Fiat Allis 262B's

[excavator22]

I was wondering if anybody knows of any FA 262b's around anymore. I ran a few in the mid to late 90's up in Wis., but haven't seen any since. The company I ran them for has gotten rid of them(I think) and went with 627's. I've also looked on machinery trader and all they have for sale is the the 161, 260 and 261. I was kinda curious cause its the first scraper I ever ran and I liked them.

Diesel exhaust--The real cologne!

 

[fiat41b]

I talked to that company a couple years ago about buying those 262's they are very good scrapers especially if they have the cumming's power

 

[stepp3360]

262B's in Greensboro NC

Hello,
Every time I take a trip over to Raleigh from Asheville North Carolina I pass by a couple of 262B that are for sale near downtown Greensboro, NC. Their just past the Mack and Volvo USA headquarters heading east. Over the years their's been a couple of 31 fiat Allis dozers, and a bunch of other A-C, or Fiat equipment there. Last visit they had 2 or 3 more 262B behind the fence as well.
John

 

[bigrus]

Not over here

I was wondering if anybody knows of any FA 262b's around anymore. I ran a few in the mid to late 90's up in Wis., but haven't seen any since. The company I ran them for has gotten rid of them(I think) and went with 627's. I've also looked on machinery trader and all they have for sale is the the 161, 260 and 261. I was kinda curious cause its the first scraper I ever ran and I liked them.

They must'nt have been exported very much as we've never seen any over here (Australia) :beatsme

 

[excavator22]

Fiat41b,
Were they selling those machines at that time? From what I remember they did have cummins engines in them and I loved their sound. Last time I drove by about a year ago I didnt see any 262's there at all. Hopefully, they had good operators on them and are running somewhere. Sometimes I wish I would've endured the cold longer so that I could run them some more.

Steve

 

[excavator22]

Stepp3360,
Good to hear that there are some out there still, don't know when I'll be up to NC to look for them. I wonder what they are asking for them? On top of that its pretty slow here business wise, but I sure would like to sit in one again. Believe it or not, I have never sat in a 627, but I have been in a 613 here and it wasn't too bad. I just really liked those 262's they were good strong machines, a little rough in soft areas but still good machines

Steve

 

[fd30]

original 262bs had ac25000 engines@325hp in front ac 2000 engines in rear@200hp they were awsome buggies for moving dirt could bury a 627b

 

[crayton]

First good scraper I ever ran was an older model AC 260 back in 1957. Was the pride of the fleet alongside about 8 DW 10's. Later on I bought a 260 with the bigger engine and turbo. Had it about 15 years and did a lot of SCS waterway jobs, some up to a mile long. Most had a fall of .01 / 100' and it was the nicest outfit to cut to grade and finish with. Never had to use a grader. Would set an offset stake about 4-500 feet and check when I got to that point. It had a 5 speed fuller so lots of shifting, would doubble clutch and jerk the hoist lever to slow the engine down when shifting up and use the throttle when shifting down. 10 or 12 shifts per load and twice with the clutch each time and a 5 min trip made for a lot of left leg movement. Wound up with a new left knee and thats probably why. Big old orange piece of Iron and we nicknamed it "Tillamook" because it looked like a big brick of cheese. Fun Days.

 

[$maker]

I know a guy that has a couple of 260s here in oklahoma ifn your interested write back

 

[Neil D]

Thanks guys for this thread-any photo's?

Neil

 

[ronnie]

wimpys in peachtree,nc has 4or 5 i think and all still run

 

[crayton]

Yes, I have a few pictures . Tried to post them. I can still run anything with wheels, tracks, levers or buttons but damned if I can figure how to post pictures on this site even following the instructions. Will try again after I cool down. I still think the 260-262,s were some of the best scrapers made and way ahead of their time. Hydraulics way before yellow ran out of cable. I saw a lot of guys who would try their darndest to tear up a piece of orange equipment but baby anything yellow. Guess it was a pride thing or something.

 

[crayton]

AC 260 pic

Here it is finally. Got it posted on test and then would not let me put it on here. Still working on my apprenticship.

 

[WabcoMan]

Nice looking TS260 - even got the cable apron which would make it pre-1966
How long ago was that photo taken ?
Does it still have the A-C 17000 motor ?
If its a recent shot the machine is in pretty good shape & not all beat up like some of them get.

 

[crayton]

I think the 260 was a 1964-65. It had an oddball engine they called the 19000. Basicly the same as the 17000 except it had a turbo and they shortened the throw 1/2 in and made the pistons 1/4 in longer. I think 779 cu in.Think they only made about 300 of them. This was a real problem when I burned a piston and none were to be found. Finally had a fellow weld it up with a heliarc and turned it back to specs. Wouldn't take any pay as he said it might fail and then I would be unhappy. He did say if it made one revolution it would make a million and he was right. Put many hours on it after that and never missed a beat. The picture was taken around 1994 or so. My daughter took it one winter day at the shop and had it blown up and framed and gave it to me for Christmas. Took it out of the frame and took a pic with my digital camera and thats what you see. Think I owned it from 1980-95. Was going to buy the mate for it at an auction, "consecutive serial no" and that morning my wife triped over the dog and severly fractured her leg so didn't get that done and long story short that pretty much ended my career as a contractor. Had to stay closer to home and farm and play in the dirt with a dozer etc. Sold it to a young fellow north of here and I think he still has it. It was an ex county machine and I got more spare parts than I could haul in my pickup So never wanted for parts except the piston.Had the only scraper for 40 miles around so work was never a problem. Pushed it with a HD 15 with a cable dozer and it too was orange so you could see them a long way off. Guess I probably would bleed orange as the first cat I ever drove was a Model M AC back in 1944. Owned them ever since and still have a couple. Sad when they quit making them.

 

[surfer-joe]

I've always felt that the individual manufacturers of heavy equipment made a huge mistake falling for the "safety yellow" baloney in the sixties. Went from an era where you could tell who made what at five miles off, to today's world where you can't tell anything until you are looking at the manufacturers tag on the machine.

The old Richardson Tractor Company out of Ft. Lauderdale sold scads of the 262 scrapers, and later on, after being sold out to DeWind Machinery, even more of the 261 models. They weren't perfect, but ran fairly well and moved a lot of coral sand. I liked running them.

Lot's of contractors in Michigan ran 262's, then the 260's and 460's. Last 460's I saw running were on a section of US-131 north of Grand Rapids in the mid seventies.

 

[WabcoMan]

Crayton,

Thanks for the very interesting description of your TS-260.
It made great reading.
I don't have a great deal of seat time on TS-260's but I remember it being enjoyable

 

[fiatallisguy]

FA 262b's

hi there
I live in Alberta and I still run 262's every day. we have 12 of them as well as 2 260b's, one 161, one 263b, and one 260 with a 6000 gallon water tank. we have since repowered most of them with the cummins 855 in the front and a cummins L10 in the rear. we have also redone some of the hydrulics on them putting in a joystick to replace the original three sticks. I quite like it. and the cummins engines have be fantastic. the old engines were good but nobody makes a good headgasket for them any more and the fuel pumps are hard to set. the cummins engines are superior to them anyway, they start better, run cooler, and stay together better than the old 25000 and 11000's. these scrapers have been fantastic and we have owned many of them since new. it is too bad all that technology disappeared into all the new parent companies because they had a better design (and still do in my opinion) than cat. lower to the ground made them better on slopes and the angle on the cutting edge was far better for loading, they also handled better in tight spots. I could get some pics or more info if anyone would like.

 

[stepp3360]

Hello, fiatallisguy
Nice to see somebody still using 262's. Could we get you to post a few pictures of your equipment. It would be interesting to see how the engine swaps look. Do you run any other Fiatallis equipment?

 

[crayton]

Would love to see pictures of some 260,s etc still running. Still think these were the best smaller scrapers ever built. Way ahead of their time and pretty tough except for the engines. Always thought about installing a Cummins but somehow made the AC engine work. Just a kid when I started running a 260 and got to do all the finish and fill edge work because they were so easy to control and you could see what you were doing. Still love orange paint.