my son called me this afternoon from Oklahoma, he told me he has just bought a Cletrac DDH with a Hercules 6 cylinder Diesel engine.
He didn't give me the serial number, but I was wondering if someone could give me an idea how old this dozer is.
Thanks,
Bob
Hello Bob, I'd say you came to the right place. I bought a Cletrac DGH last summer and the tractor serial # was missing but with the info I had we were able to figure out that it was likely mid 50's vintage. Mine has Borg-Warner air assist steering and an ATECO hyd. blade. There are some pretty good brains that inhabit this website and it shouldn't take to long for someone to help you pinpoint the year closer than I can, but if You look a little farther down this page you should be able to find my posts inquiring about the year of my tractor, and with the replies that I received possibly make an approximate determination of the year of manufacture of this particular piece. To the best of my knowledge the only differance between a DGH and your DDH is the engine, Mine having the big flathead gasser, which seems to draw in about a 1/2 pint of gasoline with each intake stroke. Oh well, I've got a Diesel John Deere for the payin' gigs! Good luck to you snd you're son and have fun! Thanks Carl B.
Thanks Carl for the information, he called me this morning to let me know that he will get me the serial number, looking forward to the detective work.
Thanks again,
Bob
I have found on all of my DD and DDH cletracs that the cast date for the gearbox housing can be found by lying under the machine and looking near the tie bar that runs accross the machine just under the clutch housing. If it is not too ground away from years of use then you can see what year the housing was cast, giving you a approximate age of your'e machine.
DD crawlers were built for almost a 20 year period of time starting in 1939. We need more details.
My son called a few minutes ago and gave me this number that was on the firewall plate 2L0539.
Is this a workable number?
Thanks,
Bob
Yes the 2L number is the serial number. Will be back home tomorrow, and will post further information.
Quote from: "Bob Drown"My son called a few minutes ago and gave me this number that was on the firewall plate 2L0539.
Is this a workable number?
Thanks,
Bob
Your tractor was born in 1948.
Thanks for the information, I will call him and let him know that it was born in 1948, the same year as me:)
Thanks again,
Bob
Yes yours is an early 48. Many changes were made to the DD over the years. As built yours would have been rated at 1200 rpm with 61.19 hp. There were optional low speed gears available. these included a low speed pinion ( 11teeth vs 12 ) for the final drive and low first and second speed gears. These became standard some time in the 50's. when the engine rated speed was changed to 1300 rpm and 60.47 hp. Drawbar pull in first with the old gears was 11,800 lbs vs 14,700 with the low speed gears. In 1951 the final drive cover was changed to add puller screws beside the dowels to make removal easier. Part number for this cover is 61378 and the numbers are cast into the outside of the cover and are easy to find. I have a 47 and 48 parts tractor and both have the new type covers. I have not pulled them yet to see what gears I have. Tractors that have survived this long and are still running often have parts from newer machines. I have manuals for them If you have any specific questions.
i have often wondered how the DD and DDH cletracs can have an optional 11 tooth pinion in the final drive yet i can only find one referance to the large final drive gear in the parts book. It doesn't make sense to me that you can change one gear without the other, bearing in mind that the center distances of the two gears are set in the final drive housing, so you cannot move them slightly closer for the smaller 11 tooth pinion. Anybody able to shed some light on this, regards Pete.
You are right you can not run an 11 and 12 tooth pinions on the same bull gear with the same center distance if the pinions are of the standard gear form. Assuming that the original 12 tooth gear is the standard shape, then the standard 11 tooth pinion should be closer to the bull gear. To run it at a wider spacing the teeth are thicker and run further out on the bull gear. The ratio of the pitch circle has to be the same as the teeth ratio. It is only practical to do things like this when the difference from standard shape is small which it is in this case as the bull gear has 67 teeth.
Broken parts equal broken hearts.
well that is a first for me, never realised you could change pinions without the bull gear. will have to have a look at my cletracs as i reckon the dd cletrac probably has the 12 tooth pinion wheras the ddh ones use the 11 tooth. do any other cletracs do this to change the final drive gearing??. Had a fun afternoon today. started 3 of my cletracs and spent some time driving around the trails. Nothing like the sound of an old diesel with a 4" open exhaust!!. Got 100 + truckloads of gravel to spread soon, that should be fun.Regards Pete.
I do not know of any other cletrac that have two different pinions available. Some of the others have different ratio gear sets for the transmission but not for the final drive that I am aware of. To be able to do that the gears have to be designed specifically for that application. For the DD I would expect that it was designed this way right from the start and none of the gears would be of a standard form, all would be specific to this application.