What was your first track loader to operate

[TaylorLambert]

I was talking to one of my helpers at the landfill about trackloaders and what they operated. THe only one he ran was an old 150 IHC that his old boss had. My first one was in 1999 I had a friend I worked with my short time in a factory that had borrowed one to tear down some old barns on his projects. It was an old well worn 450 Johndeere complete with a 4in1 and backhoe attachment.

It was kinda bundlesome after being used to TLBs but the ability to travel in mud and digging straight from a hard bank had me hooked. Later in 2001 I started working as a labor and mechanic for Huffman Construction. THey had an operator out for the day and had a D66E Komatsu parked for the day. I talked to the foreman about filling in. It was a monster compared to the little 450 JD. I had never run a rear engined track loader let alone a hydrostat one. I did have some experience in running a few 750 JD dozers that were hydrostat. I caught on really uick as I was on a ledge over looking the Tennessee river moving shot rock from the excavator down there. Some were so heavy the excavator had to push on the boulder and let me back curl then drag it to the spoil pile.

I learned alot of what all a track loader can do. Grading, loading, excavating, grubbing andothers. I spent almost 2 years on the D66E. The next loader I got to operate was a 953 Cat, 755 John Deere, 175 IHC and today I got to operate a friends old TD9 based Drott euipped loader. That hand clutch made me glad for power shifts an hydrostats.

I hate to say it though but TLs never were big in this area. Starting 5 miles away in Alabama they are all over. I guess it had something to do with all the limestone there. Most of the older small contractors there consisted of a Trackloader, Dump truck, and a grader maybe a TLB or a hoe attachment for the loader. Some had a pin on blade attachment for the loader.

[martyn williams]

The first one I operated ,just moving it around the yard for maintenance was a JCB110.then a Cat 951 with a side tip bucket.Both owned by British rail.I was just servicing them and repairs.
Martyn

[essexpete]

MF 200 the first and incidently the last! A customer kept it in our yard and I used a few times, and guess what it had some kind of failure in one side of the back end.

[wxmman]

A 21Z prefix Cat 963.

[TaylorLambert]

EssesexPete those MFs had bad week back ends, I think that they used a differential steered machine. I runa few MF dozers mostly a 300 with a straight blade.

B100loader, Id like to try my hand at a 110 . The county road department is retiring their old 951 Cat. Its parked near the landfill and we are looking to buy it for a way to load cover on wet days. Someting else for me to work on lol.

Heres a link to the Komatu D66S series on machinery trader.
http://www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=8126805&

These were good machines, I moved alot of timber and stone and soil with ours on site. They did have 2 flaws that this one developed. The travel lever on the left for forward and reverse and 2 foot pedals for steering and counter steering. Ours got a problem that traveling wen you hit a bump it would stop dead on. It often caused the knees to meet the dash. I never figured out how al lthe travel was linked together but the bucket return to level rod had a short in it. The roller landed in a notch but wear in the bucket pivots would let it flop a little and it would jump and cause it to stop dead. We tied the roller back for a cure till parts came in.

It also would cause it to fly into reverse from forward with out touching the stick. I had this happen and found out bucket teeth wont slow you down going backwards. The brake wouldnt work I finally gathered my self and turned the key off. It stopped then went back to working right. After that we parked her till the parts came in.

[JimInOz]

My Uncle's MF 300 Drott on demolition.Demo is a good place to get accustomed to a machine.He also had an Owatonna Skid Steer....old & only worth burning. I've never been on a skid steer since & never care to again....

[TaylorLambert]

Jim I bet that 300 was a fine loader, I liked running the 300 dozer but the blade was pretty slow from a weak pump. I wouldnt have thought and Owatonna Skidsteer gotten that far from here. They werent popular around here either. I have 2 Case 1840 skid steers that I use around the place and in by business. They are pretty versatile and have also come a long way since the Owatonnas. I got dad to run one of mine once to load compost on his truck. I wont repeat word for word how he aid it but it was clear he wouldnt run it again lol.

[Kinky.Chris360]

My first was a Case 450 at Pioneer plant in the '70s. Not a bad little machine as I recall.
They had 4 in 1 buckets and side tip buckets for railway work.
Also a Drott 175 which was very noisy.

[JimInOz]

Taylor,
I always wondered what the D66S were like to operate.I have been on D31S,D41S,D55S,D57S & D75S...but never seen a 66.
The little MF200s were quite popular here in Australia. A lot of guys started out cutting house sites with them...a good sized machine to fit in the back of a truck.
They had the normal dry cluch steering,not a diff steer like the case 350s.

K.Chris,
The Case 450 were another well-liked machine. Some of those Case machines did good work & I know guys that wouldn't own anything else.I always liked the shape & trimming ability of Case Drott buckets.

Jim

[nick lamb]

Cat 955K when I was a boy.last was a Komatsu D41S.Deacent enough machine.