Prairie construction equipment

[BertB.]

So something kinda new that's happened as of late at least before we got all this shitty weather. I got to meet a local earthmoving legend he built a lot of roads, lagoons, and drainage structures over the years in the area. He's a bit of a IHC fan to put it lightly, he does some logging in the winter to supply firewood and is just an all round friendly guy. He let me take pictures of his equipment at his main property he apparently has more equipment in a spot where he does a bunch of logging and some peat harvesting. He apparently has an Atlas excavator parked out there which is a very rare bird in these parts I have only seen one other a few years back.

 

[BertB.]

Lots of photos here to upload. The Kommie PC200 has a home made tilt bucket the screen at the top of the bucket was suppose to limit how much of our sticky, shitty clay would stick but it still gums up pretty bad. But it however works well in peat.

 

[BertB.]

Most of this equipment in the these first batches of photos are still in use except for the wheeled scrapers they generally struggle in our heavy slimey clay conditions here in Manitoba and haul distances for roads are generally short as most of the fill is extracted from the ditches better known as 'side borrow'. The few old timers that are still around also prefer the cable actuated scrapers as the hydraulic conversions are said to be slow as the oil heats up and doesn't pump as fast. The cable versions however are the same speed hot or cold.

 

[BertB.]

 

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[Nick...]

Thanks for posting those pictures.really enjoyed looking at them
Nick...

 

[TiltyShaun]

That is certainly a collection!

 

[Bri963]

How many still work?

 

[Shovelhands]

Quite a yard of treasures there ! Amazing!

 

[Furniss]

Wow... must have made some money over the years to have that lot sat there !

 

[V8Druid]

Wow... must have made some money over the years to have that lot sat there !

too right .... some bucks-worth, when acquired, sat there!!!!!! .... sad to see it all rotting though

 

[Grahams]

That is a lot of equipment just to have rotting away.
It amazes me, especially given the weather you have, that more doesn’t have cabs.
Graham

 

[BertB.]

Well Glen is 74 and he's been doing bush work and roadbuilding for many of those 74 years and in fact built most of the roads in that Municipality and a lot of other infrastructure in that area. He told me at one point he owned 30 International TD-20 dozers! I've got my eyes on a couple TD-6's and TD-9's especially the Drott conversions as I would like to do a bit of a restoration on them. And he's got a late '90's Ford F350 diesel 1 ton dually that I already expressed interest in when I was working with him earlier this week.

 

[BertB.]

That is a lot of equipment just to have rotting away.
It amazes me, especially given the weather you have, that more doesn’t have cabs.
Graham

I've had many old timers tell me the reason for no cab was that the engine puts out so much heat on the D6 sizes and larger that all you would have to do is run some canvas tarps from the radiator to around the operator compartment and reverse the radiator fan blowing the engine heat on to the operator. They said often when the machine was working hard you could take off your jacket or parka and gloves and be quite comfortable. As for summer as it can get quite hot and humid here in Manitoba and the bugs are terrible they said a/c was too expensive and couldn't be repaired in the field with a basic tool kit. But if you had a canopy as most bush machines did it would keep the sun off and the radiator fan would suck the bugs away. The few machines that did have a cab would often be like driving a Centurion tank in the desert the operator would bake or cook in the heat as only the doors could open and there would not be any flow through ventilation. Some of the equipment he has was also bought purely for parts at auctions to keep his main fleet operating....Don't criticize him too much he has faults like the rest of us and he is a wealth of information and a really kind friendly person just a shame I only got to meet him so late in life.

 

[V8Druid]

don't think anyone's leveling criticism Bert .... just in awe of his toy box ..... shame to see it stood rotting ..... you know the old saying "all the toys and no time to play with them "
used to have a workshop full of toys and virtually no time to myself to play