what do you use to build a vmx track?

[steveo247]

a vintage dozer of course!
One mother of a tilt tray dropped this off to us a little while ago.

Its a 1952 d4 cat dozer.
a few little things need doing, the pilot motor wasnt running when we got it but a few hours of cleaning fuel lines, carby clean new plugs and it now fires up with the help of an electric winch motor. from factory you wrap a rope around the flywheel and pull start it, but my first attemp at pull starting the flat 2 cylinder pilot engine resulted in nothing but alot of lost skin off my fingers and hand thanks too good compression!

The big diesel coughed and ran, but only on 3 cylinders. After much swearing and 4 hours later the fuel pump hosuing was removed (30+ kilos) and new fuel pump coming from usa.

The way everything is engineered on it is truly fantastic.

anyone else had or played with one of these?
i thought you guys might like it.

steve.

[Tossa]

what track is this being used for.  Was it a donation

[motomaniac]

Awesome. Amazing that you got it going without too much trouble.

[pancho]

You're lucky only losing skin ,the old D8s used a crank handle to start the pilot motor which was notorious for kicking back and breaking an arm or two. Other than that you got a valuable asset. iI think the plan is to start the thing and leave it running till home time whether you use it for a half hour or all day! cheers. pancho

[steveo247]

the track will be used for riding..! all kinds of it. On my familys acres.
a vmx friendly track is a priority! Would love to see a few forum vmx riders out here one day!

wasnt a donation no.. it was purchased. We looked at the cost of renting/hiring a dozer to build a track and clean up the driveways level a house block etc. By the time you add that cost up i decided to buy this for a bit extra, i can take my time doing all the work and sell it off later if i want.

It was fairly simple to get going, but when you see how well it is enginnered and designed you can see why they last so long!

Things like the pilot motor cranks over the big diesel motor against no compression to build oil pressure, and the pilot motor exhaust goes through the diesel manifold for preheat and then you close a compression lever to fire it up.

pancho i have heard that same thing from other poeple, once its running dont turn it off!!

[All Things 414]

The 'purists' will knock it on something.
"They never had those fuggin' grease nipples on 'em when I drove one...." 

[pancho]

Talking of grease nipples some old Cats used a grease nipple to push the front track idler forward to tension the track .....    DONT EVER REMOVE THAT GREASE NIPPLE, if it uses that system because it will hit you in the forehead like a bullet......... cheers ...........old nut...s.

[All Things 414]

As a bit of tirvia, I'm pretty sure our Armoured Personel Carriers (M111?) had the same system for tensioning their tracks....

[steveo247]

ive got a feeling this one has that system, i think i read it somewere in the 380 odd page operations manual!

[Tossa]

As a bit of tirvia, I'm pretty sure our Armoured Personel Carriers (M111?) had the same system for tensioning their tracks....

M113A1

[All Things 414]

M113A1

Close (hey it's been a while! I only used to carry them, not drive 'em). Was I right about the track tensioning system?

[Tossa]

from what I can remember and we only used them as command vehicles in the "Drop shorts" your around the mark

[aaron]

I built my track with a 1948 d4 cat it was the best $1500 ever spent.

[Davey Crocket]

Now thats a toy

[TT]

That reminds me of a photo I've got of me and my Dad on one from the same era somewhere. Cool. 

I love how well these things are built, to be still running in that condition................. much like my old Mercs................. but not as heavy.