Cable Control Blades

[micbare]

What year did Caterpillar and International Harvester stop selling
dozers with cable control blades? Did Komatsu ever sell a tractor in the USA
with a cable control unit? rofessor

 

[Northart]

Cable Controls Last Built ?

Looks like 1973 in the CPH (Caterpillar Performance Handbook) , Edition #3 , for the D8H, D7F,D6C , Cable Control machines. 1974 just listed Hydraulic Controls .

IH still had the TD -24, TD-20, TD-15 listed in 1959 for Cable Controls. Most likely later.

Lot of old Cable Controlled Machines still in Operation today .

 

[hardtail]

Whike not the norm I recall seeing a TD20B with cable blade so your into the mid sixties with cornbrand..........

 

[micbare]

another ?

Also I have seen some cable control units mounted on the front of the
machines. how many options were they front mount,rear mounted double drum, or hydraulic?:beatsme

 

[RonG]

Most cable dozers had a front mounted drum to control the blade.If you had a winch on the rear or was pulling a scraper you would still need some means to control the blade.
Sometimes the rear unit had better control than the front unit which is why they were used but the front mounted unit was usually there,just hidden behind the grill.Ron G

 

[Case 580e]

i got a cbel operated d8 dozer that still works everyday i love it

 

[Case 580e]

i have a cat cable dozer that still works everyday

 

[WabcoMan]

Komatsu did manufacture cable controlled bulldozers up umtil 1972 but I'm unsure if any were exported to the USA.
Wabco had the Komatsu agency for the USA when Komatsu was trying to get a foothold in the US market, but I've never come across a cable controlled Komatsu dozer in my travels across the US.
This doesn't mean there wern't any though

There certainly were cable controlled Komatsu's dozers running around this neck of the woods (Australia & New Zealand), mostly D85A-8's, D120A's & D150A'sointhead

 

[John C.]

At one outfit I worked for there were four 14A dozers with double drum rears and one front drum unit. There was a 17A front drum unit there also.

The front drum units worked about twice as fast but gave me fits keeping them adjusted. Only the best operators could push a grade with them. The rear drum units worked just great and as old and little used as they were I did little maintenance to them at all.

I'm sure you could get cable drive Internationals into the mid sixties but after the hydraulics got reliable what was the point. Once in awhile you would see a farm tractor with a front unit and no blade.

Why is the question being asked?

 

[jkossen]

Cable Blade D8

Here is a picture of our 1955 D8 it only has the double drum in the rear. We actually still use this machine on occasion to push scrapers. We will have it at the HCEA show in Bowling Green, OH next week.

 

[surfer-joe]

Had to move away from CCU's in the early eighties as new and good used parts for them became so rare and expensive. Mid seventies was the turning point for Cat as the D8H series was ended and the K's became the norm. I don't know that I ever saw a D9H equipped with a cable blade, did see some equipped with CCU for scraper operation.

 

[Dug Overburden]

Cable blades

I think when hydraulics took over in the late 50's/early 60's very few purchased cable controlled blades. The newest ones I recall seeing around So-Cal were mostly 36A D8H's & 18A & 19A D9's I would say they were 1958/59 models, wish I would have looked at the serial number tags back then. I have a cat crawler tractor attachments brochure form about 1972 & they list cable controled dozers, but I doubt they sold any.

Some of the old timers swore by them & were reluctant to switch. The early hydraulics were slow, especially the ones with the front pto. A couple of old time contractors in San Diego kept there cable machines well into the late 80's/90's (Cameron Brothers & C.W. McGrath Inc) Did not use them everyday, but they sat in thier yards in work ready condition.

I think the last manufacture to use cable was Euclid there is a photo in the book Euclid & Terex Earth-Moving Machines by Eric Orlemann on page 31 dated December 21 1967 with a new Euclid 82-80 (DA) at the Hudson plant.

This is a late 50's/early 60's D8H-36A with cable controled dozer.(Sure wish it had sound)

 

[dozerdave]

Hi Guys,

When hyd. rippers came out it was necessary to have a front end unit on the Cat. I saw a guy trying to work with a dozer cable hooked up single part, believe me nobody is that clever.

 

[Peter Kennedy]

I cut my teeth on a D6 8U It was the best ever to learn on and on the odd ocassion I stoke up a D7 17A cable blade dozer.

I miss the old days !!

Peter Kennedy

 

[catman650]

my dads uncle had a cable dozer a d8 one night the cable hung he grabbed it blade fell and caught 2 fingers in a pulley he pulled out his knife and cut them off wasnt much holdin them anyway dad said every time i touch a cable that story comes to mind , come to think of it dad had 3 fingers gone when i was 18 i worked for my brothers father-in-law he had 6 with a cable pug spreader , made him smile that a young boy knew how to start the pony and what a decompression was for ,

 

[roddyo]

I got two friends still running cable rigs. A D8 about 80 miles from here and a 7E in my county. The 8 was bought to put on a Cutter and clear 640 acres and the 7E is mostly used on a Cutter taking out big fence rows.

Round here the Old Timers say if your going to run a Cutter Blade there ain't but one kind of dozer to put it on. A cable operated one.

Sad thing is, most all of the Old Timers are gone and there's not many jobs for a Cutter anymore.

 

[Bullcat]

I own and run a 66A D9G born with a cable blade on olot of job sites. Works great.

 

[BJP]

I started learning on an old D8 cable blade yrs ago, always seemed to be breaking the cable tho, was happier to go to hydraulics.

 

[diggerop]

These pics were taken in 1968, the hydraulic one was bought new that year to work with the cable ones which I think were G's. Would the hydraulic one be a G or a H? The cable ones were the first dozers that I operated :drinkup

:cool2

 

[kith]

Learned to run a 2u d8 rear unit worn out dozer pushing sand &gravel into piles to be hauled to a sorter later.When I got on something tight I had a hard time getting used to it .