The pony motor is used a lot in many farm and industrial applications in the 40's and through into the 60's it shares the same coolant as the big motor so it can warm up the big engine on cold days it also serves to start the big engine ..
MERCY that 830 sounds almost TOO good! SWEET! If you had the cab, blade and an LeTourneau? cable pan for it, you'd have something that would turn heads like the triple-6! Figured I'd just watch them all again. Hope all is well!
Well that's what they are there for, to give you a fix when you need it...so go right on ahead and help yourself!!! We have a blade for the 830, but no box, a box would be great as that was part of the original package they were using out in Vietnam.
No I would have thought they got rid of them many years ago ,mine came from Germany/Netherlands ,that’s where a few could be found from the USA bases out their. The one I have the owner said that she had seen service in the Vietnam war but not sure?. Just putting clutch back into a 2u D8 today ,then the engine I got running after being stuck for many years ,this old side boom is slowly getting their ,but she has been a real battle for last couple years as it sat outside for about 35 yrs plus ,everything seized up solid.👍
Boy does That bring back some memories! I ran an 830 overseas working stockpiles. It was direct electric start but the pony motor reminds me of the 8H's and 6's and 4's that had them. It had a hookup for a hydraulic pan, not a cable job and it had the tilt cushion blade. They were a bear, also with a straight pipe. Also had 290 Clarks. Same setup but with a Cummins engine. Take it to a tractor pull and mess up peoples minds! Keep on lettin' 'er snort!
You must have been running the newer 830MB the with the electric start and hydraulic box?? We have the tilt cushion blade for this one, but usually leave it off as it's more manoeuvrable if we want to take it out on the road!!
It was. I never ran the pan hooked to it. Just using the blade. I rode in one when I first went in in Kansas but never got the chance from then on. I made up for it after I got out though! OUCH!!
Sounds like a plan to me. I never got to try one out. The closest was an 835 compactor with a straight blade about the size of a 7. It was a b ear and a half for a roller.
The gasoline burning pony motor had another feature,,, The exhaust was routed through the cylinder head of the big diesel so as the pony motor ran and warmed up it preheated the intake air charge for starting the prime mover.,,, a lot more fool proof system than electrically heated glow plugs. many had a compression release so the engine could be cranked to circulate oil and build pressure before the fuel was sent to the combustion chambers to light off. No wonder so many of these are still around.
Yes you are spot on in what you said and that's one big advantage the pony motor has over the direct electric start, being able to spin the main engine over on decompression for a few minutes to get the oil around and some heat in the cylinders before firing up equals a lot less wear on the engine.
Remember many years ago seeing the earth movers starting up in a sand quarry near me using the donkey engines (England) to get the big old diesel engines started.
I bought an old ex-military repainted 830MB from a guy up in Montana to strip out a sand pit years ago. It was in pretty good shape and everything worked well but the tractor with dozer blade and bowl turned out to be a hand full for most guys so I wound up running it mostly myself. It had the old CAT D343 with electric start and I paid the guy I bought it from to put an enclosed cab and glass on it. It moved a lot of hard clay and was quite a slope hugging work horse but you don't see many of them around. I thought it was a pretty good old machine and I never needed a push cat behind it.
+Ramjet74 Nice, ours is the 830M pony start, we have the blade for it, unfortunately no box which would have been a rope operated Curtis Wright, but we haven't been able to find one. We haven't done much hard work with it, but it's nice to hear from someone who has. Are you still in the construction game now, do you have any old gear still?
+Bostonpowercat Under the circumstances I am pretty much out of it nowadays and not because I want to be . The box Gregg Tedford in Montana matched to the tractor I had was also hydraulic and worked quite well. It was 18 yards heaped to overflow and very responsive. He no longer deals in them like his dad but you might be able to contact him about gear or even perhaps the guy who got my scraper. I am told they burnt up the 343 and were considering using an adaptor plate to dump in a Cummins. That was years ago and while I do not know if he still has it you might want to contact Roger Shinn with Ben Shinn Trucking at Eddyville, Iowa. In 2003, I roaded the scraper to him from Mount Ayr, Iowa to a limestone rock quarry near Cincinnati, Iowa. Roger may be able to tell you what happened to it after he and his brother Mike got it.
Thanks for the comment 👍 it's even slightly more unusual as in it's not just a scraper tractor, it was specifically built for the military! Have a look at this blog article on our website for a bit more information if your interested bostonpowercat.com/blog/caterpillar-830m Cheers
Thanks for you kind words, much appreciated:-) If you want to see the outcome of someone backing over the golf check out one of our videos of a tank driving over a Polo!!!
Sorry, I think that comment was for another one of your videos but still, this is another great video showing some of Cat's great machines (in green) ;)
This is one of a model 830 m that I have operated while I was in job Corp plus the same one my brother operated I joined 4 years later .in Ozark Arkansas year 1978
Glad you enjoyed the new video, as for Vietnam history the previous owner said it was in active service in the Vietnam conflict, but unfortunately we haven't been able to verify this yet, but still looking into it.
Thanks 👍 It was originally produced for and used by the American Army in the Vietnam war, it would have had a blade on the front and a scraper box on the back, they used them to clear areas for make shift runways and level up areas to form bases.
Just wondering here, I don't know much about this subject but I am always curious to learn. Upon startup you had a separate engine that started the diesel, is that correct? Is that common, or is it a very large engine type of thing?
Thanks for stopping by, always glad to help someone learn if we know the answer :-) Yes you are correct, there is a small engine known as a pony motor or donkey engine (depending where in the world you are as to which term people prefer for it) which is used to start the main engine. Is it common? Or a large engine type of thing? Well it's not common anymore and I don't think anything you would buy new now would have this setup, but up until approximately the 1970's it's the only way these machines could be started so it was the norm. Battery technology and starters motors weren't great back in the day so direct starting with a starter motor wasn't possible on these big engines especially in colder climates which requires a lot more effort to turn the engine over. Before the electric start of the pony motor was common place the pony motor would have been started by hand using a handle so I guess it's been a progression over the years as electronics and batteries have improved and been able to handle heavier tasks. Hope this all makes sense and has answered your question, any other questions we will be happy to help 👍
JESSE YEARS AGO, ALL CATS HAD PONY ENGINES TO START THE DIESEL...I WAS IN THE ARMY WORKING AT POST ORDNANCE AND WE HAD TWO D-8'S TO MOVE TANKS AROUND...THE PONY RAN ON GASOLINE, AND WAS TWO CYLINDER...YOU WOULD START IT, ENGAGE THE PINOIN GEAR, THEN THE CLUTCH, SPIN THE BIG ENGINE UNTIL THE OIL PRESSURE CAME UP AND THEN OPEN THE INJECTOR PUMP...DON'T KNOW WHAT YEAR THE CATS WERE, THIS WAS IN 1961, THE BIG ENGINE ALSO HAD A COMPRESSION RELEASE, THAT YOU USED WHEN THE WEATHER WAS COLD...
I guess it was roughly pre-1970's Cats that used this system, after that they went to direct start. All our videos are of Cats with donkey engines, we just love the old stuff :-)
+Shane Daft your definitely right, obviously from operator comfort and performance the new machines are great, but they just have any character about them
Gawd that ol' bitch sounds pretty!!! They just don't sound that way anymore, it seems? Of course, then again, it COULD-be that I just can't HEAR a motor in the same way anymore, lol!☺
Don't worry there's nothing wrong with your hearing!! Your definitely right, they just don't sound the same these days what with advances in modern technology. Glad you enjoyed 👍👍
I take it it is the more modern stuff you have been around? Pony motor/donkey engine start isn't country specific, it's just the way all the old Cats used to start, with the engines being so big the starter motors and batteries at the time were just not up to the job of spinning them over. Cheers 👍
It's Cat's own engine, a 2 cylinder 4 stroke petrol, 25hp mounted in line with the main engine. I can't remember the cubic capacity off the top of my head, but should be able to dig it out if you wanted it though. Hope this answers your question? Cheers 👍👍
+James Pendergrass they made there own. some are inline on the bigger stuff and small one are horizontal apposed they are meany different set up's some run 2 speed trans as well.
+Josh Muhl i don't think we do have i am a Canadian. one think are fuel is not made to the same standers are you super re finds stuff. so some time they will carbon up fast.
