Thanks for the video my dad used to own same D8 Bulldozer and a D7 both had cable blades, he contracted to a large forestry company in New Zealand I learnt to drive these as a 9 year old - cold morning starts with the small starter motor to start the main engine the noise of the torquey Cat motor when it fires up. If there was a hill around which in NZ in the forest there were a lot used park the bulldozer up the hill with the blade up jump start second gear reverse watching the oil pressure on the bottom right hand side come up then pull the hand clutch to start. If memory serves me right 5 speed main box a forward and reverse lever, hand clutch two steering levers with the throttle in between, two foot brakes to lock right and left tracks when pulling the correct steering lever even had a locking pin for the brakes hard up against the seat. When going downhill you could use the steering levers to turn BUT to go left you had to pull the right lever and left to go right without the steering brakes - thanks for the memories my dad was still running the same model in 1972.
Beautiful, I ran a 14-A many thousand hours clearing land back in the late fifties, until I got a new powershift D8H in 1959. I still have dents in my shins where the break paddles hit me in the shins when my toe slipped on the paddle. Thanks for the video.
I'm absolutely fascinated by these vidoes. I'm part of a family owned and operated excavating company. I run every thing from small skid steers, to dozers, loaders and excavators. I of course grew up on these new age pieces of equipment. I'm so amazed that these old cats are just barely running any RPMs and are pushing mountains. These old things last forever it seems. These newer dozers just don't run like this..Yea they have their advantages and I can sure nuff make something pretty with our D5, but they seem to always be tearing up. I'm dying to hop on one of these old cats..
you prolly dont care but if you're stoned like me atm then you can stream all of the latest series on InstaFlixxer. I've been binge watching with my gf for the last few days :)
You know it must be hard for your Dad to reply to your Mum that he has had a hard day at work...... big kid is living the dream pushing dirt in the D8 and loving every moment of it.....lucky bugger, good on him
thanks for the show real nice to hear a put motor again my dad had lot of 3 T d7 17 a d7 and few old 2 u d8 i could not wait to get away from old junk lol to operate 46 a d8 for Ben Ginter const in1964 now i would like to on a 3 t for the hell of it
Worked a 48 D8 cable blade for 5 years in Cdn Army. mostly snow work and fire breaks. Occasional road in training areas and of course recovery work which it was meant for. Took a while to learn cable work. Tried hydraulics for a while but did love my old cable blade.
Sully TheTroll the 14A was a great machine. It had the torque converter behind the clutch so it was easier on the clutch. It was a piece of cake to operate.
you guys rock. Enjoying the videos morand more, especially with the back and forth commentary and conversation. Your videos are aging like a fine wine, just like the iron you got on here. Happily staying subscribed to this channel, guys.
The camera and camera work has been excellent for a while now... but the commentary adds even more to your already excellent videos! Please keep up the good work... it is much appreciated.
The main engine on an mid 50's D7 I used to start had a compression release. You could spin it over with the pony motor in cold weather and it would heat up the main motor because the cooling system is tied in with the pony motor. It's fun to watch and hear the old iron in action.
people all over tx are doing this b/c of no rain .......old cable blades take some getting use to and i can tell this operator is use to this dozer....great video
We had a 13A model before this with a crank handle start for the pony motor, Hydraulic dozer and a PCU for the Towed Scraper and Ripper, goes forever they had the weight power ratio perfected in this days.
I've been in and around the industry for over 30 years and always love the old machines. I work for a company that runs all new equip now but I've run an 8 2u and a 6 8u, both great machines that as far as I know are still operable today. There is just no way these new machines will be running 60 years from now.
+John Sigurdsson THE SERIES d8 15a was the samemachine except for a torque converter.The 15a used diesel fuel instead of oil,then ran the engine off it.Only problem was that on a hot day,half a tank of fuel meant it was going to run hot
Man your dad reminds me of a guy i worked with when i worked for a John Deere dealer.Weird huh?LOL I enjoy the vids man.Wish i could smell diesel every morning.Later
Hi, Folks. He is entitled to his opinion but I can think of a good few dozers that I would rather operate than a 14A D8 - ALL Caterpillar though. Just my 0.02. You all have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
That guy should have used a funnel to fill the fuel tank of that old Caterpillar. As he was doing it, he's just spilling the fuel on the back of it. Luckily, it didn't catch on fire.
Me traen recuerdos de infancia mi padre lo apodaban el marino buen operador de los mejores abrió caminos de Linares al sur distintas empresas contribuyo al progreso de mi país Chile
Best method of preserving put motor is to keep the gas tank valve closed except when starting. After use, turn the gas tank valve off, not the mag, and let the motor die by using up all the fuel in the put motor's carb. Then turn the mag switch off.
On start up, that gas motor sound was a pony engine mounted on the side of the engine used to turn the diesel engine over. You pulled a handle and it engaged with the fly wheel and hence fired the engine up,
I grew up in the'60's and thats all we used in my father's Quaries. I really don't know the modern dozers. The last time I was on one of those things was around 1973 and it was a D9G.
cool!i love the old d8,s with cluth.those are one of my dream dozers.i found a d7 just like that but a d7 near by me for 7500 bucks.if it runs good is that good deal ya think?thumbs up for the vid!
I hate those poney motors cranked a many of d 7 3 t dry clutch cable rigs winch an d7 17 a cats,, my dad had a lot of old dozers even a allis chambers gas engine one,, we way back we. pushed lighter pine stumps with the cats with a special inside frame stumper to split an grub the stump then loaded them on trucks delevered to the mill,, for gulf naval stores then Hercules powder company for the rosin pine extracted from them a century old process back then ,my dad started in the early fiftys,, after ww11 from Mississippi then we moved to centeral florida in 1955 an worked till the mid 80s
we have a d8 cat like yours where the steering bars are under the seat and spread out except ours is like twice as big the radiator on ours is about 7 or 8 feet the tracks are about 4 and a half feet i cant find any pictures of his on the internet but its a 48 i think
Got a question for y'all old timers. Why did Cat up size their dozers in the 60's. Gramps has two dozers. A cable D7 from the 50's (don't know if she runs its been sittin long time) and a hydraulic D6 from the 70's. Why are they both the same size? And why can he fit the blade from the cable dozer on his hydraulic one? Cause that's what he's doin.
Question: I was running an old D8 like this one. I had started the blade coming up, and I couldn’t get it to stop. Of course, I was pushing and pulling the control arm back and forth, trying to get it to respond. It didn’t, and the blade just kept coming up. I was using the horizontal control arm to the right of the operator seat. I know I had the right control, because I had used it to pick the blade up in the first place. Unfortunately, it just kept coming up until the cable snapped. All these years I’ve wondered if it was my fault, or if the dozer was misbehaving. Is there anything to using that control arm other than just pushing it to one side or the other? I’ve never understood what happened. Thanks.
starting it was a B*tch we had to fix the starter then fix the magneto then use those to start the pony motor then the big engine turned over after a can or two of ether and we had to fill all the fluids,diesel,gas,oil,coolant,drive fluid,hydraulic fluid and then we had to bleed all the lines and drain water from the oil and put the cable back on the front
Darin Kurtz I sure would like to have the down pressure on mine. I have to angle the blade to cut harder stuff in a ripping style but it still gets it done
Let the pony engine get warmed up and heat the main engine before engaging the clutch to turn the main. Let the main build oil and fuel pressure turn on fuel to the main close compression releases and the main should run much better.
Time once upon, you put water in, worked the machine then drained it in cold weather. Hence rust inhibitors. Glycol was either hard to obtain or too expensive. Water actually transfers heat the best. Antifreeze has a higher boil point but it also retains that heat.
