CAT D9H/D8K/D7G MODULAR CABS

[yellowiron]

I have figured out, there are various ways to go about fitting a Cat EROPS to an earlier tractor, some are easier than others. It all depends on what you want at the end of it. If you just want a tractor that looks like it has a moddy cab fitted, then just hack the daylights out of a mod cab dash and floor and just bolt it down as a cab ....job done.
If you want the result to LOOK like it has been done properly, without doing it properly, then the under fender brackets could be spoofed and welded to the fenders with spoof bolts backwelded into the bracket holes. Looks the part but no rops protection.
The other way, is to do the Cat recommended mod to the bottom of the front panel to enable the back head to be able to be removed, loose the 22A dash and spend a good time playing with the tractor linkages to make it all come together at the cab end . You need D8K fenders, brake crossmember and shafts, and the D8K linkages from cross shaft to cab bellcranks. the main engine throttle linkage will need to be fabricated along with the decelerator, if you have the early pump. Then you need to drill and tap the chassis for the ROPS brackets. If the tractor is still on donkey start, then ideally that has to go and the lecky start conversion needs to go on just to simplify the starting arrangements and a lot less to accommodate into the front of the cab (petrol tank, choke and throttle, bendix lever and all the linkage etc etc)
You need the correct D8K backplate and everything needs to be bolted in its correct place the way Cat intended, using all the recommended Cat hardware.The modular floor has to be modified to allow access to all the floor plates and to accommodate clutch and gear levers. the D8K rear hood support needs to be used, as the modular erops needs this to support the rear of the hood.
This is not a five min job to do all this stuff, time will run away dealing with it all, I am under no illusion of that and I fully understand why TC is not interested in this sort of work, How can you you price this? you can't. If you put a value on your time it will probably cost more than you would pay for the cab.

I don't know why these cabs are so sought after, they only fit the D7G,D8K and D9H directly and most of those tractors were supplied with em fitted from new. If they are a hat full of work to fit to the earlier tractors, where's the value?
I have to fit them, it's not my choice, They give me hell on construction sites with soft cabs and Health and Safety don't want to know about the owner/operator not needing them. It's one load of agg I just don't need any more. I much prefer the look of the old Leverton and Bowmaker cabs that I have now, as that's what I grew up with.the classic D8 look. but novelty value and classic looks have no place on the modern construction site. Times have changed and a wise man can resist change, but only a fool resists it forever.

Just my 2 pence worth.

[bigkit]

Blinkin' 'ek Dave that was some sermon there! I get all of what you say. I love the look of the 7G with the modular Rops and always wanted one. got one........I sold it !

Its not an easy call . Roger Brookhouse has devised, built, tested and had approved a two post system for pipelayers. You may be able to adopt this into your soft cabs to retain the look but also have the necessary protection. Its worth a go, much much cheaper and very little work to do. Thats got to be a good thing?

For your information...........all I thought of when this happened and she was balancing on one track was "ROPS" not I love my wife and kids goodbye! This was the wakeup call to get modified!!!!!

[tctractors]

yellowiron, nice snap of the Company Car tugging a bin, the straight pipe is the way to go as it lets the heat fly off the engine plus lets people know you are working, the odd thing is modular cabs (Enclosed Rollover Protective Structure~EROPS) are usualy a bit spendy to buy, the cheaper option of a ROPS cab is realy the beast that you should be looking on fitting to your chariots, but now that you have cornered the Market on cheap modular Fowl House's the task ahead is like carving a statue of a Horse from a lump of Rock, its just a matter of chipping off all the bits that look Now't like a Horse? if you study the task some you can still pop the back head free if you use your front panel, don't forget the Cab can tilt backwards without a big fuss, the in seat starting is the tricky 1 to overcome, as it means all the chambers need swapping then the ring gear plus the cost of the starter motor and big cells of power, then there is a generator plus wiring to sort, it might be cheaper to buy a D8K as its all ready for the EROPS to drop on, years ago I used to change out D8's from in seat starting to direct electric start at least 1 tractor a month, I must have done at least 20 D8's and 9's, the big drama was always the Battery Box as it had to look a top job, its a lot like those front L brackets as they would be better left off than bluffed up, I have done all the drilling and treading on those bracket mounting holes plus there should be steel blocks behind the holes as the side wall is dead thin and is known to rust even thinner, apart from that the Cab job is easy???
best of luck ~ tctractors
p.s. the heater rail for glow plugs is the same on a D8 as a D9, just in case you had 1 for a 9 in stock?

[yellowiron]

Thanks chaps for the advice.
TC, The chambers on one tractor have already had the plugs put in,ready to wire, but it remains on Donkey start. The plan for that one is to go direct using the helical cut bendix on an MT40 or 50 starter and leave the ring gear as is. Make a battery box down the side of the engine where the Donkey once nested, then fit the cabin, unhindered

The second one is already direct start, (it's the one above in the pic) It's a 270 tractor with an early 235 68A motor but the later 270 manifolds, turbo and aircleaner fitted. The twin transmission coolers give it away.

The third one is a bog stock 235 on 6 roller frames, Donkey start, but with a late 1300 serial No 235 motor. The tractor is only 3 or 4 different on the serial No to the first one. will probably leave that one as it is. It's an ex Dick Hampton engine that still has it's rebuild info on a brass Hampton plate riveted on the side of the timing cover, They rebuilt it in 1972, not that that means anything today, only that it had it's guts thrashed out just before and just after 1972!

No dis-respect to those who have them, but I don't like D8K's or any powershift variant. 68A's included. I shal'nt go into why here, but trust me, I don't!

Bigkit, I think your 7 had a bit more to go before the seat cushion got a severe gripping, but not a nice place to be. Were you backing the cart up on the low loader at the time?

The trouble with putting a frame inside those soft cabs is that they STILL look like they have soft cabs, when you have a website, anyone looking to hire would just think, 'Well we could'nt have them on our site with those cabs'.

[bigkit]

Hi Dave I understand your predicament.

As for my incident the end result doesn't tell the whole story. I was pushing the box up on the swan neck and unfortunately the tractor was on the pivot point of the beaver tail. Just as the back wheels went up the tractor slipped metal to metal and the box pushed the tractor down and of the side of the ramps. The 10 tonne box pushed the tractor right up on one track with the drawbar for what seemed like too long, fortunately it fell back down the right way up!

I don't know what's best for you. Possibly to cut the floor and front out of the cab, make a back plate for the hinges and put the feet under the fender. A lot of ball ache but cutting and fabbing may be easier than all those mega fiddly bits underneath with the rods and linkages.

Its a big shame though to cut up those modular units, they're great looking and expensive!

Good luck.....

[tctractors]

I would think yellowirons lack of Love for the powershift tractor is a 2 fold issue, firstly the amount of Vimto they can suck down and blow out the chimney, secondly the run away fast factor on a steep batter the oil runs scared of the suction pipe to the transmission pump with the usual result being faster than 3rd gear backwards out of control, if you have a scraper on the back hook it usualy ends up with the CCU being smashed off, not forgetting there is a live drive power shaft to this so it makes the days antics lock in the memory some, CAT did revise the oil feed set up and also cover their arse by instructing an oil over-fill on steep inclines, but things happen fast and it used to be a common event with plenty of CCU's having a chunk missing like a Scar of Honour with an odd outer case, just to help the tail some No oil = No Brakes well not enough to stop a moped.

thinking I might be on the correct line or track. tctractors

Nice snap of the Company Car Fleet, yellow must be the new black

[yellowiron]

TC is spot on and in the right order too.

Although not powershift,I first had it happen to me with a D9 19A with the Diesel torque converter and a 491B scraper, when working for Bent-Marshall as a young feller down at Leighton Buzzard. It was a steep downhill run from the dig to the tip and we were being pushloaded with an 8K. I hoisted the box up and headed to the ramp, which was curved down to the tip. The old 19A started to gather it's skirts up so I shut the throttle off, but the engine went straight down to idle, and faster we went. In a blink of an eye the rig was really motoring, just as though you had both steering clutches pulled out. Now, a 491 fully loaded with clay, is close on 60 tons and I was running out of road FAST!...instinct....HIT THE BRAKES!....Dry back end in 19A's so, brake linings turn to smoke, I really stood on the brakes and the scraper pushed the 9 sideways....the wrong way! the front wheels of the box couldn't hold on and they jack knifed, pushing the gun carriage round onto the track. The D9 track launched the front wheels into the air and there was lots of big bangs and crunches.
I opened my eyes and the cab was full of broken glass, the back window had gone as had one top rear corner of the cab. The scraper ended up about 30ft in front of the tractor, the Ball had sheared off, the gun carriage was a mess and the 9 had 2 bent track plates, a stoved in fuel tank and a smashed 29 winch How popular was I?! Mick Bent-Marshall came out and calmly asked me what had happened, I told him and all he said was 'Keep the box on the ground when going down that ramp next time'....Bloody good job I had brown trousers on! And it all happened so fast, I never had time to think about dropping the box....you forget about the box, you are in a runaway D9!

Had it again on a 68A pulling a loaded box up the corner of a reservoir, lost the drive and the whole plot roared off backwards and jack knifed...but no damage.

68A's are around 3 gallons an hour, sometimes a lot more, heavier on Diesel than a 22A. my 22a's use no more than 8 galls an hour or 80 galls per 10hrs.

Power shift transmissions have a limited service life before they need work. 22A transmissions hardly ever give trouble and the clutch is bomb proof.

68A's torque down on steep pulls, 22A's just get hold of it and growl up.

The only time powershift is better is when your on short push blade work or pushing boxes......That is the only reason my D6C is powershift, and not direct drive.

Just starting to check out the D8K 76V direct drive EROPS layout and linkages on SIS..... interesting to see how it was done from the factory.

[bigkit]

Great explanation and insight you 2

[tctractors]

D9 19A
That sounds like a sprag clutch bearing in the Diesel Torque spitting the dummy out, in front of the Torque is a single plate clutch that is only engaged at low idle, the 19A tractor is not the best beast to give to a young chap with little knowledge of their peculiar running habits, the brakes are as said Dry linings running on drums but they are air blown to cool them, this usualy results in a stinking black cloud of dust, the fuel tank level can make the tractor perform odd plus as the load comes off the engine the tractor seems to shift up a gear as the drive races forward, this can give you a scare if you are working near an edge.
Not having the hand near the bottom lever as you head down a bank pulling a bin would be something I would not be brave enough to try, any ramp down runs are always to be controlled to not over speed the engine even on Direct Drive tractors, the 19A had a good rep' for catching out the un-skilled or un-lucky pilots, going up hills can result in lost prime to the trans' pump, going down hills can result in fly away drive and over speed, its better going down hill as at least you are looking at the thing you might hit.
tctractors

[yellowiron]

It was a regular thing to have to replace the brake linings on the 19A's. If you got short of fuel, then you lost the drive but the engine still ran, but couldn't get to the bowser! If you ran in first gear, the torque temp went through the roof, they needed to torque down in order to cool, so second was the order of the day. Third gear was absurd! They were old tractors then and had done a lot of work but were pretty reliable but, very quirky. The carbon seals in the torques were all bad and the shafts were worn , so they leaked diesel. The 9G's he had were very good tractors and gave little trouble. The 8K he had was crap, it wouldn't do a week's shift without something or other needed doing. Bent hated it..... Good old times, long gone, never to return.