Killdeer Anniversary
The welding may be suspect, but at least he's got more protection than I ever had!
Wow some crazy cage work there. All the clearing I've done never needed that for anything. I just never let the trash get that close to the rest of the dozer, only out front at the business end. Its not easy, and those screens would not stop things like vine maple, they can reach out and get ya. They also will not stop a 1.5 foot diameter fir either.
Chidog, when you get the job of clearing jungle in 'Nam to stop the baddies digging tunnels and bunkers in it to hide in, you need all the protection you can get. The 5/8" plate on the sides and back of the tractor canopy were designed only to stop small arms fire, they didn't stop rocket-propelled grenades or heavy MG fire. The mesh and pipework was to stop the jungle canopy falling in on you. The canopy was usually up around 20 to 50 feet, and sometimes it was so thick, when you first ploughed into the jungle it was darker than twilight. But the worst feature was the livestock that fell out of the canopy and trees onto you! Scorpions as big as the palm on your hand, centipedes a foot or more long, huge rats, even snakes and monkeys!! Monkeys were the worst, they're vicious bastards and angry, too. One day a huge rat fell out of the canopy onto the hood in front of me, he bounded right towards me, jumped over the steering clutch levers and right into my lap!! I did some fancy dance moves right about then, I can tell you! He jumped off me and went down the side of the seat, and onto the top of the steering clutch housing somewhere, so I didn't bother about him any more after that!
Jeez Oz you sure bring back some memories, Rome plows and discs and jungle creatures.
Who recalls that crazy nutter who armor-plated his Komatsu and set about demolishing half his town? The cops were out of the depth with that one, they should just called in some heavy weaponry! Granby's Bulldozer Rampage Captured The World's Attention. Now It's A Documentary. In June of 2004, Marvin Heemeyer used an armored bulldozer to conduct a rampage in Granby, Colorado. He damaged many buildings, and ended up dead from a… www.kunc.org
Anyone remember these... mules ? Way ahead of it's time, when you think about all the UTV quad's running around today.
I had several chances to buy mules but didnt . Never saw a 2 seater.
They did have a right seat installation capability, to provide two seat capacity, but the right seat was rarely installed, because there was always a need to carry more cargo, and long cargo.
I wonder how the guys felt about the mule operator getting to ride when they had to walk or were the mule operators a target?
In my unit, We used them to hump Ammo. Mostly rockets, missiles and machine gun belts, and nobody asked for a drivers license to operate one. Yes, a driver license was a target.
That's the kill dozer that is referenced in the post that started this thread.
He wrote "killdeer", but I couldn't find any online reference to "killdeer" regarding Heemeyers rampage. The killdeer reference seems to be ignored by internet searches. I only found it again by recalling the nutters rampage was in CO, and he used a Komatsu.
I just took my mule to the Findley OH military show. After the mule parade we had a group photo op with 24 of us. I'll also be taking it back to the HCEA convention in Bowling Green in September
Sorry I missed the Killdeer reference. Killdozer is just stuck in my head. There's video of the event. A scraper driver diverted it from heading towards a gas station or some fuel tanks. Marvin should have opened a steel fabrication shop. His Komatsu fortress was well built.
There's been 2 of those for sale sorta local to me guy wants 10000 each
Not only did that guy ruin a nice 355 Komatsu dozer with all that welded on junk, he knew nothing about dozer operating.
I think what contributed to his demise was the dozer overheated and I think he got stuck in the building. He was just trying to do maximum destruction not necessarily dozing. Probably not the easiest to run when having to look at camera's either.