Spotted this on the side of M-37 by Dan Diamond Equipment today and had to stop and take some pics to share. My wife thought I was nuts. " I don't understand what's so important that you need pictures"
That was factory from Cat I believe.
I don't know, that looks like a grader chain drive set up, but the welds on that lower part certainly don't look factory. Compare the weld in the first picture to the second. That bottom section certainly doesn't look factory, compared to the back frame portion.
It's a D6B sugar baby.A dealer conversion. Bob
I would have guessed some old farmer cobbled it together.
http://www.chriscomachinery.com/CaterpillarDW6.htm I'll be darned. I had no idea something like this existed.
Makes me wonder why, if this was built in Florida, is it in Michigan?
looks like Cats version of the LW16 and better.
Years ago, we had one of those at a rock quarry I worked at. It was equipped with a railroad coupler, and we used it to move railcars to and from the loadout area. I think the one we had dated back to the 60's or 70's
The cool factor on that is off the hook!
MOG5858 that's stops on here occasionally has one also in Canada. While not abundant there are a few around. Beside the one Eric is running in the video with the pull grader there is another beautifully restored one is in the Veercamp collection in California.
Here's a thread I started as a joke, cause of where I happened to lean some tires, but it has some good info on the factory built one. HeavyEquipmentForums
I believe these were originally intended for railroad use to move cars around a yard. Much cheaper than any engine.
Looking at the nose of the first pictures that machine seems to have a RR coupler install slot in front.
[/IMG] The first were built for very large sugar cane growers in Florida a to haul sugar cane and other tasks. United States Sugar was involved. "Hence the "USS" on the pictured unit... That would be quite a find if its an original USS machine. A big cat dealer in the south built the first ones, and I think later Cat offered them as a factory build. Quite a few are around restored, some even in Europe. Ringling Brothers had a bunch of them for circus train loading, set up, etc. They ended up all over the place in different years.
http://www.chriscomachinery.com/CaterpillarDW6.htm