1942 Cletrac Crawler

[Squizzy246B]

A 30 Hp crawler. I don't know too much about Cletrac, any of you guys know anything about them?

[334 lawn co]

i havent a clue.

[Jeff D.]

I'd no clue either, but if found this. http://www.oliverinformation.com/news/7-1.html Apparantly in 1944 they became part of Oliver, which also had Hart Parr as a part of the company by that time.

Despite whatever a guy might say, he really must like his occupation alot when he goes on a family vacation and searchs out the old tools once used in his line of work.

Most people go on vacation and the last thing they want to see is something that reminds them of work.:yup

[Squizzy246B]

Give me a break:rolleyes: ...I was only thinking of you guys:spaz

I can have a hobby can't I???... Actually the pioneer museum was just a couple of hours on the last day heading home. We were pretty much in the bush for 7 days and hardly saw a person....just some Black snakes, a lot of dragon lizards, many galahs and a heap of scenery that most people will never see. I have some great holiday snaps!!!!!!! but there is a limit on relevance and bandwidth you know??:ban of things other than machinery:yup

Now what it is it you do on the cold lonely nights alone????:eek: :bouncegri

[Jeff D.]

Give me a break:rolleyes: ...I was only thinking of you guys:spaz

I can have a hobby can't I???....Oh don't get me wrong, I meant it as a "good thing" (actually enjoying your job). It make it a whole lot nicer that way.

Now what it is it you do on the cold lonely nights alone????:eek: :bouncegriUmm.......you don't wanna know!!:eek: :bouncegri

If I'm not outside working on something, I'm on this forum, or possibly playing guitar...............poorly.

Actually my main occupation is trucking, but I'm not interested in it much past that. But heavy equipment is another story. I do enjoy running the equipment, and even working on it, so.............

That must be my "hobby".

[Jeff D.]

....just some Black snakes, a lot of dragon lizards, many galahs and a heap of scenery that most people will never see. I have some great holiday snaps!!!!!!! but there is a limit on relevance and bandwidth you know??:ban of things other than machinery:yupOh, now you're worried about relevance and bandwidth.

Have you actually looked through the "Lonely Friday" thread, er wait, it's your thread!!:bouncegri

[Squizzy246B]

Oh, now you're worried about relevance and bandwidth.

Have you actually looked through the "Lonely Friday" thread, er wait, it's your thread!!:bouncegri

Welllll...thats different!.....because................because...um mm

[RonG]

Cletrac was the Cleveland Tractor Company and merged with Caterpillar early on.They made some pretty large dozers as well.Ron G

[Squizzy246B]

Thanks Ron:thumbsup

[Squizzy246B]

I found this:

Eventually, the entire Cletrac crawler line was taken over by the Oliver Corporation in 1944 and for a while, Oliver crawlers were Cletrac clones and for some time many of the castings on Oliver crawlers carried Cletrac identification numbers. Ironically, Oliver was later purchased by the White Motor Corporation in 1960.

[RonG]

Now you have me looking.There was something about Cletrac that Cat wanted,they had a patent on something that Cat incorporated into their machines and it has left me with the misinformation that Cat bought Cletrac to get it.Thanks for calling me on it,I hate reading anything that is not true and I do not want to spread rumors myself.If I can come up with the connection I will post it.Ron G

[Squizzy246B]

Hey Ron, thats fine...I've been doing some more research, but the reason why they say "ironically" is because White..as in the Mr White...his full name escapes me..was the one who financed the start of The Cleveland Tractor Co...which was previously the Cleveland motor plough company or something..Then his own company ended up buying it back.!

Anyway some would say that Cat bought just about anything that was worthwhile over the years. Despite all the years I ran and worked on Cat engines I never knew they owned 67% of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries since the end of WWII, until I bought my first Cat Skid Steer.

What really amazes me is how these old machines got half way around the world, worked, were repaired and maintained, often under attrocious conditions and all before anybody dreamed of "global logistics" etc.

I really liked the old US built stuff because of the documentation. The english stuff I often worked on had like 4 different books or even five for one machine..and the author assumed you had encyclopediac knowledge of the other 4 books (as well as several engineering degrees) when you were reading the 5th...whereas the american stuff was often written from ground up for numbskulls like me and it told you everything..when, what, how and why and what spanner to use. The guys that wrote those workshop manuals really understood their stuff...something which seems to evade the modern manual production.

[atgreene]

There are a few Cletrac collectors around here. I know one guy in the next town over that has an original with the cab (wood) and the plow and wing frames. The entire tractor was surrounded by a frame work that supported wings for plowing snow. A v plow went on the front. It's an amazing piece of equipment and I hope if he ever decides to sell it I can be in a position to buy it.

Here's some links with pics:
http://www.vintagemaineimages.com/bin/Detail?ln=8921
http://www.colemuseum.org/pict_collection.cfm?CatID=20

[digger242j]

Here are a couple of a Cletrac. Sorry, but I failed to get any of the details about the machine... :beatsme (Sure is pretty though, isn't it?)

[RonG]

Squizzy,the guys first name was Roland I think.By coincidence I saw something about his early ventures on tv last night and it seems that while he was building the Cletracs he also tried to build a new car line but it did not sell well so it only lasted a couple of years.
I searched for an hour or more for evidence to back up my story and found nothing at all about it so i guess I better be more careful before I pretend I know what I am talking about from now on.
I detest misinformation.Speculation is fine as long as it is labeled as such but when we give the wrong info on something to help someone out it is worse than not saying anything at all.
In this country we have aftermarket repair manuals for cars by companies like Chiltons and Haynes and they are so inaccurate when you really need specific info on something that you are really better off without one when compared to an authoritive FSM specific to the vehicle you are working on.
In that case you are adding to your work load just by using them.Ron G

[Steve Frazier]

Sitting next to the old Cat grader I recently posted was this Cletrac crawler

[King of Obsolete]

here is a link to the BB on these machines. i don't go there any more because the fellow that has the BB keeps moving the winter freighting info to the bottom of the site. these little cats were very popular as winter freighting cats. i think winter freighting is very important plus you have to have a really good machine to go winter freighting because of the conditions.

http://www.cletrac.org/newbb/viewtopic.php?t=1217


thansk
KoO
Published Author

[Taylortractornu]

Oliver and Cletrac crawlers Had many innovations and were at one time a strong Cat competitor. They had a crawler that was about the same size as a D8. An old man I knew had one and it had Spot Turn air assisted steering controls one position just clutches then the other applied the brake and the clutch so no foot braking was required plus it beat Cat in knuckleing the steering clutches by armstrong. I rember this tractor also had a closed f\luid coupling/ torque converter. I know a collector here that has 3 or 4 OC series including the wade gage narrow track that had a set of pads added to on 4 inch pipes on top of the original pads to boost it up for crop work. He als has a narror gauge Cletrac thats like Steve posted. its got super narrow pads. its 3 feet wide. Looks dangerous as crappin on a rattle snake to me lol. Cleat track also had a High track version in the 20's that had an odd roller chain set up.

[Steve Frazier]

Do you have any idea whose engine they used? I just noticed on the pics I took it looks like there may have been a round tank of some sort attached to the firewall. Have you seen that before?

[Taylortractornu]

Its a distallate fuel tank. and for the Gas to but I think most ran on the tractor fuel Distillate. I think most used Continental or Wakasha I think. That tractor there in the Orchard rig all the controls were at the back and you sat kinda behind the draw bar. There was alot of them made for use in forestry and ag I saw a tractor like in you picture with a rake on it clearing scrub in an old farm pic from out west.

[vintex]

hi guys check out cletrac.org for accurate info on these tractors they helped me heaps when i restored my BDH iv run both cletrac and cat crawlers and i think if cletrac had stuck around they would hav been a majour competitor in todays world.
they are really nice to operate foot clutch ,good gear shift lay out planetry steering and they had inovations like roller bush tracks, they were held in hi regard buy a lot of crop farmers before the advent of big wheel tractors

[sandy]

spotted today 6cyl flathead engine

[tripper_174]

When I was a kid I operated a Cletrac dozer. I'm guessing it was around 60 H.P. and was probably built in the 50's somewhere. The neat thing about it was that the steering controls were air assisted. There was a compressor on the engine similar to those found on trucks. Anyway, the steering clutches were extremely easy to use particularly in that day and age. The guy that owned it is still alive and in the day he cleared lots of bush with the tractor. I'll see what he can tell me about them.

[ianoz]

Hi KoO, I have seen you on the cletac site and didn't realize you where not visting there any more . I have just bought an OC6 oviler and joined to try and get info on it .Unfortuneate that not much happens over there . ian.

[dozerdave]

Hi Steve,

Super pictures. That is the first time I have seen angle iron bolted to a set of tracks. Looks like the square corners on the angle iron would make the cat hard to turn on firm ground.