat introduced the D7F at the same HP as the standard 'high-horse' D7E's, one 'armchair ex-spurt' claimed that it was a sure sign of a manufacturer losing its grip on the market. I think it would be a pretty safe bet that he had never had his favourite rump steak on both to compare them - or maybe not even on either one to have any chance of knowing. That was about the first thing that I noticed when I got on the D7F, just how much more nimble and responsive it was than any D7E I had ever been on.

The one that I operated came 'brand spankin'' from the dealer with a canopy and tree pusher very similar to the set-up that you have there and so I didn't really notice the light front end until I went to a pure earthworks job with it and the tree pusher was removed. Then it really showed up. Then the boss told me that its next job was going to be pushing Cat 621 scrapers and he was going to plate the blade face. I suggested doing it with the 1" plate instead of the more normal and lighter 5/8"plate - different machine after that.

We chamfered the bottom edge of the reinforcing plate so that scraper push blocks could still ride up from the cutting edge 'cos of my style of picking them up on the run and it worked almost like it was done by somebody who knew something about it. LOL.

Direct drive for drawbar work, especially constant heavy pulling. Powershift for dozer work - NO contest.

Funny thing about that second pure earthworks job. Most of it was trimming excess material, all sand, off building pads and car parks for a new shopping centre. At one point while I was trimming a section of the car park, I though I felt some 'popping' sensations under the tractor as I passed over one particular line across the car park and couldn't see any reason why - turned out there was a concrete storm water pipe line laid through there about 10 inches - 250 mm - under the sub-grade level and I had busted about 150 feet - about 42 metres - of it as I worked over the top of it.

All the rest of the storm water was laid a fair bit deeper. Why that one was so high, I never did find out.

C'est la vie.

Just my 0.02.[/quote]
Nice story about the storm drain!

I also have a very nice old D7E that I play on. I can see how the D7F would have a much better throttle response because if the ultra sluggish 4 cyl not revving too fast but I was wondering about how they compared when it came to shear grunt under a hard push with a blade full of dirt or a scraper in front of you? Did the smaller 6 cyl engine seem to have as much power? And what about the lifespan of those higher revving engines? It seems like the 4 cyl d339’s lasted quite long in most conditions.
Thanks
Drew

The most likely reason for the lugs behind the rippers is for the mounting of a cutter bar .