Graveyard Cats

I’m trying to sell my D8 46A now. I’ll miss running it but not the heavy lifting i’ve done over the years. I’ll get over it but i may look for an old small one to fix up & play with

Its hard to believe how bosses thought about how things are done. I worked for one guy that thought a 1/2 impact was a wast of money. If there was a hard way to do it that how he wanted it done. I have worked for so many that would have me spend hours chasing a penny.

56wrench said:

I’m trying to sell my D8 46A now. I’ll miss running it but not the heavy lifting i’ve done over the years. I’ll get over it but i may look for an old small one to fix up & play with

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56 Wrench,I built up to around 10 x D8 68A and 66V tractors over the years,and kept 2 very nice late 68A 5800 series for many years.They would do a couple of months every year without fail,but I picked up a D8R at auction,and that made me realise my beloved D8H’s had to go.The D8R was so lovely to drive and gave very little trouble.That was in 2018 and I sold them for pretty big coins as o would never part with them otherwise.
I felt mighty strange at seeing them go,but soon forgot about them and never looked back.
These days I have a nearly new D8T that potters about and an older D9T that’s great for the bigger grunt

chidog said:

You haven't lived if you didn't work for a cheap ___ boss, that had no extra machines to use, nor a heated shop, no service truck, and had to work on old D8's, and 7's using wood, come a longs, chain hoist, jacks, prybar, chains etc. and on top of that working alone no help. It took years for things to improve there. I would have loved to at least have a fork lift then. Yes after a wait an excavator may come back to the yard, but all I would need it for is lifting the hard nose (radiator guard), or occasional engine, loading or unloading from truck things like track assemblys etc. anything else like tracks to reuse or track frames all just by hand. How many here been there done that? Anyone here move a D8 on concrete floor by hand?
I don't miss those days at all.

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Did you ever work for a small coal mine out in Black Diamond?

No I didn't John.

Sounded like we worked for the same employer at one time.

I dare say we ALL have worked for THAT Family of Cheapskates!!!

I had to go to a Hyd shop i had never been to the other day to get some parts. The owner had a Dozer salvage yard at one time. I got to talking to him and told him i know were there are 2 old cats one has a grader with it. He was interested in them. I hauled scrap from the place that has them and they want to sell them but would like me to buy them to resale. I thought there was 2 a RD6 and a 30 with grader but after going back and asking there is another 40 i havent saw yet. I need to do some figuring and find out if there is any money to be made on my part . The 30 and 40 would be not be hard to move but the RD6 would be .

pictures help

catman13 said:

pictures help

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I will but i cant look until Deer season is over.

I wish i would have taken pictures of this place back when i started on it . The farther had passed away and the son moved back to the farm. The family owned alot of land that was all in one spot. The family was all good builders and had a junk yard at every farm to salvage parts to build stuff. I was called to clean up alot of stuff at this farm i was there almost a year hauling and they saved some stuff. One of the other farms when the Dad died they had a auction . I went but only had $150.00 on me thinking i wouldnt get any thing cheap any way. I was a big sell the bigger equipment combines, graintruck , emplements covered about a 3 acre plot. I bought more than half of every thing . They got to something i realy didnt think about buying so i went to get a hotdog and the auctioner was shouting were did Doug go. My bid was relayed back to him and i bought every thing inside a small building. I felt bad about buying stuff cheap but the family was very happy knowing i would clean every thing up .

I forgot to add say this but i had $150.00 on me at that auction and i didnt spend it all my total came to just over $140.00.

Cannot hardly buy lunch at auctions these days for under a 100.

I took some stuff to a consignment auction early this summer. We and i have alot of stuff on this farm and i thought great if i can get rid of some stuff through this auction and get a little something for it but it hasnt been good . A table saw didnt sell they have ran it through several sells they have one every month. I was realy thinking about having a auction but i may be better scraping the metal stuff and hauling the rest to the trash place.

I went to a local auction about 5 years ago where a steel fabricator had gone bankrupt. He had a big factory unit with an open yard area out the back, probably about 100 sq metres.
The back yard was where they threw everything that wasn't being used - scrap steel sections, all types of equipment. The auction house declined to even sort it or catalogue it, it was just a jungle!
The auctioneer stood at the back door of the factory unit and pointed to the yard area and said, "We're auctioning everything in this yard area, as one lot! You have to clean it all up, and take it all away!

Every other bidder was leery of bidding, and the cleanup work involved, you couldn't even see what was there properly, stuff piled on top of heaps of other stuff. I was the winning bidder at $90.
I got in there and found a shipping container ramp ($1000), a set of forklift slippers ($300), a big old John Heine punch and shear machine ($500), close on 5 tonnes of very useful steel offcuts - angle iron, pipe, RHS, channel steel, workshop tables, pressed channel chassis extensions - several steel racks - a metre diameter 3 phase exhaust fan, and a host of other useful items that I can't even recall in total.
I reckon I got at least $5000 worth of equipment, machines, and steel - and I had it all cleaned up and loaded on my truck, in one afternoon! They had a forklift there that got worked hard, loading everything on!

Sometimes you get great deals at auctions. I bought 6 4" channel and 2 large 8" channel steel saw horses for $7.50 ea. at a pipe fab shop closing. They had plywood on top selling smaller items. It was near the end of the auction but I couldn't believe I was the winning bidder. Of course I took all of them and was pleasantly surprised the 2 big ones were included for the same price.

Bdiesel_ said:

I may have the opportunity to get two old dozers, I am going to find out what the situation is on them to see if they are salvageable. The 9 looks as if it was driven in and parked judging by the material in front of the blade. Am I crazy for wanting to put them to work or should I leave them alone? Everything looks to be there when I looked them over. I attached two photos.

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Don't let a little bit of rust scare you off. These old Cats are becoming a rare breed here in North America. Many are sought after and shipped over to Africa where they are put back to work. This demand has driven the price up for these old machines dramatically. Very rarely can u pull a '70s era D7 or D8 out of the bush for less than $20K today. I think in Canadian dollars, but correct me if I'm wrong. Anyways, to get this thread back on track, yes it's gonna take some resources to get those machines back up and running and doing work. I've done it myself, and I started with nothing... wasn't easy though, but worth it.

Value on those old dozers equates to what percentage of undercarriage is left if the machine runs and moves. If it doesn't run and move on its own, it is worth what it weighs.

I just sold my old low horse 46a for 15k with a weak final drive and a well worn undercarriage. I had about 20 calls on it. I’ll miss it. I’ve had it for almost 40 years. At least its going to a good home. I also sold my old #12 wristbuster. It went to the same place

I'm guessing those were Canadian dollars?