TractormanMike.mb Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 I've talked about this thing enough on here and it came up in a topic yesterday so I figured I'd start a thread about it. We got a pretty good rain last night so today I went and retrieved the cat number 12 from its winter resting place. It needed some service and I need it for road maintainer on another job. We had issues last winter getting it into gear. The transmission oil was in pretty poor shape and I'm thinking might have had some moisture in it so it was drained. I flushed it with diesel fuel, a procedure the operators manual actually says to do, and filled it with fresh oil. The oil in the pony engine was also changed. I greased a few points, will try to bleed the brakes in the morning if I can find a helper, then it will be off to the woods again. I'll try to take some action shots 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vtfireman85 Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Cool! A friend has one that looks a lot like that. They are talking about replacing it with a blade for their CTL, MSHA would take a dim view of the CAT. good to see old iron earning its keep! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TractormanMike.mb Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 It was definitely made during a time when men were men and the women were great full for that. 3 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bud guy Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 We went through two Cat 12s just like those. First one was just plain wore out and got rid of it after while. Next one was a what I would call a “DuPont” special. Looked great but as soon as I started using it, oil leaked everywhere on it. Still it ran alright until one day it put a rod through the block. So then we scrapped it except for the blade. Went a few years without a grader. Then I decided I might actually spend more time maintaining our roads and trails if i bought a grader that was half ass nice to run. So we ended up with our current grader which is a JD 770A. Also have a Cat No. 7 auto patrol in the collection. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryangpayne Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Nice grader! I have one just a shade newer and smaller, a 112f. I haven’t got real good at operating it yet but I do better than I would with a tractor and a blade. I need a couple more arms and a lot of flat open space to run mine lol. They are tough old things and you don’t have to worry about a lot of electrical problems though. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twolines Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Is bleeding the brakes on one not too different than a car or truck? Master cylinder, brake bleeder valves and pump it up...hold!? If so...my cousin turned me on to a vacuum bleeder recently. I had heard of them but never used one. I needed to bleed the brakes on a 1 ton pickup project the other day and my poor wifey was not super happy about pumping the pedal for me...she has priorities and my beater work truck is not one of them lol. I picked up the mityvac 8500 and dang it! I should have bought one of these things a long time ago. Also used it to test the vacuum pod choke dealy on a carb Im rebuilding. Way worth the 80 bucks...never need a helper to do brakes again! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TractormanMike.mb Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 4 hours ago, ryangpayne said: Nice grader! I have one just a shade newer and smaller, a 112f. I haven’t got real good at operating it yet but I do better than I would with a tractor and a blade. I need a couple more arms and a lot of flat open space to run mine lol. They are tough old things and you don’t have to worry about a lot of electrical problems though. That's a nice looking grader also. It can get busy in the cab when I'm operating ours, kind of feel like an octopus playing the drums. As far as turning, I've found that if I lean the front tires in the direction that I want to turn that helps a lot. Otherwise it has a turning radius slightly better than an Elwood four wheel drive axle. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Beale Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 A neighbour has an about 1946 Cat 12 and ran into a lack of spare parts for the steering box. It now sports the nose of a 17K with all the mod cons 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardtail Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Those both look in pretty good condition ♥️ When I saw the topic I thought it was @Rawleigh99 recent acquisition debuit 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawleigh99 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 More graders! Cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawleigh99 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 I see yours has a wing blade! Neat! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHKeith Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 I couldn't find any daytime pics of my 1983 Champion 720, these night time ones aren't the best but they are current, just captured It's a great machine, has a turbocharged 354 Perkins, an 8 speed forward and 4 reverse manual transmission, two shifters, high/low/rev on one and 4 speeds on the other, no synchro, compared to other engines available in it, a 3208 Cat, 6-71 Detroit, 8.3 Cummins, the Perkins is much smaller displacement than all of those engines and can be easily dragged down climbing a hill in road gear, but has good power and will spin out rather than die at grading speed It has the same gauge cluster as an 86 series IH 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawleigh99 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 Sweet! That is little fancier than mine. I guess mine is between your and the Cat 12 since it does have fully hydraulic controls, but not much in the way of electrics. I had no idea we had so many grader owners on here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Beale Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Add us. An Allis "Forty Five" - means it has a Lanova type engine which was built up from a never used short block. The rest is ranch useable "Rolls Canardly". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHF Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 my father-in-law had an old galion (sp) grader IH 6 cylinder engine all hydraulic i barrowed it couple times for driveways and shaped some waterways with it. pretty cool to run. father-in law got sick brother-in law sold grader. pete 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardtail Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Closet Adams 511 owner 😳 a project like most other things around here... Always liked those Allis 45, perfect size for most small operation needs Still say the grader was the ultimate road building machine, I'm sure many younger folks are not familiar with all the positions and tasks the are capable off, they shine as a maintainer but no slouch in builder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainman Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Trained on Cat 12, OD green at Ft. Leonard Wood, in 1971. No cab, but had a 24v starter. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 I still keep a Caterpillar 12 grader operational a couple times per year. They use it to maintain a horse training facility track. Pony motor starting system but still runs and operates very well. Not so much for the new operator as it can break wrists and knuckles pretty easily. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Beale Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 2 hours ago, Troll said: Not so much for the new operator as it can break wrists and knuckles pretty easily. It helped a lot with our AC 45 to have a manual and the official "How to adjust" those. Previous operators definitely didn't. On those you can reverse the dog clutches and get a new lot of wear surfaces - looks like a job for some courage though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TractormanMike.mb Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 3 hours ago, Troll said: I still keep a Caterpillar 12 grader operational a couple times per year. They use it to maintain a horse training facility track. Pony motor starting system but still runs and operates very well. Not so much for the new operator as it can break wrists and knuckles pretty easily. I was told right away to be careful with the knuckle buster controls. The only time I feel they get difficult is when the mechanism is under extreme load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Beale Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 2 minutes ago, TractormanMike.mb said: I was told right away to be careful with the knuckle buster controls. The only time I feel they get difficult is when the mechanism is under extreme load. If the wear lets it they shouldn't fight you when engaging and they should fall out when you let go. YMMV with wear but ours come close. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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