398 Caterpillar

cjmlarson

Mega Poster
WMSTR Lifetime Member
I have no idea yet what I am going to do with this beast but, I own it and that is what is cool for me!!

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There is a V12 on the trailer along with an air compressor and a small generator ,radiator, and the other side has a couple air tanks, exhaust pipe , ect.

Tom Newman hauled it from Kentucky a couple of weeks ago and we decided with weather and all, George from Jim's towing said we should just unload it at his place for now .

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Got to see his newer 50 ton wrecker at work.

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We set it down on some concrete slabs that George had so it wouldn't settle down into the ground.


Ok now................I need all you Rollogians to try and help me find a big anhydrous tank under carriage or big gravity box undercarriage. :cool:
 
Hi Clayton,

I noticed the person in the lower left hand corner of the third picture.

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A fellow with a red coat and a white beard delivering presents. Could it be that Santa Claus dropped by early with a Christmas present? I can understand the special delivery, Rudolph and friends would have a tough time hauling that thing around.


What is that bolted on to the back end of the engine?
How many rpm does it run?
How much horsepower?
Is it going to be at Steam Up next spring?
If so, how will we get it hooked up to the Brake?

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
On the back Jerry is a hydraulic clutch. It is rpm regulated, meaning when the engine starts to speed up it engages the clutch, the hydraulic pressure comes up to make this happen. If you notice the large multi groove pulley (25 grooves), This engine used to be belted up to 2 other units the same size running some sort of huge wood grinder , muncher, pulverizer. it took 3500 hp to run, they eventually turned it into an electric unit. Then this units life turned into power for a large dredge. It comes with a gas operated air compressor (obviously is air start) and a 150 kw belt driven generator.
This style engine is in range of 900 -1250 horse power at 1000 rpm.

I should say you can run it at whatever rpm you would like because the generator has an adjustable pulley so you can get the correct 60 hrzt.
 
Wondering why you didn't go down and get it with the KB11?

I can come up with an old snowmobile trailer if you need something to move it around the yard.

You are getting to the point where you could me a one man show Clayton!
 
It was a thought to go get it myself, but to get that much time off from the county was a problem.:cool:
 
Well this has gotten to be pretty drawn out process but Wimpy and I have been hard at it in this Hot and humid weather. I found a running gear that I will use for this project. In my head I was sure it would carry the weight as long as I got rid of a few thousand pounds of steel that I did not need.

Well lets get to the pictures.

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This is what I started with.

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Here is the finished running gear.

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Wimpy and I had the engine all cut loose so it was time for George to lift it out of its frame and set it on the running gear. All was good till all the weight was on it and it looked like a station wagon with 15 kids all in the very back seat. Ok now to plan B. I went looking for another axle and I was lucky enough to find one with the help of South Dakota Jon.

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After some calculations, Wimpy and I are sure the distributed weight between all the tires is with in a couple pounds of each other.:Shrugs:

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So one Saturday really early we went in to West Fargo and got started for home when the traffic was real lite:hide:. Jane was my pilot in the back and I had all my flashing lights on up front. I was able to scoot along about 25 MPH and all went well and arrived home an hour and a half later.:woohoo1:

More to come.
 
Clayton,

That is a neat looking display. I am looking forward to hearing it run and hopefully hearing it with some load. As much as I would like to have one like it, I think I will stick with my 1.5 to 2.5 Hp International LB. It is much easier to load in a pickup and uses a LOT less fuel.

Thanks for keeping us updated with the progress.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
This unit came from Kentucky last fall and had a issue with it not able to roll over. Well Bill and his crew at the time before it showed up here in Minnesota pulled all the glow plugs and picked each cylinder the best they could. About two months ago I went and tried to pry it over and it broke loose with not much effort.19.jpg

So when it came time to try and start it I knew it would start hard and not run very well. It turned out I did not know what I was talking about. This is a air start unit and when I was rolling it over and it started to hit on a couple cylinders I released the air started and it started quite easy and all the solution that they pickled it with started to come out of the exhaust pipe including boat loads of mosquito fogging solution. My neighbor came over and asked what was on fire. All I can say is I was covered with a lot of wet black soot. I did not run it very long due to not having any water hooked up yet. But I found out it was going to be a runner so I will continue on with the process.:build:
 
Hi Clayton,

Where was Jane with the video recorder? How soon do we get to hear it run?
Congratulations on getting the beast running!

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
I have a short video , but you can here the tractor and the air compressor in the back ground so I will have to do a better one, That way the air starter and engine will sound better.
 
Wow, that is quite a mass of metal. I bet that is impressive to be around when it runs. I am sure it will be fun.
 
Darren, I have not weighed it yet but will probably com in at about 16000#s that will be with the radiator.
I cut some of the frame off that was about 8000#s. I need to go to my doctor and see if he can stop this buying big stuff disease .
 
Clayton, Clayton, Clayton. Haven't you been around long enough to know there is no cure for the disease that a lot of us involved with old iron have? Maybe you can get a treatment so that you will only like smaller items that can be loaded in the back of a pickup. Those treatments just treat a symptom, the disease will still be there.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
Maybe you can get a treatment so that you will only like smaller items that can be loaded in the back of a pickup. Those treatments just treat a symptom, the disease will still be there.

Jerry Christiansen

When has Clayton ever done anything on a small scale!

I remember when I first started driving truck 40 years ago, Consolidated Freightways was still on the road... a HUGE company. All of their trucks had air starters on them with big vertical air tanks that stood behind the cab opposite the muffler. Some of their drivers used to "lay in wait" for some unsuspecting person to walk by the front of their truck in a truck stop and then hit the starter valve. Those things sounded like a dozen impact wrenches harmonizing with each other in a steel drum! It would scare the hell out of said pedestrian! Don't ask me how I know. A glance up to the CF driver showed he was at the very least smiling, if not laughing. More often than not, their humorous moment was often capped with a single digit being elevated from their "victims" hand. No doubt karma had something to do with the companies demise! Some say it was de-regulation, but I knew better!

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I am not sure what I am doing wrong but when I post videos from Jane's face book page, it will not let me go back and edit the verbage.
 
Video won't play either. Not sure how to integrate facebook video with this forum.

May need tom wait for Tim to get the rest of the bugs worked out.
 
That is strange, yesterday Clayton’s video was showing in a nice big window and looked fine. So something has changed. It was quite impressive.
 
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