Rescuing A Cat D4D Dozer Abandoned for Years on a Steep Hillside 

No sponsors, no long speech’s, just Marty having fun working on cool projects. Love the videos !

The sound of a 10mm ring spanner getting away from you…. Shivers

Wakes up and finishes the job it started years ago--gotta love it.

My father (87 years old) helped to design these and future variants for 40+ years and was the project manager on many of CAT designs from the late 1950's through the late 90's working mostly out of the Decatur, Illinois plant (also some at the Arizona proving grounds). I know he holds numerous patents on the bulldozers, scrapers, and excavators which CAT paid him the grand total of $1.00 for each patent. He donated all of his CAT items (books, design models, etc.) to the CAT museum in Brooks, Oregon that is pretty impressive with at least 50-60 fully running CATs ranging from the first Holt tractors to versions made in the 1980's. Good to see his work still holds up to this day even though battered and beaten.

You mean you can recover equipment without a low boy, a black hawk, 3 Sani’s and a Nikola sales pitch? Unbelievable! Great vid as always!

That old dozer sat there all that time hoping someone would come along and put her shoes back on so she could get back to work. She happy now!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how these old diesel engines can sit for years and with only a small amount of work, fire back up and go to town.

Well, Marty ,you got the tears streaming this morning. To hear that old D4 start. Back in the 60s,70s my father used the D4C for our drainage contractor business here in Ireland 🇮🇪. It's the one I remember playing on as a 5/6 year old kid . Sitting on my brother's lap as he drove it. They are both gone now but the memories last because people like you bring them back by videos like this one. Cheers and thanks to the old school guys who keep them running

Also, it's so great to see the dozer getting straight back to work. The tracks are fixed, and it's straight onto making the earth move. So great to see 👍👍👍

The robustness and longevity of these machines is amazing!

That's the way a video should be ! To the point, no funky background music, no ads, no 2 hour long bla bla bla. Everything we need and want to see is there! Why didn't I find this stuff earlier?

As an Aussie I’m supposed to give our kiwi cousins a bit of attitude. But, I have to admit they are a tenacious and clever crew that are absolutely able to do a lot with a little.. thumbs up from the West Island!!

Caterpillar New Zealand better send you guys a crate of beers each for this brilliant endorsement of their machines. If they don't, everyone will think them downride stingy 😅

"This dozer is stuck for years, with water in the engine" a few moments later ... "lets's build a road"

Love that rugged old heavy equipment....it can sit out frozen in time for years ...then gets started and recovered , and goes back to work.

It's always amazing how much work is left in old diesel machines, no matter how long they've been sitting. No emissions control and no computers!

I imagine there is quite a feeling of achievement from fixing a situation that others have given up on for so long and doing so in less than a day. Well done :)

Leave it precariously on a hillside for several years, then flush out some water, show it some diesel and a battery and boom - right on the button. Back when stuff was built right and engineers had at least an equal input to beancounters. Magical. Thanks for sharing 🙂

A testament to Kiwi skill, hard work, and never give up ethic.

Great!....My buddy rescued a 1920s era CASE brand dozer, (in the USA). In around 1973,....my friend was a back to nature fellow, bought some un-farmable land , in what is called in the US, a "holler",.....a heavily wooded (crevice), with large sandstone outcroppings,.....surrounding areas are farms, in a very hilly area. So he was offered a free CASE brand treaded dozer, sunken in a peat bog,....probably setting for 25 years or more. All he had to do was tow it out. The CASE dozer, had a hand crank engine, he contacted CASE which manufactured them in Ohio, in the USA. They identified it as one of their earliest models from the 1920s. The mucky peat, preserved the dozer. He simply hosed it down with water, and found it was to be easily restored. The hydraulics were sound, hoses too. Grease was still good. Rust was minimal. Treads intact. A weeks worth of work and it started up like a champ. He went on to using it down at his "holler", to haul timber out of his woods. A year before, he rescued a 1940s, (portable) sawmill, that ran off of leather belts. He began making money, cutting logs to be used for railroad timbers, (ties).

3 mates get together and decide to do what looks like the impossible - getting an old dozer which has lost a track off the side of a hill. Plus it hasn’t run in years and get it running - no big deal. Marty the drone shots and your camera work was spot on. Such an enjoyable episode.

Sonny is a master at grading with that dozer.

"Back to work" break time is over. It's amazing to me this equipment can set out for decades and still come back to life. Wow.

I'm continually amazed at how you can leave these things sitting in a field for who knows how many years, and with just a couple of hours work and some basic tools, they can be up an running again.

I'm impressed. A seemingly junk cat saved and made right with the world. The end grading was a nice anecdote to the life expectancy of a cat. Good on ya mates!

Those old machines were built to survive abuse and misuse. Another amazing rescue.

It’s great to see these machines come back to life. Thanks to you guys 👍

After 40 years operating heavy equip on various pieces of heavy equip I still in awe of the absolute power an durability of these old pieces ,much respect to the designers !

1000 years from now, someone will find one of these CATs buried in mud, sand, maybe water, and after a few hours, she'll fire right up again. Top work, lads!

OMG, I have been running D11's for the last 10 years and it is so refreshing to see the equipment that helped start it all. Good job guys

From someone living in a busy city in the UK I love seeing the views you have while driving to/from locations, It's amazing

I love how he puts it right back to work, finishing what it started so many years ago.

And after all those years its straight back to work - Love it!

That dozer must have been happy to finally finish the job it started.

50 years ago just out of college I got a job in New Guinea ( Irian Jaya) building pipelines in the jungle there. Seismic teams exploring the jungle found two D6 Cat sidebooms abandoned by the Dutch during WW2. They had found oil and had been building pipelines before the war there. We had D6 wide track dozer that pulled the sidebooms into our camp where our mechanics went to work on them and actually got then running. I remembered looking at the counter weights that looked hand made and saw a metal tag on then that read Caterpillar Works Argentina 1929 stamped on it. Some how the mechanics were able to remove the old gas jocky starter motors and install electric starters and the sidebooms were put to work dragging out logs for a sawmill we had for making lumber for our camp construction. That was all very amazing for a 24 year old man from Louisiana in 1973.

you guys made my heart swell!! bringing back to life these old machines..there are no words..thank you all for what you do!!

On first appearances it looked like there was no way that D4D would ever run again - but with some good old Kiwi grit and determination it was up and alive again in what seemed like not much effort at all. Great team work guys so well done.

So...Abandoned and Broken. Caterpillar so it starts. Then the magicians muscle the tracks back into position. Then, just to show off it digs its way out of its grave and finishes the road grading job it started years before. Just The Best.

Good bunch of mates, all skilled in bringing back old equipment back to life. Was sure when it was spewing out water it was never going to start, but then I realised the tractor god was working on it and everything was going to be, just fine.😎👍

I can only imagine how much it's worth finding an abandoned Dozer. That's like finding a lottery ticket.

Caterpillar tractors from the 60-70s were made so well.. I had 4 on my farm from the mid 70s.. D7s… sat for maybe a decade in the elements.. never garaged.. just changed the batteries .. bled the fuel lines.. and they started right up.. amazing engines. Literally last forever. Just had to change belts and some o rings on the hydraulic lines.. very very well made tractors.

Back then machines were built to last for 50+ years

It's good to see old quality equipment run and still have a purpose!

Good to see that we still have people with the ability and know how to carry out the type of repairs that was a done in the feild daily a couple of decades ago. This was the type of repairs we as feild service mechanics undertook on a daily basis. I did 40 odd years in the trade 90 percent of that time working on heavy machinery on site. A great vocation but the old body is a bit tired now, very much like the tracks on that D4.

This was a very satisfying video. I hope the old dozer is still serving someone well.

Great vid, i love these old cats, they never die, a quick tinker , oil , water & a battery, shit ton of elbow grease & sack full of ingenuity. Imagine those drive by wire modern crap that need a computer , update, diagnostics tool cost thousands ......bugger all chance of getting one going, old skool engineering at its best , thanks mate perfect wet sunday nite viewing , bloody fantastic backdrop , amazing site too , you are a genius a big hello from crappy grey britain

I have watched hundreds of excavator recoveries over the years...This one tops the list of shear determination and guts. Love that you are doing the road work that it was meant to have done years ago! Kudos to the 3 of you💪💪💪

Like how he finishes the job it got stuck doing.

Watching this gives me regrets I didn’t get into this work as a career. Great job!

What a great day, three Lads working on an resurrecting an old beast. Bravo

Never did I think it would be so satisfying to see a dozer track be put back on track.

Never thought I would be sitting here watching the resurrection of a gnarly old Caterpillar bulldozer but it was strangely compelling. Well done guys.

I'm impressed. That you were able get the tensioner on the Idler to back off and get the track back on the carrier rollers especially on that angle. You got to keep your equipment clean, lubed, and adjusted. - every time you do your cold iron check. I love caterpillar.

Fantastic work Marty, Jamie, and Sonny! Incredible how perfectly the engine ran, and how, after a bit of working-against-a-load time, the steering clutches broke loose, and she went right back to what she'd been doing. Really great to see be saved.

My utmost respect to folks who have the skill and Faith to get an old player like this back in the Game! Well Done!!

ive never related to a doser so much in my life. old thing wakes up, puts itself together, then gets right to work with sticky joints.

BRAVO! MARTY once again you have defeated dispair and brought another piece of old iron back to work!

Fantastic after all that time You guys get it sorted and up and running and back to work That is so good 😍😍👍👍🇦🇺

That was super neat. I always love hearing old machines roar back to life and see them get another chance at life. Thanks!

It was sooo good to watch these guys succeed.

Amazing. Motivates me to get my old 555B backhoe running again.

I love how, once they fixed it, they put it right back to work lol.

Absolutely outstanding, Marty. You and your mates there, did one fine job of rescueing that poor, stranded dozer. Cheers! Crack on!

Just the right people with enough knowledge to make everything work without making it worse

Marty, that was one of your best. People love you,. Stay as you are.

WOW! I am impressed what you guys have done. Well done!!!

For a second I thought the sound of that drone was the wasps going crazy.

CAT Dozers is a very tough reliable piece of equipment that can move a lot of earth. Nice to see that old dozer brought back to like and doing what it loves, moving earth.

Well done guys ,one of the best reclaim video's i have seen for a long time , she was obviously looked after before she lost a track Runs sweet now . All the best from England 🇬🇧 regards uncle Franko😊

Beautiful old girl, quality machines from the day..try leaving a new dozer out for 5 years, there would be nothing left except the plastic computer box. . Great video, teamwork by like minded guys makes for a good time. Thanks for sharing Marty!

I cringe when I see guys start up dead motors without putting oil in the cylinders... Good on Ya ! Very satisfying to watch. Shows the monster integrity of the old Cat construction.

Thanks Marty, helps a lot.

She sat there all those years waiting for a couple of good men to take care of her so she could finish her job! Excellent video.

That dozer runs nice! Nice countryside too. Wish I were there. Looks like a fun project.

Kool save, still works

Inspiring work gentlemen! Greetings from Southern Oregon.

Absolutely amazing work. This is a solid piece of equipment. I watched engineers and mechanics, not dealership technicians, get this machine going. No computer diagnosing was needed-just intellect and wisdom at its best.

Marty and his mates doing what they do best...working together with winning results. Well done gentlemen...well done.

I am an English speaking white American and I could barely understand anything those guys were saying. But great job fixing the bulldozer!

Nothing more satisfying than old iron coming back to life !!! Great job all around 😅

Old Dozers need old men to recover them.

You get it running, and immediately put it to work. Incredible.

Many thanks to Marty and team for saving the old American guy. Very satisfying seeing it push dirt again. ♥

Beautiful area

Wow great job guys now to restore the old Cat and your all set!

What an absolute gem of a machine. Nice see the old gal pushing again. Good job guys.

Also seems NZ is blessed with hills made from what looks to be really good road base. You got rock, fines, and some clay right where you are cutting!

I have a d4d unfortunately it’s hydrostatic. As for the track cylinders I had the same problem were they would loose the grease and flip the track. The grease works as a cushion so that if a rock or something goes through the track it alows it to flex and not break the sprocket. So I removed them and reconditioned them. It’s pretty easy. Had some very large rust pits like a 1/4 inch deep . A torch some brazing sanding dosnt have to be perfect grease is thick and it is fixed I was amazed it was so easy . I did a few modifications to make it easier to take apart and put back together but I have forgotten what I did . You’re very mechanically inclined I think you would figure it out quickly.

1:16 sonny: no worries mate. I'm almost done here. Ahhh

It’s amazing what three skilled guys, the right tools, and the application of physics can accomplish 🙂

A Testament to 2 things. Caterpillar's built in quality and longevity, and Marty's quiet, calm determination to succeed with the task at hand. Always entertaining quality video. Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Ontario, Canada.

So accustomed to drone shots with silence or music overdubs I was looking for the massive bugs making that racket when that overhead footage came on!! 🤣🤣😂

20:44 he’s an experienced driver! Just look at the way he’s carefully grading. Is that a winch guide on the rear?

Thanks for saving her

I had the pleasure of owning and operating one of these machines,did many Ks of hours . With some tlc , great machine !

When I heard the drone I thought are they the wasps 😂

Incredible going back to work like nothing happened. Nobady builds things like they used to and is worst now after the pandemic, some manufacturers of heavy equipment, cars or appliances are built just to brake after a couple years of use and for the consumer to buy a new one or keep buying parts to fix them terrible business.

These are men who won’t take no for an answer. Good men!

Beautiful countryside.

Did you catch Sonny taking a leak at 1:17? LMAO!!!