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Crawler which wont crawl far...


James T

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As it was a pretty good day, I took my usual early May wander up the Lowther Hills on the South Lanarkshire/Dumfries & Galloway border this morning.  I've been doing this walk for several years primarily for the wildlife, but until today I hadn't ventured over to an old crawler stuck out on the hillside.  It was in some state, heavily corroded and decades old by the looks of things.  It sits on Lowther Hill, just down from the NATS Radar Station.  I'm unsure whether it had an agricultural use or whether it was used in the construction of the various telecoms buildings on the hills.

Does anyone have any idea of make/model?  Too heavily corroded to find anything of use to identify it.

The first photo shows the village of Wanlockhead in the distance (highest village in Scotland):

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Looking east to telecoms masts on Green Lowther in the distance:

100_0389.jpg

Looking west:

100_0391.jpg

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Strange that. Looks like someones taken shots at the radiator though. And That wheel hub on the back is it on the PTO shaft if soo could of been used to pull the various cables at the telecom site?

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:'( Poor old girl, it could possably be a cat d47u,or a d2 just the rear tank makes me think that, but i dont think it is, it looks like a petrol engine?? im pretty sure its a cat, the rear tank and the left hand side of the radatior cowling  tell me it is

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It's definitely been vandalised; there is grouse shooting in the area but I think folk have just thrown parts at the radiator.  Sounds like a good explanation re: winding cables...

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if i was looking for a restoration, i would offer to buy it and take it away, just for the complete track gear, offer the scrap metal price for the whole thing

take it home, i reckon its  a ih Btd-6 something, find another, in tired complete shape, and swap the tracks and accross, even just the grouser plates

btd6.gif

1953 Heralded the introduction of the first British-built International crawler tractor, the 40 h.p. BTD-6, completed in August. Designed for both agricultural and industrial applications, this unit was to form the basis of the Company's big construction equipment division.

Better still sell it to this guy

http://www.freewebs.com/internationaldrottclub/index.htm

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The drum on the back is a cable drum for operating equipment, was quite common to have these before hydraulics, as cables were used to lift dozer blades and operate scrapers, some crawlers would have two or more of these cable drums fitted.

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the drum is a rim by the looks, off a vehicle, doubt that machine had cable op blade, or infact anything mounted on it, the drum might have run something belt drive or something crazy, easiest way to tell that it hasn't had much 'heavy/industrial type' work is the front idler is spocket, they don't handle weight, they crack ..........but ok under ag work situations.....thats why i think the undercarriage might be good for a restore :o).......done more pulling then pushing

wonder why it stopped here, those BTD6 were built using the same design as the american TD6. but the americans found out they were too light in the diffs, in hard work, so they built the later american versions heavier (in the 61 and 62 series), wonder if this suffered diff failure.........still worth something to salvage :o) most trans gears etc are getting hard to find now

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yup :o)

on the tank, that round thing on the side, is the model plate, you can kinda make out the white 6

it also has top idlers in the track frame, cat D2's didn't have any,

they had a C-283 engine in them didn't they.........they really weren't a fan of cold starts, hot starts, any starts ha ha!.......

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That fuel tank must be made out of thick metal, seeing as all the rest of the tin work has disappeared. I came to the conclusion that it was probably an international, based on the shape of the fuel tank and the fact that there isn't a donkey engine or anywhere for one to be fitted. How were these started? by handle?

I cannot make out the six on the rusted remains of the seat box, nearside, though ;)

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It ain't mine to sell!  ;D

if i was looking for a restoration, i would offer to buy it and take it away, just for the complete track gear, offer the scrap metal price for the whole thing

take it home, i reckon its  a ih Btd-6 something, find another, in tired complete shape, and swap the tracks and accross, even just the grouser plates

btd6.gif

1953 Heralded the introduction of the first British-built International crawler tractor, the 40 h.p. BTD-6, completed in August. Designed for both agricultural and industrial applications, this unit was to form the basis of the Company's big construction equipment division.

Better still sell it to this guy

http://www.freewebs.com/internationaldrottclub/index.htm

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saw something similar in pics at the mast near us, not sure what make, but it was used as yourself and kris said in pulling cables,parts ,and even people in cages  up via a pully system up onto on the masts, tends to be done by donkey engines and tractors now a days ,hence why its prob just been left there to rot,  i know the mast in cornwall(caradon) used to have one parked up out the back to, but that went a while back to a scrap yard

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Some nice shots there James. Yes I think it has to be an International. Shame it has got into such a state and really in my opinion is too far gone for restoration and would only be of any value as a donor vehicle. When I say "too far gone" I don't mean its not feasible to restore but economical it would cost far too much to do. These international crawlers are not worth a lot in comparisons to Cat D2's etc

In addition what a nightmare it would trying to get it off the hillside since I'll bet the tracks are seized solid ??? ???

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my uncle had a d4 cat and the tracks had siezed on that and we pulled it with the nh 7840 with a set of weights and that was on hardcore eg bricks concrete blocks  :);) she was bouncing on all 4's at some points but it moved it about 500 ft to were the lowloader could park to be loaded  :) so you wouldnt need that much  ;)

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