Hoopa Caterpiller

[muleskinner]

This posting revolves around a Cat which I knew personally in my life as it was owned by a gypo logging outfit in hoopa California, where a 15 year old High School dropout learned to be a Cat Skinner. It was a surplus buy from the US Navy and was used extensivly in the south Pacific by the Sea Bees before being retrograded back to the states and sold. The grill in this Cat had been rebuilt by the Sea Bees to direct more air into the radiator grill for better cooling in the tropical heat. The Blade hoisting and lowering was accomplished by an overhead Cable system which came up from the winch in the back and traveled down a long tubular guide to the front of the Cat and then attached to the blade blocks. When she was bought surplus from the Navy she was fitted with a brand new rebuilt winch unit which was designed to accomidate both the over head haywire and the winching haywire for the lead line. She was given the customary logging Cage around the Skinner Platform and frontal guards over the hood. The intake breather was moved to the position on the out board deck extension which was also a company modifacation, and a circular patch was added where the breather used to go thru the hood. She wasn't turbine powered and was the most stubborn animal to start in the mornings and was addicted to starting fluid as the owner would say. In the summer she was a good running unit but in the winter because of the over cooling problem with the radiator grill, she often ran with a peice of heavy canvas draped and tied over the grill to keep the radiator from super cooling. This is the Cat I remember most as she was the one I learned the art of Cat Skinning on from an old Cat Skinner, named Tom Noble. He'd been around Cat for so long there was nothing which he couldn't tell you about the art. When I last saw this cat a few years back it was rusting away in a field atop Liscomb Hill road out side of Blue Lake California, on the old Noble Ranch. The extention atop the blade was done also to keep limbs and what not from going into the radiator thru the open grill work, when doing clearing and road work.

I built her from memory and used the AMT D-8H for conversion which was really minor. She was a twin sticker steer unit which I added after modifying the dash and deck of the model. The right hand outside stick was a addition which I attached like on the original, to the winch power unit for the main winch control and the one on the out side of the right side of the cat is the control for the small rear over head winch to the blade. The winch is a copy of the original modifacation which was made to the original Cat in a shop somewhere over by Redding California.

The model is a replilca of the Cat as I remember her because, like truck driving, you never forget the first rig you learn on and the people who took the time to teach you the trade of being a Cat Skinner or truck Driver.

Edited June 9, 2010 by muleskinner

[Kostas Parchas]

Hey,

this beast looks real in the first picture, I was comfused!!

Nice, very nice!

Kostas.

[cowboysevens]

lol yeah i thought i was looking at a picture of the real thing until i noticed the wood decking!! great job on the "antiqing" thanks for sharing that with us

dennis

[disabled modeler]

WOW!!!... Very very nice! I thought it was a photo of a real one too.

[Zhu]

Great post Muleskinner.

This post has everything I enjoy about model making, a wonderfully executed model linked to a fascinating story.

Great stuff.

Davey.

[cam]

looks like you could hop on, fire it up and go to work. excellent weathering.

[ARTEMIS1759]

Good Job. This CAT Model reminds me of the ones I seen in a pic being used in Vietnam.

[Jim B]

Another well detailed, amazing model. Top notch!

[TUFF TIN]

William,

That is fabulous! Is that what you took to Florence?

Mike

[muleskinner]

William,

That is fabulous! Is that what you took to Florence?

Mike

This is the new one, Mike, I had the other Cat up there with the Logging Arch on it.

[rronning84]

That thing looks amazing, just like the real ones I =have seen too.

[muleskinner]

Good Job. This CAT Model reminds me of the ones I seen in a pic being used in Vietnam.

Basically it is the same as the pictures you saw. The grill and basic cat design was a standard Viet nam machine. When I was drafted into the military in the later 60's I was stationed in Viet Nam and the engineer unit next to my company had about seven Cats which were modified like the original of this model, excluding the logging cage and equipment. All Painted (Yuck!) OD Green!!!

Edited June 9, 2010 by muleskinner

[Guest old man]

THAT IS THE BEST BUILD I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR THE CATERPILLER DOZER KIT WOW !

[old-hermit]

VERY nice build and it brings back some memories. I learned "Cat Skinning" on an old cable operated D-8 also. It had a hand cranked, gas fired pony motor for a starter. You fired the pony motor and after it warmed up you threw the lever to engage the diesel engine. If you didn't break your arm cranking the pony motor you were having a great day. heh heh heh.

[SpreadAxle]

Well done.

[muleskinner]

Thanks guys for the great comments. Will be the last posting for awhile. Have some other casting projects to get done, which have been back logged for awhile. One again thanks very much.