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"Mini" Crawler Built From Old Cletrac Tractor
"My son David and I built our own crawler tractor using the undercarriage of an old Cletrac HG 3 tractor. It looks a lot like a miniature late 1980's D4 Caterpillar and really works well," says Allen Semler, Stonewall, Manitoba.
The crawler is painted Cat yellow and equipped with a front-mounted dozer blade and
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"Mini" Crawler Built From Old Cletrac Tractor TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 26-4-17 "My son David and I built our own crawler tractor using the undercarriage of an old Cletrac HG 3 tractor. It looks a lot like a miniature late 1980's D4 Caterpillar and really works well," says Allen Semler, Stonewall, Manitoba.
The crawler is painted Cat yellow and equipped with a front-mounted dozer blade and a 3-shank ripper. When they stripped down the Cletrac, they kept the transmission, rear end, and track assemblies. They also built a new frame and installed a 3-cyl. diesel engine and 5-speed Volvo transmission. They mounted a live hydraulic pump on the front side of the engine to power the attachments and built their own bell housing that adapts to the car transmission. They also built a steel canopy for it.
"We use it all the time. It feels and runs like a much larger unit than it really is and has amazing power," says Semler. "A lot of people don't know we built it and think it's a factory-made Cat D-4. It was quite a job to build and took about two years to complete. With the dozer, ripper and canopy it weighs about 6,200 lbs.
"We've used it to clear ground, blaze walking trails through woods, haul wood, dig holes and backfill basements. We also use it a lot for clearing snow in the winter.
"It steers hydraulically with two foot pedals, leaving the driver's hands free to operate the hydraulic controls. We use first and second gear in the Volvo transmission and first, second, and third gear in the Cletrac transmission, which gives us six forward speeds and two reverse. The Lister 3-cyl. isn't a big engine but it has a lot of torque.
"The original Cletrac was designed for high speed and had springs mounted in the track frame, but that didn't work good with the dozer blade in front so we removed the springs and replaced them with a steel cross bar that supports the engine," says Semler Semler says he'd like to modernize old equipment for others if anyone is interested. "For example, if someone has an old tractor that's getting tired and needs hydraulic steering or live hydraulics, we can update it," he says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Allen Semler, Box 225, Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada R0C 2Z0 (ph 204 467-2783; fax 204 467-9683).
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