Looked at an AG-6 this weekend

[AaronH]

All,

I took a look at an AG-6 this weekend with what I believe is an Anderson blade. The motor is stuck from sitting, but ran last time it was parked several years ago. I am told the tracks move freely as of 3 or 4 years ago. It's stitting on decent ground, so I would expect not much has changed since then. Is there anything to watch out for on these other than the normal undercarriage wear? The tracks and sprockets seem to be in fair shape, although I don't know how far out the adjusters are. I read in the book these weigh 7,000 dry. I assume that is a bare tractor without a blade. How much does a blade add to it? Like anything old, it needs paint and a new seat. Hydraulic lines look a bit frightening. No side shields. The rest of the sheetmetal looks decent. No pto, but has rear remote for the fire plow that it used to have. Anyone have a ballpark as to what these things go for in running-driving condition?

Thanks in advance,
Aaron

[Robert Barbour]

The Ag 6 uses a 226 continental engine which is relatively easy to get parts for.  The tracks should have 29 links each, pitch is 6 5/8".  When well worn a link is often removed.  If that has been done already then it is not worth much as a good undercarriage is the most difficult to find.

[AaronH]

Robert,

Thanks for the info. How do you tell how much life is left in the undercarriage? Is it simply a visual inspection where someone makes an estimation, or are measurements taken of the pins/bushing, sprockets, idlers, ect to form a more educated analysis? I looked at the drive sprockets and the teeth don't appear to be severely oblong. The tracks appear to be tensioned (i.e. not much slack on the top side), although I don't know where the adjusters are. Grousers are still fairly tall. I wouldn't use it a tremendous amount, so as long as the tracks stay on it'll work for me.

I currently own an old Clark forklift with, I believe, the same Continental engine. It didn't run when I bought it. I had to rebuild the Pertronix distributor and unstick 3 valves. So, I'm mildly familiar with it. Incidentally, Continental has a great rebuild manual in PDF on their website that give a lot of great detailed information. The only major difference I can see is that the dozer has a magneto versus the Clark cam driven distributor.

Regards,
Aaron

[Robert Barbour]

I have not seen any wear figures for tracks in any of my Oliver manuals.  My JD 450 manual which has tracks with a 6.3" pitch give a stretch of 1/2" over four links as 100% wear and 3/4 as 150% wear.  The idea being that you run the track until you get to 100% wear then rotate the pins and bushings and run to 100% again.  If you go to 150% the bushing is to thin to rotate. Now Oliver track have rollers that other tracks don't have so the bushing do not wear on the outside anyway near the way they do on other crawlers, so you could likely go to 150% and still rotate the bushings.  So to use this as a guide for your AG,  when new the length over four links pin center to pin center of a tight track would be 4 x 6.625" which is 26.5" So 27" would be close to 100% and 27.25 150 % wear.    So I would say if your track measures less than 27" it is in quite good shape, over 27.25 and it is well worn.

For sprockets , if the top of the teeth is 3/8" wide they are in good shape, if they come to a sharp point they are well worn.   
The rest of the undercarriage will likely be close to the same condition of the tracks and sprockets so they would give you a good indication of what you have.

[oliverchris]

Half decent ones around these parts (NY, PA, VT) seem to get $2,000 to $3,000 depending on equipment (winch, blade etc.).
I am always very tempted (Oliver addict) but then OC4s aren't much more and they are arguably more versatile and manoeuvrable, but obviously not as powerful.