Crawlers I photo'd recently.

[DB2]

Look at how clean that is ! Not a scar anywhere

 

[Truck Shop]

Look at how clean that is ! Not a scar anywhere

Yeah--it's days are done--put out to pasture.

 

[DMiller]

Just a Mouse House these days

 

[Truck Shop]

Just think---create the image of a large orange Hitachi with a large snip heading towards it
like T-Rex, munch crunch! Along with that brand new Ford pickup box.
*

 

[Truck Shop]

I like those WOW's,

 

[DB2]

The Ford pickup box I could understand.

 

[Truck Shop]

The Ford pickup box I could understand.

Problem is 5's & 6's are laying all about in this area, antiques, very few few if any still
farm with steel tracks. Everything is rubber band or quad plus a D6 has no Jackrabbit
mode for high speed discing in a wheat field fire situation, a Challenger will just run
circles around those old crawlers.

 

[DMiller]

Would take considerable effort to add blades and controls to make back to a Push Dozer, as well mucho denero to acquire the parts, just obsolete.

 

[Dom]

This is a question I feel stupid to ask, but I assume those crawlers could not go down the road? Did they have to be floated from field to field? Probably another win for modern rubber band tractors.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

This is a question I feel stupid to ask, but I assume those crawlers could not go down the road? Did they have to be floated from field to field? Probably another win for modern rubber band tractors.

I'd say... Not much worry about roads when those were used...

 

[Willie B]

This is a question I feel stupid to ask, but I assume those crawlers could not go down the road? Did they have to be floated from field to field? Probably another win for modern rubber band tractors.

It's a big deal to avoid road damage from crawler tread. Tires can be placed to cross a paved road, but that would be a big job to move tires to go down a road. Usually they'd be on a trailer to move, or drive along the shoulder of a road.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Around here they would have a crossing place, and a pile of tires at the place. When you wanted to cross you threw tires in front of the tracks as you went.

 

[Truck Shop]

Just car tires-----but for most farmers around here that wasn't a problem.
Many owned as many as three to four 6's and just kept them in sheds
across whatever road. along with multiple sets of tillage equipment.
Several also had green and red articulate wheel tractors with tag trailer
to move crawler where needed for steeper ground.
*
And to the scorn of some that I bring it up--paid for by subsidy's.

 

[Tones]

Would take considerable effort to add blades and controls to make back to a Push Dozer, as well mucho denero to acquire the parts, just obsolete.

Could pull a pan as is though. Nothing is obsolete, it's just pushed aside until some young fella in the future sees a job that can't be done any other way. Then everyone else says WOW.

 

[Truck Shop]

Could pull a pan as is though. Nothing is obsolete, it's just pushed aside until some young fella in the future sees a job that can't be done any other way. Then everyone else says WOW.

Around here a crawler is obsolete, you can't hardly find anyone that will go back to
the constant shrill, squeaking-clattering noise of the under carriage plus the fact
tillage implements have grown in size way past what these old crawlers will pull.
Most are farming way more ground and the ground speed of crawler verses a rubber
band machine doesn't cut it anymore. Plus way more hours on track system with
rubber band and quicker to replace.

 

[Willie B]

I've been angrily challenged by farmers.
I make the statement that tractors became dependable in the 1930s. In my area of Vermont I see the beginning of dependable farm tractors as The letter series Farmall by IH, (the dealer was local). Concurrent was the Ford 9N, & several other manufacturers we never saw.
Dairy farms began in the 1930s. Before that, farms were diversified. Dairy farms were all we had from 1938 to 1985.
After the Whole Herd Buyout, most VT dairy farms gave up.
My grandfather was a farmer. He did NOT make a living on milk. He averaged 25 lactating cows at a time. Electricity came 4 years before he died. He cooled milk in a concrete tank with water running through it, or with ice floating in it. Early, there was a creamery in town. When the creamery closed, milk was shipped by rail.
My grandfather never owned a tractor, but did have a "doodlebug" a homemade tractor from auto & truck parts.
He died in 1942.
To this day, I have never seen a crawler tractor involved in tillage. Wealthy farmers had them to build & maintain roads. Harry & Hugh Bromley had adjoining farms, each used a crawler in spring to gather maple sap.
I have never seen a crawler pull a plow.

 

[Truck Shop]

I have never seen a crawler pull a plow.

This area Willie---despite what some would think or say----is where Caterpillar really got
it's start. The land is steep, way too steep for wheel tractors. Holt & Best staked their
claims right here in Walla Walla. Read the bottom line in the photo.
*

 

[DMiller]

End of a era, just as with Mules.

 

[Truck Shop]

Correct--crawlers had there day and it went by by. And many more common items
will go by by in near future.--all things come to a end---snip snip.
*

 

[Pops52]

This area Willie---despite what some would think or say----is where Caterpillar really got
it's start. The land is steep, way too steep for wheel tractors. Holt & Best staked their
claims right here in Walla Walla. Read the bottom line in the photo.
*
View attachment 329115

TS Is this building still standing? It reminds me of the Coca Cola building that was in Santa Maria Ca.