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290M Clark Michigan scrapers

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
Anyone here ever run one? They look like they could do some serious work. I like the fact that they are 4 wheel drive and have a dozer blade in front. A friend of mine ran the power unit pulling roller choppers to knock down brush throughout his 5000 acre ranch down here and he said it was the ultimate heavy equipment driving experience of his life. He said that when he got under load with both roller choppers behind him and full of water, all four tires started to spin and the engine didnt even lug down at all. I'm pretty sure this is the machine he had at his place when I saw it there. He owns 3 oldschool D9's, so he's no stranger to heavy equipment. He told me these were made for the military and are nearly indescructible. I'm looking for a second scraper and found one of these on ebay for 40k. It is a 20 yard machine. Also, there is a site dedicated to these machines called www.clark290m.com They seem to have access to parts and info on these. There's a place down the road from me that has 2 of these machines (just the tractor, no bowl) for dirt cheap. They have cummins engines in them. Any thoughts?





http://cgi.ebay.com/Clark-290M-Trac...yZ117484QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 

BrianHay

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
514
Location
Nanaimo B.C
Hi Serv, I have have seen a couple of those before but never had the opportunity to try one out myself. Looks like a really interesting machine. I wonder how big of a job it is to unhook the scraper if you wanted to use it for other attachments on a job. looks like it could be a really versatile tool eh. What kinda scraper do you have now? What kind of jobs will you be using it for?
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
Hi Serv, I have have seen a couple of those before but never had the opportunity to try one out myself. Looks like a really interesting machine. I wonder how big of a job it is to unhook the scraper if you wanted to use it for other attachments on a job. looks like it could be a really versatile tool eh. What kinda scraper do you have now? What kind of jobs will you be using it for?


Hi Bryan,

I run an older Fiat Allis 161 which has a 16 yard bowl when heaped. I haven't had any problems with it, but it does seem a slightly underpowered running a naturally aspirated 903 v8 cummins. I'm using it to reclaim an old 15 acre pit I bought that was previously mined for sand and gravel. So I'm not under that much pressure if the machine decides to be down. I don't do any outside work, but I can see where one of these 290m's might be a nice tool to build stock tanks (lakes) for ranchers. Last time I checked, around 6 years ago, guys were charging around $1.50 per cubic yard to build lakes on ranches in the area. On that site I posted above, you can see that they hook them up to the later model bowls that the John Deere tractors pull. I'm sure they can hook Rome disks or sheeps foot rollers up to them too. The one I saw had a bunch of steel lines in the back that were sealed by oversized quick couplers so they probably aren't too hard to hook and unhook from the attachment.
 

surfer-joe

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
1,403
Location
Arizona
I never ran one of these machines tho I have seen them around in both civilian and military versions. My understanding is that they were not too dependable with a lot of drivetrain problems. If anyone could screw up a good basic machine, it's the military. But the availability trouble is one of the main reasons the Army switched to the Cat 830M's.
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
I never ran one of these machines tho I have seen them around in both civilian and military versions. My understanding is that they were not too dependable with a lot of drivetrain problems. If anyone could screw up a good basic machine, it's the military. But the availability trouble is one of the main reasons the Army switched to the Cat 830M's.



thanks for the info. :)
 

EARTHWORM

Active Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
43
Location
fargo nd
290clark

if you can find a cat 830mb its much better unit I have three of them and are twice the scraper but parts are hight. but you can move alot of dirt with them. I have one with a push pull att on and can load with out push tractor! one more thing the cats are a bitch to work on fyi ew
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
830mb? I'll keep an eye out for those.



I pursued the 2 clark machines down the road from me and they have one complete machine (scraper and bowl) with a blown engine and an additional parts tractor (also including a good bowl) that they took a good engine out of with intentions of swapping it's engine into the blown engine unit. Well, that engine never made it in there and I think I can buy both machines as is for around the 7500 dollar range. Also, I can get them to deliver these pieces for around 1500 bucks (four loads).


I haven't gone to see the blown engine unit yet, but I snapped some pics of the parts machine and it's bowl. I think might round up the cash to buy these tractors. My two key pieces of equipment at the yard are the scraper and dozer. I use both of them on a daily basis to reclaim my land. I think with one good 290m, it would serve as a spare for both my dozer and scraper. If my 750c is down, use the 290m. If my scraper goes down, use the 290m. :D

The owner of these 290m's is upgrading to all new equipment and wants to get rid of these things bad. He also has a nice D8K out there that he wants to sell cheap. He's one of those guys that hates dozers for some reason. :beatsme

photobucket is down at the moment so I'll follow up with pics when they're back up.
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
here's some pics of the parts 290m machine, a 17 yard pan they have for sale and a couple pics of the D8K they want to get rid of.
 

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Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
............
 

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Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
7
Location
Indianola, IA
Cat 830MB

I bought a Cat 830MB last weekend. Looks almost identical to the Clark 290M. Haven't had it in the field yet but will tonight! I'd sure like to know the differences between the two machines.
 

surfer-joe

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
1,403
Location
Arizona
Other than the obvious differences, the Michigan will have a Cummins engine and the 830 a Cat, not sure myself what model. The Michigan will have an Allison tranny, the 830 a Cat. The Michigan will likely have Clark axles tho they may also be Rockwells. The scraper on the Michigan is likely to be a Clark-Michigan, the 830 is all Cat. I believe the tire sizes are the same to both. Both machines have good component manufacturers, the devil is in the details with the Cat coming out far ahead in that regard. Wiring, hydraulics, controls, etc., all much better on the Cat 830.
 

Rusted

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
209
Location
Australia
The 830 (being basically the same tractor as the 988A wheel loader), should have the D343 engine.
 
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
7
Location
Indianola, IA
Put her in the field last night

Thanks Guys! I tried it out briefly last night. Wasn't able to do much as one tire was low (coudn't tell until we got the bowl about half full). I'm used to a little IH 9-1/2 yard paddle scraper, this thing seems like a mile long in comparison! I'm looking for the history of these machines, if anyone knows of any good websites please let me know. Thanks again!
 

alan627b

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
785
Location
Omaha Nebraska
Occupation
Heavy Equipment Operator
http://www.acmoc.org/ACMOC_BB/
http://www.antiquecaterpillar.org/
Ask the Cat guys on one of these BB's, they have been brought up before.
The 830 shares many of it's components with the 824 wheel dozer, and the 825 compactor, as well as the 988A loader.
Cat made these under military contract, but they made only the tractor. The scrapers were made by oughtside contractors, the only one I know by name was Curtiss-Wright, an aircraft manufacturer.
Hope this helps!
The Clark 290M, it's competitor.
http://www.clark290m.com/
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...q=caterpillar+830MB&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=X
 
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Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
I ended up buying these two 290m's. Since I'm such a cheap skate, I got both for $4500.00 (half of scrap value). :D

We already moved one pictured above to my yard and we are doing a field engine swap on the other one.

One had a blown engine and they pulled the engine out of the other (perfectly running tractor) to get the blown engine one running. They left the good engine laying in the grass for over a year :confused:

We started on the engine swap this weekend and should be firing her up later on today.


Also, the blown engine one didn't have a blown engine. The flywheel went bad on it hence the knocking noise they had experienced. So I will be replacing the flywheel on that engine one and putting that engine back in the other tractor.

Good thing my mechanic isn't scared to work. :D



here's some pics on the one we're repairing out on the field



080227_142811.jpg


080227_144252.jpg



080426_140340.jpg


080426_141146.jpg
 

alan627b

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
785
Location
Omaha Nebraska
Occupation
Heavy Equipment Operator
Serv, you seem to be having pretty good luck at building up a good sized dirt fleet....not bad for a guy who's main living is in the tire business! (If I remember right...) Keep us informed!
alan627b
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
Hope those monsters work out good for ya!

Thanks Stretch! :drinkup



Serv, you seem to be having pretty good luck at building up a good sized dirt fleet....not bad for a guy who's main living is in the tire business! (If I remember right...) Keep us informed!
alan627b


Hey thanks alan. Yes, I'm still in the tire business. Going on 13 years now. :D


We went ahead and fired her up today and I gave her a test drive and she seems to be doing as advertised. Some time this coming week, I'll be moving this one to my shop now that she runs and drives. The way it's looking as of today, I think we have to do it in two loads since the pull tractor weighs 60k pounds and the bowl weighs 33k for a total of 93k pounds. At least it should roll up the lowboy under its own power.

here's some today pics after getting her running and airing up two tires that were down



080427_150521.jpg


080427_200641.jpg


080427_202017.jpg


080427_201858.jpg




here's a vid of the old ntc380 that we swapped in. Excuse all the messiness, but we just want to get the machine to load itself on the trailer and we can work on all the details when it gets to my shop.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nk4RApax9Y
 

Serv

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
265
Location
Laredo TX
here's a vid of one of the the doomed tractors taking a spin now with the hood on. I say doomed because both were going to be cut up and scrapped if I didn't buy them. The seller told me they were happy I saved them the time and trouble of doing so :D I drove it shortly after I toolk this vid and she has some great dozing power and ability.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dLJOeBdpig
 
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Location
India
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