Stories
By Dave Wintermute
Two significant newsworthy events to communicate.
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By Dave Wintermute
Welcome to all Yellow Power members and guests! It seems like the good spring and summer weather is upon us finally and the show/event season is underway also.
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Saturday Service. A large manufacture of "off the road" tires recently made a detailed study of tire maintenance on an earthmoving project which totaled 5 million tire miles. During this period, a rigid inspection and maintenance schedule was initiated. Additionally, haul roads were better maintained. The results were as anticipated: Increased tire life, decreased downtime. Previously tire inflation pressures were erratic. In fact only 48% of all the tires operated at recommended pressures. Twenty to twenty five pounds variation from recommended pressures was common. Cuts. or minor damage ad also been overlooked.
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Simplicity is the ticket for turbocharger savings. The mechanism itself is a simple, turbine driven air compressor and all operation, maintenance and reconditioning procedures are simple and logical.
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The purpose of ConExpo has always been to promote the latest and greatest products. To do that, companies will often highlight their past to help promote the present. 2023 ConExpo undoubtedly was more focused overall on showing ideas for the future instead of the past, but that has not always been the case. In 2011, Caterpillar heavily leveraged the company's heritage to enhance the show experience and message.
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Throughout the history of Caterpillar, their marketing department has produced countless informational brochures and guides for potential and existing users of the earthmoving machines they produce. Just like shopping for a new car, these pamphlets provide a broad base of information germane to the specific machine and the needs tailored to the end user. Stylistically, the artwork and formats used are evident to the period they were published. Understandably, these pieces are enviable to the serious collector and finding a complete undamaged copy is always a nice addition.
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36 years ago, marks the first time that Conexpo visited Las Vegas, Nevada. With Conexpo-Con/Agg 2023 kicking off on March 14 and running until March 18, lets look at the first year it was held in Las Vegas.
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To start the year 2023, and after a few months of planning, the Yellow Power Caterpillar Community was officially formed and held its first Director’s meeting. Congratulations to all who helped, participated and worked on this effort.
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It is still too wet to get into Tehachapi, so no retrievals this week. It looks like one more storm early next week, so it may dry out enough for us to get into there by the following weekend.
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Cat has a long history of "special edition" machines for specific promotional purposes. This tradition goes back to at least the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exhibition with the Holt Caterpillar's displayed there, and continues through present day. One recent example of special edition track-type tractors produced by Cat were some D6s produced to commemorate a dozer manufacturing milestone in 2020.
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I own a 1956 Cat D2 5U and have always wanted to get a winch mounted to use for pulling logs. The opportunity to purchase a Hyster D2N came about when I got a phone call from Chad Enyeart saying he knew where a nice one for sale was located. The price was fair but the big question was getting it from California to Georgia. We soon had that arranged and it arrived at my shop shortly afterwards.
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Several years ago, my friend Mike and I went on an excursion to a junk yard we were both aware of in eastern Indiana. We met early on a cold winter morn and drove the 2 hours through fog and frost. When we arrived, it was a boneyard that not only held industrial scrap and derelict machinery, but many reasonably intact Caterpillar machines. There were other brands of earth moving gear also, but our eyes were on the prize of grey or “Safety Yellow” salted with splotches of rust. When we checked in with the proprietor, we were instructed to find what we were looking for and he’d let us know the price. To be sure, our negotiating skills would be tested. Unless it was in the back of my truck, it was all worthless. Off we wandered, sometimes as a team, sometimes alone, but each find would result in an excited discussion of what it was and how we needed it.
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We had hoped to go to Tehachapi and retrieve some of the old iron up there. The weather has been rainy and wet, so looks like that probably won’t happen. The retrieval fun will get postponed until a later weekend.
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This coming weekend we’ve got a few busy days in the Garlic shop planned. The following projects need to make progress over the three days:
