ol' Grump

I've seen those type machines around here occasionally, but most of the trees are like the ones in the video. You had mentioned trees up to 48" diameter, as i recall most of these stumpers (feller bunchers) limit out at around 24" diameter trees. For the bigger trees it's time for the chainsaw and wedges. As far as the cost of dozers, you could probably pick up an older D6, 7 or 8 from the 1950's era for far less than 100K, more like in the 6-10K range. Then this leads back to the question of mechanical skills. These old machine require quiet a bit of work just to keep 'em going as i stated in another post. For some of us, it's almost a matter of love keeping 'em going and sort of preserving the past at the same time. Newer machines are easier to run, but they have the same maintenance requirements as the older machines. I guess the ultimate question would be the depth of your pockets as to a newer machine versus an older one.

Something Steve touched on but didn't elaborate on with old dozers; what are your mechanical skills? If you can find a "turn key" machine, it's going to need maintenance along the way. Fuel, oil, oil filter(s) and air filters need changed and cleaned regularly not to mention greasing the machine. These old machines are not like modern cars that need virtually no maintenance, but then most of this modern stuff won't last 70 years or so either.

With the older Cat diesel engines, sometimes to help "break 'em in" a small teaspoon of Bon Ami cleaner was slowly fed into the air intake. In a Honda portable generator that was burning oil after an overhaul I used the Bon Ami treatment, but less than half a teaspoon very slowly fed in after I'd taken the air filter off. That seemed to cure the problem. Just an idea

In most of my gas engine I use Autolite plugs, but in the chainsaw NGK or Bosch seem to work better. Champion plugs don't seem to be the same quality as they were years ago

Hi Norm, I've got the deflector and pipe but no hose. Just as well as trying to mow the side lot with at least foot tall grasses would plug that collector up in less than one pass. I'm going to use this as a winter project; drop the mower deck, replace the blades, belts and any bearings that need replaced. Then come Spring I'll maybe try to sell if and hopefully find a brush hog type mower that I can set up on the Cat D2. The half acre side lot is anything but smooth with up to some 30% grades with lots of small lodgepole pines that the brush hog will be able to mow down. The Cat can handle that where this little mower would either spin out or try to turn over

Here are a couple of pics of my new acquisition, a 1993-1995 MTD according to https://www.tractordata.com/lawn-tractors/tractor-brands/mtd/mtd-lawn-tractors.html The first two pics are when it got dragged home, the last is after cleaning and getting it running again. It had sat for 18-19 yrs in covered storage. All it took was drain the old gas, a set of battery cables and new battery. What surprised me was with the old gas that was in it, the carburetor needed NO work, fresh gas, bit of cranking and away it went like it had been started the day before.

For a condenser you might try checking your local electronics shop, some of those are pretty small

Good job Steve, just a tad blurry

As promised, here are a few pics of old Cat machines I have or have had. The first one is of the first (1949) D47U I had and sold, next pic is of the one have now (1952 D4 7U) and the 1961 12E grader i had and sold