I am not convinced that this is a prototype done by Caterpillar. It might well be a prototype from a farmer's shop? The self-leveling bucket rollback linkage is too new for 1940's IMHO. The hardnose is similar to the 1980's D3's from Japan. Someone combined a relatively new loader attachment and put it on an older D4?
The HT 4 bucket looks period with the tractor but note the "adaptation framework" behind it.
JanM
Don't think that hardnose is from an 80's D3, as mine is vertical and has hinges for the grill
[attachment=49632]ibm 252.jpg[/attachment]
I think that is a DO-ALL loader
Chuck C
I would like to see a couple pictures of the manual. I would be surprised to see a factory manual for a prototype. Perhaps modified and installed by the loader manufacture. Regardless it is a cool looking machine.
Theres a similar set up on a D2 in the Caterpillar D2 Photo Archive book on page 34. Don't know why Cat didn't use that style instead of Trackson, allot less clutter around the engine area for excess.
What about that short fuel tank? I don't really see a seat either. Couldn't imagine operating one all day without back support.
I think the tank is a standard Cat side mount tank moved to across the back.
Our channel highlights machines from the earliest Holt and Best track-type tractors, equipment from the start of Caterpillar in 1925, up to units built in the mid-1960s.
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