I see there are a few 955 owners on this forum so I thought I would post some pics of mine. I bought it last August and other than the mile or two drive to my property from the unload point It has been sitting ever since. I started it up this past weekend just to run it but I'm REALLY itching to push some dirt around or destroy something! Serial # 13X1661, any idea of the year?
Thats a very nice looking tractor..... I also have one, and just ordered a brush pick up rake for it..... good machines.
Thanks for the complement Grandpa! Its last 2 owners were farmers and it's been stored inside for the past 10 or 15 years. Now I'm feeling guilty cause I don't have a big enough building for it yet Where does one find a brush rake for something like this? I looked for a year before buying this machine hoping to find a 4n1 but gave up. A rake sure would come in handy.
Build Date: 15 Mar 1979 Ship Date: 02 Apr 1979 Sales Date: 22 Jun 1979 Originally sold in Harrisburg PA.
Oh my!! How did you find this information? It looks like it stayed pretty close to the sale point. Thank you very much. In a van down by the river....hmmmm, where have I seen this before
Pretty nice looking Cat, in their day they were the basement diggers favorite machine. And still capable of turning in a decent days work. Good luck with it. You can Google brush rakes and get a fair number of ideas where to get one..check also Rock and Dirt.com My Little Salesman.com Machinerytrader.com Alan
Thanks for the info Alan. A walkout basement is in the plans for this machine. Land clearing and leveling for house, out buildings, etc. It should have a pretty easy life and knowing me I will most likely keep it after the work is done. A neighbor wants me to dig a pond but his land is always wet from springs and I can see this machine getting stuck fairly easily.
They will get stuck a little easier than you expect. Heavy machine with narrow tracks by today's standards and a lot of the weight is on the nose. Digging basements it would usually get stuck trying to get the very last bucket out of the hole. At least it seemed that way.
Back before housing died you used to see a lot of dumptrucks with tag trailers with a 955H on board..then 955K's, then L's...now it's 953's but there are a lot less around with the saturated market around here. One of my better friends in Missouri when I was a kid had a 955K doing basements and yard..it was a big deal the day I walked down after school and he had a brand new 955L...the paint was stil burning off! Pretty exciting when you were 11...and a certified Cat nut! I'd like to see it with the correct era decals back on...you have to at least get the "Caterpillar" for the front of the radiator. Just so it doesn't lose it's identity! LOL! You could dig a pond with one of these if the bottom is hard and you can keep the mud in front of you..it would probably mean a lot of tracking though! It ought to do what you want it to do very well. Have fun with it!
I'm constantly amazed at the amount of Crawler Loaders I see in the US,that have no 4in1 or rippers.In Australia it's very rare to see one without both attachments.Maybe the US machines were used in quarry applications more often. Anyway,nice to see some 955s still being used & appreciated. I regret never having operated a 977 or 983....
Did he let you operate it? I would have been beside myself! Yes, I'm with you on the decals. I do like the looks of the newer decals but if I had a choice I would rather they be period but I don't think I could get the current ones off without making a mess. I need to be extremely careful not to get this machine stuck because I don't know how I would get it mobile again. Because of a bridge and sharp turns there is no easy access for heavy equipment. In fact, I had to ford a 100' wide creek/river late in the summer to get the machine home. Most other times the flow is fast and very deep. Although I need another machine like a hole in the head I would love to find an old pony start dozer with a winch somewhere around a D6 or D7 size.
I don't know either. During my search I did find quite a few Case, Dresser, IH type machines with 4n1's. I think a 941 and a 60's 955 were the only Cats I found with a 4n1. ooof 977 and 983 look like monster machines!
We had looked at a 4 in 1 but there were several reasons not to have it on the L. First was a reduction in bucket capacity of I think a quarter cubic yard or more which is significant deal when digging basements, that's a lot more trips out of a hole. Then there is the extra weight which in our state would have made it impossible to haul legally on a tag trailer. I believe there was also a reduction in dump angle which is a problem as the L does not have that great a dump angle anyway. Mud wont come out of a 4 in 1 all that great.
O&W, No, I never got to run it..But Kenny got me my first "Cat Hat"...a little dirty and used but that was a very big deal to me at the time! My friend Perry was the first to let me "run" a piece of Cat equipment...a 977H! Watching that loader clearing for a subdivision probably did more to snare me into being an operator than about anything else. I walked all over the place to watch equipment, and when I finally got a bicycle, rode all over the place, in all kinds of weather. If they were working, I was there too. The guys were amazed that whenever they started a new job, it wasn't long before I showed up...riding the school bus was a handy way to spot equipment. Another guy used an Allis Chalmers 840 to dig basements, first wheel loader I had ever seen...my bike rode in the bucket on several occasions when he traveled to dig another basement. Every time I smell wood smoke I think back to watching that 977 stacking brush into burn piles... I have some old Instamatic pics of Kenny tearing down the mill where my mom worked after it caught fire and burned..I'll have to post them when I get time. Alan
[email protected] this thread out...these are a bunch of pics I snapped in 1980 and transferred to a CD and posted here..taken on the old Kodak Instamatic 126...this is what yours might have looked like brand new......in 1980. Alan
Nice pics! The 955 looks tiny
Hey OldandWorn, that's a nice looking cat. Looks like the farmer who owned it took good care of it!
Thanks Boone. All of his ag equipment was spotless to the point I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Big Case tractors with dual wheels taller than I and it looked like he Armoralled the tires and waxed the entire machine after each use. Even the cleats of the ag tires were spotless and all equipment was stored indoors. He said it took him a couple of years of searching until he found a track loader that he was happy with. In the 10 or so years he has owned it he cleaned up a fence row or 2 but mainly used it to compress silage by tracking back and forth over it. I don't know how many bucket linkage bushings have been replaced or how long ago but they are factory tight with no exaggeration. Actually everything on this machine is so tight and leak free that I'm still scratching my head over it wondering what kind of work or repair this machine has seen. It has sealed and lubricated track bushings that are either all dry or have great seals. It amazes me how they can hold oil in that brutal enviroment. The machine will coast in neutral for what seems like forever so I guess there is still oil in there. I would like to install new sproket segments though. Of course all it takes in one little thing, even an o-ring, to grenade inside to turn these machines into pretty yellow paperweights in the woods. BTW, I have read every post in your loader thread with great interest. What a nice job you and your dad have done with that machine! :thumbsup
Nice, sounds like his scrunity over his equipment and now your loader will pay off for you in the long run. Can't wait to see some actions shots with that bucket buried in the ground Glad you liked the thread. I'm ready to get our loader back to work earning it's keep. I'm like you, itching to move some dirt! Question on your 955: What is the gray half-tube lookin thing on top of the right side tilt cylinder? Is that a block for the lift arm cylinder?
Yes, a block for the lift cylinder. I'm going to guess it's a cost saving thing as the older machines had a really nice and expensive looking built in mechanism to lock the lift.
Nice looking loader, I just bought a 1978 955L 13x1963 this weekend with a 4 in 1 bucket not in that good of shape. Still looking for someone to haul it home for me, cant wait to get it woking on clearing off some pasture land.
Yeah Cliff.....know what ya mean! I haven't pushed a single twig with mine and it's killing me. Your serial number is higher than my 13x and Lee mentioned earlier in this post that mine is a 1979. I'm getting ready to lay some electrical conduit so maybe I will clear a swath with my loader but it's just brush junk and small trees. I pushed two of the trees over yesterday with by Deere 410 hoe just because I had it out and I couldn't even tell I was pushing on something. Good luck with your machine I'm sure you will enjoy it!! Lets see some pics....everyone loves pics on the forums.
Nice Machine!
I didn't like the feel of the throttle so I got a chance to pull the right side engine cover for the first time. BTW How do you post multiple pics with text in between them? Been trying for an hour and had to give up.
I lubed up the throttle linkage and it made a world of difference. I also had to adjust the linkage slightly longer because the engine would linger on when trying to shut it down.
Although I have never used one, I think I would like the old style linkage lock better. This thing is awkward and heavy!
Kitty is starting to earn her keep. First job, clear a path for my underground electric.
Good lookin' tractor and great pics!
I read about your planned trenching job for your conduit. Sounds like a cool project. Look forward to hearing how that goes. I agree...great pics.
Thanks for checking in Boone. The trenching project looks as though it wants to make my life miserable. After I cleared this swath I took a test dig at a random spot and landed smack in the center of a 2' diameter rock just below the surface in the top soil. After I dug the rock up my first bucketfull of soil became another obstacle. Heavy wet clay that wouldn't release from the bucket. I finally got it out but I felt as though I was abusing the hoe with all of the shaking. At this rate I will make about 10' per day and this was supposed to be the easiest part of the run. :Banghead
Sounds like my kind of luck! If it's not one thing it's another. Are you digging in lower ground? I thought I read where you were going to have to go through a creek bed as well and up a hill? Might have bite off a little at a time. I know what you mean about abusing your machine. I rode the loader yesterday for about 12 hours in sloping rocky terrain. It wasn't much fun, but I just went slow and easy and tried not to break anything.
I'm on the upper ground at the moment close to my barn. The 3 creeks are at the bottom of the steep hill. I can deal with the rocks as long as they can be moved but this wet clay is something else. I can't afford to spend 5 minutes trying to shake each bucketfull out. We have had a sick amount of rain this spring but I don't know if the clay would be dry even without the rain. I may have to resort to a rental trencher and use the hoe for moving the large rocks. Being the first time operating a track machine and driving on rocks gave me quite a scare when I first brought the machine to my property. I had to drive it through a 100' wide creek and the bottom had gazillions of round creek rocks. Even running at idle in first gear I was hearing these explosions and I thought my tracks were self destructing. After I got across the creek I had a look and my machine was turning the larger rocks into dust and fragments because they were supporting most of the weight.
Try peeling off thin layers of the clay and let it roll up in your bucket. This will help to keep it from sticking so bad. I just dug 1200ft. of drain tile line in some wet fields last week and it can be a challenge. Sooner or later it will stop all this crazy rain.
Thanks for the tip Bill. I was doing just the opposite and was loading the bucket up hard from the bottom of the trench. The mound of dirt on top of the bucket was as high as the bucket is deep. I only did about 6' of trench as an experiment before I had to leave and I was pretty bummed over the results. Just curious....did you use a backhoe for your drain tile trench?
Used my 580K 4x4 with extendahoe. I was digging for a neighboring farmer who is trying to dry up some wet areas in his fields. It has been the wettest spring in 30 years around here and field or excavating work is a challenge right now. I have one field he is going to plow and replant but it is so wet I stuck my truck just showing him where I wanted planted. A real test of patience! Folks are way behind on planting and haying will be a challenge if it does not soon dry up.
Nice looking rig
Man thats a nice looking machine. I'm looking at one right now to purchase. Its a 1978 model.
That thing does look pretty nice, gotta admit it. It's great that the thing was still runnin' depending on how long you had it sittin' before you fired it up again! Cheers, Tyler
Looking foward to seeing the pics when you get it home. I tried to find a decent track loader with a 4n1 bucket with no luck so I settled for this one.
Thanks! I start it up about every 6 months as it sits unused most of the time.
Loader on a Demo Site Here's an old loader I saw on a demo site last night in San Francisco. Pretty cool.
Old and Worn you have a great root rake already attached. If you tip your bucket down so the teeth are almost pointed straight down you can rake rocks, sticks and roots very well. Do it all the time with the 855 Case at work.
Yeah, I tried that with brush and it worked very well. I'm guessing stumps and trees would require more depth unless you want to push some dirt around with the deeper roots. I'm sure I'll just go with what I have unless I decide to clear a large area for farming.
When you dig up deeler roots and stumps you can roll them around some and shake the dirt off. Then push them into the pile with the teeth. Also works nice for back dragging to finish an area.
Do you still own this machine? If so would you be interested in selling it?
Hello, can you give me information about the machine with serial 64j4992, thanks
Manufactured in January 1973, that's all I can come up with.