Cat 951-C in my sights

Be really careful with that set up, there is always a potential to send electricity back down the neutral where circuit breakers don't break that link. The generator auto-swap panels that feed during power failures break that side too and block chances of stray currents getting to the line crews working to fix our problems. I would seriously look into splitting out that system with a generator specific load panel that breaks the circuits during power fails.

I've really been debating on setting up my generator to run my full panel as well. I know the power company can be very tender about switching panels. Around here, I'm pretty sure you have to report to them if you run a transfer switch.

I've seen setups that are in essence what you have there, nitelite. It is a four-space panel that has a pair of breakers across from each other with a tie bar between. One breaker hooks to the main feed and the other to the generator. The buss hooks to the breaker panel input. Not much if a system, but it's certified.

Fortunately for us, I've had my generator at the ready with 20 gallons of gas (non-ethanol) and have not had to use it once!

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Nitelite,

Good thread. I am enjoying reading about your adventures. Keep up the good work. I am sitting here on my 953 watching a dump truck load of debris burn on whats is a wonderful day to be outside burning on the first nice clear spring day here in Georgia.



I never new concrete siding could burn but it will. Hardy plank ant that hardy.

Tomorrow's plan. Out of bed early in the morning, (9:00 ish). Hook up my F250 - 7.3 liter diesel to my 16' flatbed trailer, already loaded with about 4 ton of scrap iron. The load consist of old pads, old track hardware, wore out rollers, some copper, aluminum, brass and other old assorted metal. The scrap yard is about a eight mile drive. The load should fetch in the neighborhood or better than $1000.00 depending on the metals price of the day.

From the scrap yard I will drive 15 more miles to Co-Op. There I will fill the diesel transfer tank in the back of my pickup truck with 105 gallon of off road diesel. The 951C track loader needs fuel. it is at 40% full. The D4E dozer is 80% full. I need to top them off. The Massey Ferguson tractor needs ten gallon of diesel. The McCormick tractor with front loader and rear commercial grader box needs 15 gallon of diesel. The F600 dump truck needs 25 gallon of gasoline. While I am out and about I will fill both diesel tanks on the F250, about 50 gallons, and fill two 5 gallon cans with non ethanol gasoline for the emergency generator. The Gravely lawn mower is going to need 10 gallon of gasoline. The E-150 work van holds 36 gallon of gasoline and the wife's Honda CRV is almost empty, another 15 gallon of gasoline. My M151-A1 Vietnam era Army Jeep needs 11 gallon of gas for the upcoming Memorial day parade. The pontoon boat and the bass boat will just have to wait! Thank God, I just had the 500 gallon propane tank filled for heat!


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Mine is a feeble fleet indeed. It is paid for and I owe nobody, nor do I work for anyone. It has taken a lifetime.

1978 - 951C fair condition but getting better. It takes time and $.
1978 - D4E excellent condition on 100% SALT undercarriage.
1971 - F600 dump truck, after much work it is in very good condition, 34,000 miles.
1989 - F250 4x4 diesel/w transfer diesel tank. Bought it new and it now has 71,000 miles on it, always kept inside, like new.
1988 - E150 Ford work van, bought new, now has 86,000 miles. Excellent condition.
1965 - Massey Ferguson commercial/w shuttle, 1965 model, fine tractor, real work horse, owned it more than 30 years.
2009 - McCormick 4x4 AG tractor/w shuttle, front end loader and rear commercial grader box. Fine farm and finish machine.
M151-A1 Vietnam era army jeep, 1963, it will do 65 mph all day long and is a rare bird. Proud to own it!

The jeep and dump truck run free lifetime antique tags. The F250 is eligible for antique tags but I run free disabled veteran tags on it as well as the E150 van and my wife's 2004 Honda CRV.

I am a 1949 model/w untold mileage and thankful to still be fooling around with old iron.

Nitelite you sure don't see many of those M151-A1 Jeeps around I would have though that would all be locked up for being man killers

Stinkycat, you are right on the money with your comment!

During my stent in the army 1967-1970 I was actually assigned two separate M151-A1 Jeeps. Yes, the vehicle will roll over easily at highway speeds above 45 mph in a curve. Anyone in service back then who was licensed to drive the, (man killer), had to go through a period of instruction to safely negotiate curves. This jeep had four wheel suspension and the rear wheels would roll in on a curve much like the older VW beetle. A lot of guys still got hurt.

After the Vietnam war was over the DoD decided that the MUTT (Military Utility Tactical Truck) was too unsafe to sell to the general public as was the M38 WWII / Korea era jeeps were. As a result, systematically, and by vin numbers, the MUTTs were each cut into four pieces and destroyed. My jeep is a uncut survivor, and that is a story within itself. I know there is one in the museum at Fort Campbell KY and one on display at the Yorktown exhibit at Charleston SC. There are more I am sure.

The M151 contract was won by Ford. Vertical grill bars were patented by Jeep and therefore could not be used so the Ford Motor Co. used horizontal grill bars instead, that is the quick way to identify and distinguish them as the Vietnam era jeep and not the WWII / Korea era. Ford also authorized American General to build the MUTT in order to keep up with wartime demand.

Nitelite, I have a "Back up Unit" myself in an old banger of a Willys Jeep thing, Its nothing to fancy just an M38A1, it comes with no road duty just needing Insurance cover at minimal cost, I have stuffed fat tyres onto it and take my garden rubbish to the dump with it, sometimes I use it to go to local jobs, I have had it some years now it was worth now't once but its starting to become a good chariot to have now, the M38A1 has the claim to making the top coin in a car auction paid for a jeep, when someone thought it was something special and managed to get carried away with the bidding on a simple low value Jeep.

tctractors

tc, I bought a M38A1 in 1971 and sold it in 1976. I gave $1200.00 US for it and I sold it for a tidy sum more because the buyer was really in heat for the old jeep. The M38s are getting on up in their years and are hard to find in good shape now. A good one demands a premium.

Today I got seven hours seat time in the old 951C. This is the first opportunity to actually work the machine since I bought it. I ran it wide open throttle for the entire period from noon until dark thirty. It does have a lot of blow by and some blue smoke from the exhaust. It was too dark to see if it was still slobbering when I quit, but I looked at mid day and I found no evidence of slobbering. I really pushed and worked the old girl hard digging white oak 30 inch stumps in hard clay beside my driveway. I certainly found the machines limits. It will spin its tracks in first but not in second or third gears, is that about right for that machine? The engine never missed a lick and never ran hot. Starts good on 30 seconds glow when cold and firing right up when the engine is warm and restarted. I will check the oil in the morning to see how much it used. I will do the engine overhaul when I get my road work done. My wife said that she saw the smoke and thought that there was a forest fire up on the hill where I was working.

I need to cut and re ditch 1,000 feet of existing driveway. The ditching is in soft yellow rock. The loader does a better job digging the ditch than the dozer. The dozer, working with the blade tilted, the blade just wants to slide along on top of the rock. Using the loader and working at about a 30 angle to the road I can dig through the rock. After the ditching is done I will finish and clean up with the dozer. I also have to install two culverts with the loader in the same yellow rock. the rock is fairly soft until it is exposed to the sun and then it gets pretty hard to penetrate.

I did have a left track chain slip a tooth on the sprocket a couple of times. It happened when I was backing up while braking the right track in a hard turn. The tracks are running about as tight as you would run a dozer tracks but not as tight as most people run a crawler/loader. In the morning before I start I will give them a shot of grease.

When I get the dirt work on the road done I will gravel it with limestone. I have two stockpiles, about 800 ton total. One pile is crusher run and the other is about two inch rock. I will need about 200 ton to re gravel the driveway and parking area. Then I have to relocate the remaining stockpiles to a new location. Each load will be loaded with the 951C and will be hauled about 1 mile with my old 1971 F600. I'll respect the age of the old Ford and load about 7 ton per load. The gravel is a gift from a neighbor who is selling his place and no longer will have a need for the stockpiles.

I think I'll overhaul the loader engine before I clean out my lake. I intend to drain the lake in May and start the mucking in mid July. As it has a solid rock bottom under the all that muck I will start on one side and work my way in with the loader and dump truck. The last cleanout was done in 1982 and I hired a owner/operator to do the job. The guy used a cat track loader about the same size as my 951 and a chevy single axel dump truck. The rate back then was 35.00 per hour for the loader including the owner/operator with a 1 day minimum. It took him a little over I week to complete the cleanout, working from dawn to dusk.

That first cleanout was done when the lake was eight years old and that was thirty two years ago. This is going to be only the second cleanout. I should find four times the muck than was removed before. The silt is inevitable because I have a moving stream dammed up, a creek! I had it built in 1974 by the same guy that did the first cleanout. I doubt that you would be allowed to put a dam across a creek nowdays, mine is grandfathered in and shown on all maps of the area.

Man, how time flies!

The lake was built using a Cat D5 direct drive dozer w/ROPS. He charged me the going rate of $26.00 per hour. Just before the cleanout, eight years later, the owner/operator bought a new D5 with a cab on it and it was power shift. He then charged $35.00 per hour for that machine. For the new power shift Cat he paid $47,000. He liked the D5 because of the weight limits on all of the local bridges. He pulled his iron with an old 1950s Mack single axel tractor and used a dove tail lowboy. He was uneducated, honest, his word was his bond, and he made a good living for a family of four until he died in the late 1990s. He was a good friend for a lot of years and his name was Eugene Campbell.

Watching him work so skillfully and the aroma of fresh dug earth always amazed me, and that is the reason for my lifelong dream of owning and operating a bull dozer.

That's a good read Nitelite. Reminds me of the mid-eighties when dad hired a owner operator who had a 951C and a D5 (much like you!) to clear off some property dad and mom had bought to build a house on. The fellow he hired was around $40/hour. He cut several ditches around the property and did a lot of clearing and brush piling. He used the 951 and never brought the D5. He worked for about a week and he'd leave his lowbow in the front field of the property. He drove an old brown chevy dually flatbed that had his fuel tank, compressor, toolboxes, etc for servicing the equipment. I remember it had an amber strobe light on top of it. He used to eat breakfast every morning at a little cafe in town that we'd pass on the way to school - I knew it was him because his truck was always parked right outside. When he worked that week at our place, he'd always have a toothpick in his mouth. Ha, I don't know why I remember things like that.

I also remember after a full day of operating the machine, he'd leave in his truck and the dozer would be parked in a random spot hidden from the road. Most each day, the fam would ride over and we'd inspect how things had changed. My brother and I would always jump on the machine. It was usually still warm. I vividly remember that smell of fresh earth and grease/fuel. Nothing like it! I was hooked. It only took 30 years to make our dream a reality.

Nitelite be carefull on those chains slipping on the sprockets Ive seen that get teeth on the final drive gears.
enjoy reading your thread

Not a good day at the office! Not complaining though, it is what it is!

I checked all fluids on the 951-C loader this morning and did a walk around. I pumped grease in the left track but the right would not take grease. I think the zerk is stopped up and I will deal with it later. Neither track chain looked that loose, about 3” sag measured between the idler and top roller.
I walked the loader ½ mile to my neighbor’s place where I dug six stumps where he had cut the tree off even with the ground after the ice storm broke them up two weeks ago. That was three hours of hard digging to get those stumps out and then I filled the holes with a tandem load of top soil.


When I got finished with his job I walked the loader back to my place to continue where I left off yesterday evening, ditching the upper side of the 1000 ft. driveway. About two hours into it my left track jumped off of the rear sprocket! It is completely off of the sprocket and top idler. The chain is still on the front idler and the front three bottom rollers are still on. The chain is half way off of the next to last, rearward, bottom roller and all the way off of the 5th, ( last ) roller.


My plan for tomorrow. First, I intend to carefully remove the pressure at the track adjuster zerk and then see if I can use the D4-E dozer to push the front idler back. The loader bucket is still loaded with dirt so I will be able to lift the bucket of dirt to put the loader on its toes raising the rear end. Next I will block under the draw bar and then push down with the bucket to lift the entire machine off the ground. Then using the AG tractor front end loader, long pry bars, a come along, and the Cat D4, I should be able to work the chain back on, tighten the track adjuster, and walk the machine 1/4 mile back to the shop where I can inspect everything. I know the sprockets are worn, I just wasn't ready yet.


Does anyone have a better method of getting the track back on? Am I going about the job the right way or is there a better way? Any comments and ideas will be welcome.


I may, at this time need to do a pin and bushing turn and replace the sprockets. What are the pros and cons of p&b turn vs new chains? My chains are not SALT and they have never been turned. I will take Nige’s advice and call Caterpillar for a Cat undercarriage measurement and assessment.


How much trouble is it to do, and how do you go about replacing the sprockets? Does anyone have a good source for the sprockets. I will try Off Road Equipment first to see if they have them.


I have heard that if you want to make God laugh, tell him what you are going to do tomorrow!

Nite your plan is right on but for one thing AND DONT TAKE THIS WRONG but with your ticker don't try this by yourself even someone in good health needs a extra set of eyes and hands putting a track on as when your on one piece of equipment you cant see or pry when needed, not saying it cant be done it just makes it allot easier. you take care

HATCHEQUIP said:

Nite your plan is right on but for one thing AND DONT TAKE THIS WRONG but with your ticker don't try this by yourself even someone in good health needs a extra set of eyes and hands putting a track on as when your on one piece of equipment you cant see or pry when needed, not saying it cant be done it just makes it allot easier. you take care

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I'll try to enlist some help. Your saying that my plan is workable with your experience means a lot and instills a lot of confidence in me. Thanks for your quick reply!

After thinking on it I will probably use the loader bucket and a log to push the idler back in instead of the D4. I think using the D4 would tend to push the loader backwards and put the chain in a worse position.

Nitelite, before you get all rev'ed up on your track off issue, count the amount of track links in the chain, as every other tooth seems to be holding dirt? (non hunting tooth) so it possibly has had a link chopped out, on your track fitting thing I find it best to pull out the track, split it open then pop it back on as I dont like to be mucking about plus its easier by myself, the sprocket jumping thing can be a knackered recoil spring, did you see my little shovel repair in shop talk?

tctractors

Judging the amount of snake to the chain that is off, pin and bushing turn will help only slightly. My Allis has the same issue where the rail will snake severely, some of that is due to bushing/pin wear but the rest is from bushing to next link eye wear where the two combined will allow the rail to roll off. I agree with tctractors to inspect the recoil springs, then I would consider replacing the rails and sprockets.

TC I think he said some where that its got dry chains, probably have to drive a pin to break track. and with those sprockets worn he could very possibly have a knackered "that's yalls word aint it " track link like your saying.

Hatchequip, if Nitelite was about a 100 miles away (or less) I would pop and fit that chain on for him in the dark, so in the morning he would think the "Fairys" had done it, I am glad you have started to talk normal (like me) and after a carefull study of your work posting on those Cranes, even with the "Ketchup" bottle oil can, those innards on the Navvies are pigs to work on and best left to those that like em' on Nitelites chain count its just to see if a link has already been removed, this would explain the muck in the sprocket tooth, as removing a link often causes the sprocket to loose its "Hunting Tooth" ability.
tctractors.

p.s. I thought Nitelite was a poor Begger like me??? but it turns out he is up there with Prince Charles with all his toys.

This took me four hours on soft soil to rehang;


These took me all day to remove: