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Subsistence Bulldozer Pond Excavation in Africa

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
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64
Location
Africa
Cat D7G  Under Repair by Ponds.png Grounded Dozer and Unfinished Pond.JPG Warthog Mascot.jpg D7G Cat Dozeer with New LGP Tracks.JPG Got a few pictures to share about a very small scale pond digging project that has been inching along over the years, as I endeavored to revive three ancient Cat LGP tractors, without winding up in the poor-house from getting nickel and dimed to death in the process. Of my collection of old Cat Dozers, the D7G LGP has the smoothest running engine, and thus was the one I chose to get shod with brand new LGP tracks that were very recently installed

Couple of years back, my D4D tracor started off excavating a few ponds measuring about 100 meters by 40 meters, but then track problems grounded the D4D, which has now become another of those when-I-can-get-around-to-it projects, whose engine and hydraulics are only run once in a while to keep rust at bay. With the D7G ready for battle with its new tracks, I took her down to the swamp, to dig smaller ponds than before, and then to complete the larger ponds before anything mechanical went wrong with this decades old tractor.

Well I got as far as digging ten small ponds each about 40 feet square, before the usual gremlins started to appear, annoyingly before I could go back and do any grading, and just hours short of finishing up a particularly useful one of the larger ponds. Enclosed are some pictures of the rather hurried work done out here in the African sticks, as well as a couple of shots showing the surgeons at work replacing chewed PTO gears, whose purchase set me back a good chunk of change.

The rains are here early this year, so likely the D7G LGP will head home, where it will stay until the dry season rolls around. The D7G can be seen in the top aerial photograph, to the lower right of the shot.
 
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Marsh Mutt

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Joined
Aug 9, 2015
Messages
64
Location
Africa
Palm Tree Plot Horizon.jpg One Hour Excavation Pond.JPG Chewed PTO Gear.JPG D7G Front View with new Tracks.JPG The horror. The horror. The horror.

The aerial shots were taken with a small RC helicopter, the UDI 13A.. I click on the video recorder when it takes off, and then extract still photos when I play back the footage on my laptop. This little helicopter is very resistant to crash damage, which is good, considering my Kamikaze RC piloting skills.
 
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CatToy

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Nov 2, 2014
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247
Location
SE Tn
Really cool pictures. Are the ponds for irrigation?

Having worked on equipment inside a clean air conditioned shop trying to keep dirt out of the systems that were open which was hard to do, I cannot imagine working on equipment in your location.
 

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
Messages
64
Location
Africa
Hello Cat Toy, the ponds will be used to raise African clarias catfish, which, due to their ability to breathe air, thrive when crowded in smaller ponds such as the ones I managed to complete before this not-so-trusty D7G started to show its age again. Each pond will hold about a thousand catfish from six-week old fingerling size, until a couple of pounds weight is attained by six months of age, when the harvest is sold live to buyers from the local area who show up in minivans stacked with sacking-covered wide bowls.

I imagine that sterile, climate-controlled, high-tech workshop conditions probably exist in the cities here, but with my modest means, and my rural location, shade tree mechanics have always been my go-to option for cars and bulldozers alike. That said, it is likely at least a few of the breakdowns that afflicted my ancient Cat dozers over the years, could be traced to workshop procedures not followed to the letter, the use of substandard Chinese-made parts, or the presence of sand in parts of the drive train intended by design to stay clean.

The transmission of this D7G was literally bagged up in dismantled pieces when I bought the tractor a few years back, and I watched with considerable skepticism as the entire transmission was assembled on the concrete floor of my car's garage, by fellas like the ones in the above picture, using very basic tools and equipment. Knock on wood that transmission has worked flawlessly every since it was assembled for the first time, and with some more luck, the PTO failure will not have damaged the transmission, when we get to test the tractor early next week.
 

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
Messages
64
Location
Africa
With the high temperatures and humidity here, Old Dirt, these mechanics would probably work in sandals, and with no head or hand protection, despite the obvious risks. Among heavy equipment mechanics here, injuries do occur with regularity, and bearing that in mind I stay well clear when they are working on recoil springs and such.
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Oldirt, you must have missed the other pictures with no sandals at all!

One has to give lots of credit to anyone who can manage to keep things running under those conditions!

That last picture of the dozer looks like someone just finished painting it nice looking old machine!

What are those other plants off to the side of the ponds?
 

Birken Vogt

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Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I work by myself off in the sticks a lot.

When jobs go sideways and turn into something unexpected and difficult, a lot of times I feel like I am the guys in these pictures.

Except they don't have the luxury of going back to the office and ordering some new parts that will come in a day or two.

I tell my customer, we can come back another day with a [bigger/better/new/whatever] or we can do this the Africa way. Whatever it takes.

A lot of times I end up tired and worn out, but at least the job got done the same day. Pictures like these motivate me to find new ways to get it done.
 

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
Messages
64
Location
Africa
KS Hansen I forgot to mention that those trees in lines to the left of the ponds are 3-year old oil palm trees, standing about 8-foot tall on average now. Those trees should be ready for first harvest of the palm fruit in about a year from now. There are few hundred trees on this piece of land leased from the government that I have farmed for the past few years.

On the opposite shore of the same river lies a sprawling Chinese-owned oil-palm tree plantation that covers many square miles, dwarfing my modest enterprise by several orders of magnitude. Won't be long before much of Africa becomes a part of Greater China, going by the rate at which Chinese mega-investment is pouring into Africa. It remains to be seen what the long-term picture will be with this changing landscape. For now at least, the Chinese are hiring lots of locals to work in their various enterprises, which is always a positive thing.

Decided to paint the old tractor in olive drab to give it a vaguely military look, which I hope may help keep unwelcome guests bearing hand tools at bay when the tractor has to be parked down by the swamp. For an added measure of security I do have both day and night guards watching over my precious D7G LGP, until it is running again and ready for the mile-long slow trek back to the relative safety of my yard at home.

@Birken Vogt I agree that the resourcefulness of mechanics in Africa's rural areas enables field repairs to be completed under the most difficult of circumstances, and using the very bare minimum in terms of tools and equipment. Compared to the rates charged per hour by mechanics in the industrialized West, Africa's village mechanics' work for very reasonable rates that must ALWAYS be haggled over and whittled down at least a bit, to avoid getting over-charged for the job.
 

Scrub Puller

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Mar 29, 2009
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3,481
Location
Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . . .
Guday Marsh Mutt. You got me . . . I'm full of questions.

It looks like you could be in Uganda or some such? What are the trees in the plantation? Why is it necessary to make multiple small dams? Do they fill with seepage or cross country flow across the plantation? What is the go with the PTO and what does it drive . . . the parts and terminology are unfamiliar.

All the best with it and Cheers.
 

JPV

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Aug 20, 2015
Messages
756
Location
S.W. Washington
Loving this thread, thanks for sharing! Makes me realize how easy I have it compared to these guys, imagine what they could do with a fully equiped service truck like the one I drive.
 

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
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64
Location
Africa
Hello Scrub Puller, the trees in that small plantation are young palm trees just starting to take off in growth. The red fruit from these trees will be harvested for the first time by next year, and processed into cooking oil, for local consumption. The multiple dams seen in the aerial pictures are necessary to prevent erosion from filling those small individual ponds with sand, during the rainy season just starting up here now. I opted to go with smaller ponds measuring on average 40 feet by 40 feet, because I wanted to be sure at least a few ponds would be completed by the time any problems surfaced with the D7G, given its advanced age.

To respond to your question about the PTO, I had to check my parts manual for the D7G, and there I found that the term "PTO" worked its way into the vocabulary of local mechanics, but is NOT the name given to those four gear cog-wheels that lie aft of the torque converter. On page 118 of my Cat D7G Parts Manual, I now see that the gears known here as PTO components here, are in fact elements of the torque converter, bearing names like the "Flange Assembly" ( Part Number IT421), the 64-tooth gear (Part Number IT 436).

I was also somewhat baffled by the reference to a PTO, since that term has always been used to describe the Power Take Off prop shaft connection that most agricultural farm tractors have, to facilitate the use of rotating implements like Bush Hog mowers and such. Shade tree mechanics have over generations here created their own lexicon of names for car and machinery parts, that would require a translator in order to be recognized by mechanics working stateside or in Europe.
 

Marsh Mutt

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Aug 9, 2015
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64
Location
Africa
The Chinese-owned industrial scale oil palm plantation is seen stretching out to the horizon in the top third of this aerial photo I took with the RC helicopter at dawn today, before the wind picked up. Another shot shows my older catfish ponds that were mostly excavated by the D4D LGP, before its worn tracks and steering problems became too pronounced. Those old ponds turned out to be way too shallow, leading to many of them being taken over by vegetation, as is visible in the picture.

Next dry season I hope to pump the water out those weed-choked ponds, and clean up with the D7G, then perhaps excavate another foot or so of depth. The small forested tributaries of the river that flows through here make it an ideal location for catfish pond excavation, but with just the one bulldozer working and up to the task, and me being too cheap to hire a 'dozer operator, this is a long term endeavor for sure.

Chinese Oil Palm Plantation in Africa.jpg Overgrown Old Catfish Ponds Needing Cleanout.jpg Ministry of Maritime Affairs Office.jpg Rush Hour on the River.jpg
 

Graham1

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Mar 31, 2012
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300
Location
Hampshire, UK
Great thread. Thanks for posting. Real pioneer stuff out in the bush. I like to do my own thing, but that is way to extreme. I don't envy you.
As has been said, always astounding what people can achieve in the way of repairs with basic tools and in difficult conditions.
Graham
 

kshansen

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Central New York, USA
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Just for fun I have been doing some looking on SIS and did find that at least some had what even Cat referred to as a PTO. It shows in the section on the engine but is not real clear on where it is mounted. But this does not look like what I'm seeing in the pictures, this one appears to have straight cut gears, or are those the gears off to the left in my picture?

Cat does like to have many options for machines and is one of the reasons when people are asking for help it is important to supply full serial numbers! I know marsh mutt was not looking for information so this is not aimed at him.
pto.png
 

Marsh Mutt

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Africa
I sure appreciate your looking up these part numbers, KYFarmer, because I am giving some serious thought to maybe purchasing a spare set of these four gears even after this repair is complete, since apparently the D7G does have a reputation for wearing out those gears faster than one would expect. When the mechanics show up tomorrow to finish the job and test the D7G, I intend to photograph the damaged gears, and post those pictures here.

The part numbers I see in my parts book for those gears are different from the ones you have been kind enough to include in the above post, and so I will need to take care to get those numbers right, for when I get around to placing orders for any spares.
 

kshansen

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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I sure appreciate your looking up these part numbers, KYFarmer, because I am giving some serious thought to maybe purchasing a spare set of these four gears even after this repair is complete, since apparently the D7G does have a reputation for wearing out those gears faster than one would expect. When the mechanics show up tomorrow to finish the job and test the D7G, I intend to photograph the damaged gears, and post those pictures here.

The part numbers I see in my parts book for those gears are different from the ones you have been kind enough to include in the above post, and so I will need to take care to get those numbers right, for when I get around to placing orders for any spares.
If you are referring to my post above with the picture out of the parts book DO NOT assume they are the right ones for your machine! I only posted the picture to show that there was in fact a PTO arrangement used on some D7 dozers.

If you can post the Serial Number of your machine and maybe any part numbers you can find on the damaged gears you took out I could see if I can come up with better and more accurate information. Like I said Cat does like to make many different options on some machines and one can get into all kinds of trouble thinking "All Cats are the Same"
 
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