I figured it was about time to contribute my little pool of pictures. Most of these are from the summer of 2006. I was making ponds and roadways. Doing a lot of landclearing.
More of the first pond.
If anyone is wondering what the heck a certain picture is of, don't be afraid to ask.
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That is one sweet, powerful machine Brian. Must be fun to run. What year and model is that? What kind of projects are you using it for nowadays?
looks like the same kind of crappy soil that is in my area!! The only way to work in that stuff is with tracks!! Looks good.
more
And some more..
It was a good machine, but a bit of a bear. I guess it must have been the steering clutches that were worn out. Sometimes I had to put a foot on the dash in order to pull hard enough to turn her. It is a TD20, and if I remember correctly, a C. No idea as to the year. In another thread a member by the name of 25C said he believed it to have somewhere between 185-200hp. I was never sure myself. Unfortunately I believe the machine sits idle currently. The owner bought it for the jobs on his property and hired me to run it. If we still had the lowboy I can almost guarantee you it'd be seein' some use here on the farm!
great pics. got any more?
How was it for pushing trees?
It was a hell of a machine in the woods. I pushed myself a roadway straight up a fairly steep hill covered with various hardwoods. I cleared quite a few acres with the machine, everything from brush to poplar to hickory and oak. Only a couple real large trees, but a little digging around the roots got them out. It would plow through dense stands of poplar and easily break off trunks averaging 1' diameter. Poplar being a soft wood, and having a weak root system, getting the stumps out wasn't hard at all. I did wish I had a rake on the front instead of a blade for a lot of the clearing, especially with all the little brush.
First pic is of the first pond, just about done. Others include the start of the second pond. Stripping topsoil. Ridiculous amount of natural springs in this one. It was filling so fast I could barely get it dug out quick enough. In the 2nd through 5th pics, you see a hill in the background. In the 2nd pic there are a couple cell phone towers in the far right corner. The first pond I made for this guy was on that hill, somewhat close to the towers. I had to clear a path down through the valley and work my way up to this part of the property to make the 2nd pond. That was an interesting trip, heavy brush and some thick trees all along the way. Plus a nice soggy creek to cross. In spots, the sides of the valley were quite steep. One slope was pretty wet and steep as well. This was as I got close to the creek. I started straight down this part and found myself sliding straight forward. A combination of steep slope and very wet ground let me slide for a ways until I put the blade down to slow the ol girl. A fun ride I must say!
ahh
Couple more of the 20. Last couple are of an old JCB backhoe that I almost got stuck haha. Dragged myself in there with the hoe, tried to dig for a bit, determined it was way too wet. Had to push myself back out through some brush to dry land.
A couple pieces of equipment owned by the company I work for now. Its nice to finally get a chance to run one of these new machines! Built a small pond here.
Well I'll tell ya what,It's hard to beet an IH td20c with a carco#80 winch on it.Great thread and pictures WesternStar!Did you ever get a chance to use the winch on a job?
Yeah I liked that machine. It needed some work, but I can imagine a well-maintained 20 would really be a blast. Haha I did use the winch a time or two. Once to move a large tree that got hung up as I was dropping it. The other time was to pull the ol' girl outta the muck. I started a push to clean out some of the rotten mud that was in the pond area and sunk a track. Didn't help that I tried to take a bit too big of a cut on that push The left track ran onto a large vein of blue clay that had the consistency of modeling clay. This stuff could have been pulled out and sold for just that purpose haha, it was perfect soft clay. The track sank down and I couldn't get myself out, so we got a local farmer to bring in a good sized John Deere tractor for an anchor. He backed up on the side of the pond and I hooked onto him, barely enough line on the winch. I thought I was gonna pull him down in the pond with me when I first started winching, but he only slid a few feet and then the dozer came right out.