Some old TD-18 pics from my Army days.

[Buckethead]

Nice pics Thank You!

Ron, I'm curious about the mine spoon. I guess that's for putting land mines in?

 

[RonG]

Yes,that's it.It works just about as you would imagine it to work.You can see that it has runners on it to help control the depth.Since the dozer had no down pressure other than the weight of the blade it it worked pretty good.Ron G

 

[td25c]

Those are neet pictures RonG.That looks like a lacrosse lowboy,maybe 9 or 10 foot wide.I have a 25 ton lacrosse lowboy.Fore some reason they did not have A "beavertail" on the back of the lacrosse trailers.Mine has one but it was added on.I noticed the long ramps in the picture.I bet they were heavy.Thanks for all the pictures.

 

[RonG]

The ramps were not too heavy,they had wood inserts and nice handles to horse them around.If you look at my older pics on the first page you can see there is a beavertail of sorts at the end of the trailer and there are lips all the way around the trailer to engage the ramps so you could load in any direction.I cannot remember the mfg of the trailer but Freuhauf comes to mind.It could very well be something else though.
I am pleased that others can enjoy the pics,I still have pleasant memories of that time in my life.That was my vocation for the rest of my days............well......not yet.)Ron G

 

[RonG]

How I miss that messhall coffee)

Here are a few more from that same site,I will throw in another motorpool pic to round out the five pics allowed per post.
I honestly cannot remember what led up to the snarl on the rear of my dozer.I notice that I am hooked up to the front CCU so the cable must have snapped at some point that made it too short to reconnect using the rear CCU.Sometimes it is rather convenient to forget certain events if there might be some blame involved although I might not have been the operator at the time..Ron G

 

[Lashlander]

Great pictures Ron. People need to realize this was probably the height of the cold war. A lot of tension on both sides of the fence. I would imagine you were watched like a hawk when you got close to the border. By both sides!
There sure seems to be a lot of Chiefs standing around watching you work. One of my pet peeves. Anyway great pictures. Back when a guy had to have some talent too.:thumbsup

 

[RonG]

Thanks for the favorable comments.On the weekends I used to fly with the border patrol.Their Heliport was right next to our motorpool and if I was in uniform and there was no brass flying with them that day then I was welcomed to go along with them.I have many pics of the plowed strip and the fence and guard towers.As you can imagine even carrying a camera was not allowed but those pilots knew when to look the other way..Ron G

 

[Lashlander]

Hey Ron, while you were out and about on maneuvers did you ever dig up any unexploded ordinance that was left from WWII? Also, and this maybe a stupid question but you showed a pic of the mine spoon. Did they maintain mine fields on the borders at that time? Were there any left from the war?

 

[Wolf]

Those are really cool pictures. The experiences you had are amazing. They are experiences that you will remember for a lifetime. The iron is really cool and the circumstances amazing. Were they all taken at the East German border? Seems we flattened the place and then built it up anew for them, schools, sportplatzes and all.

Thanks for posting these unique photos. Exactly what year were they taken? '46, '47 or so?

How were you received by the locals?

 

[King of Obsolete]

still like your pictures after seeing a couple times a year.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[RonG]

The time frame was early '60s.The war had been over for about 15 years by then and most of the dangerous explosives had been located and disposed of.
The remnants that I saw mostly was damaged buildings from the bombs and it was thought provoking to be sure.It seemed as though some of the debris was being preserved to remind us of the sacrifices that would need to be made should they choose that solution again.
I did not find anything outside of the firing range that could surprise me but our demo guys did get called out occasionally to dispose of some "artifacts" of the war.
I had heard that the plowed strip was mined and have no reason to believe that it wasn't but they would have to work around the mines to keep the soil turned and it looked to me like it was pretty well maintained.The object of fresh soil was to track the footprints I imagine but of course they needed the open space for the guard towers to be effective.
The roads that I built would occasionally snake right up to the plowed strip so that the guards could have a peek from their Jeep without dismounting.
We were pretty well received by the locals and went out of our way to ensure that we were welcome as the policy was always to respect and remember that we were guests of the country that we were in.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Moving to a new job.

Here are some pics of the lowbed moving the dozer to a jobsite.Not exciting but pleasant to look at for me since I was there although I am not sure in what capacity.As I had mentioned before I drove the lowbed for quite some time before my tour was up to break in a new operator so I might have been there first,who knows?That was the third platoons lowbed and Spec4 Warchocki was the operator on the machine.Enjoy!! Ron G

 

[Lashlander]

Great pictures Ron, I'm sure those old girls had air conditioning and air ride seats! Only the best for the troops. LOL. I am curious about the transmissions? Main and a Brownie maybe? Top speed? I remember you posting pictures of them on a highway changing a tire. I think?

 

[RonG]

They were 5 speeds with a transfer case or at least a low range with a short lever between the seats more or less.It shifted pretty good,I used to use it to split the main box under way.Technically the front axle was controlled by a sprag unit that detected when there was a speed differential between the rear wheels and the front axle and then powered the front axle for traction but I have forgotten the percentage of differential that caused that to happen.
I will be posting the tire pics again near the end of the pics,I still have a few more to go.
All of our vehicles had canvas cabs and the only heater the 5 ton had was that big Continental puffing away up front there.LOL.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Pics of the same jobsite that we were unloading at.

The next couple of picture sets will be here.I hope to avoid duplication but I didn't start scanning at the beginning of my negative book so it is hard to put a timeline on some of these things.I think that I will include some engineer things such as bridgebuilding etc that could be interesting even though there isn't a dozer in every pic.
I met a gentleman on another board with a similar background who has started posting his collection and they are great pics,better quality than mine and would be a great resource here and I will try to convince him that we would benefit more from them than where he has them now but it is a very unfriendly site with nag screens every time you click on something trying to get you to spend money which I am fresh out of.His TOD was in Germany as well but a few years later than mine and we share a lot of stories between us.That second pic might have been me on the dozer but it was not my dozer,it was probably Warchoki's machine because he is in the rest of this set of pics.He was the third platoon operator.Ron G

 

[Squizzy246B]

Ron, thanks for the great pics. I really enjoy this thread.

 

[steam]

what was the best dozer for pushing dirt at the time the photos was taken and push the most the old D7 or the TD18.

David

 

[RonG]

The TD-18 would push more dirt than the D-7 push for push but the D-7 would be available for work with less "interuptions"over the life of the machine.Ron G

 

[DarrylMueller]

Ron you have a real nice way of saying things!

 

[RonG]

LOL,gotta be careful here.I have some friends over on the Redpower board too Darryl.