Scouting Trip

I went on a little Sunday afternoon Scouting Trip to look at two OC-3's. You know what they say, "There's always room in the shed for one (or two) more OC-3's."

I had a brief eletronic conversation with a guy on the ytmag.com forum in November. His uncle died and he was trying to deal with his estate. He wanted to know what OC-3's were worth. He had two machines. I of course told him they range from scrap metal to $4000 depending on condition. I asked the location of the machines. They happen to be in Northern Wisconsin. I said if one was a parts candidate to let me know.

Three months went by and out of no where he emailed me some pictures and a more detailed description of the machines. So, took a drive north to check them out.

The green one is a 1952 OC-3 (42 inch width & 8 inch wide track pads). It has a Ware HGH loader with a 41" wide bucket. It also has a pto with belt pulley. It was described as the better of the two machines. Apparently both machines were running about two years ago before "uncle Tom" got sick. The green OC-3 had "transmission problems" around this time and it was removed and taken to the shop. The parts were "lost" during this long period of time so it was missing a "transmission". I discovered the missing transmission is really a missing clutch unit, bellhousing and gas tank. The tin work is a mess but the undercarriage looks fairly good.

The yellow one is a 1955 OC-3 (42 inch width & 10 inch wide track pads). According to the serial number it was originally a 68 inch wide machine and it was converted to 42 inches somewhere along the way. It has a 77 inch dozer blade that appears to be homemade. It also has a rather odd contraption on the back that I have come to learn is a cable jammer. It was used for skidding logs. The yellow OC-3 has a pto as well. The pto operates the winch on the cable jammer. The sprockets look good. The grousers (the paddles that stick up on the track pad for traction) have been rebuilt via weld. This machine was described as seeing a lot more use and in worse shape. Apparently it had a habit of throwing its tracks. I think I know why. It appears one of the track frames is bent - but I can't be sure because it is sitting in 18" of snow. Lastly, the tin work on this machine is a disaster as well.

If you could combine the two units, you might end up with a functioning crawler. It was a nice day for a drive and it is always fun to look at "The Finest in Farm Machinery". I'll send the guy an email telling him they are less than desireable machines. However, for the right price, I'd find a way to drag them home! We'll see what happens. . .