Yukon Dozer Starts After 30 Years

I was watching an unreal reality show and saw a couple of tough Alaskan men get an old dozer going after it had set in the brush for 30 years or so. They actually got it to start and move. I believe it was steering also and the cable did seem to lift the blade.
Now I will admit that I have brought some old iron to life after it had been sitting for some years but it took days of work and a lot of carb cleaning and fuel tank fixing. And I had access to a battery charger and a lot of chemicals before I got them going.
They [the real Alaskan people] did it with nothing but their ingenuity . It is amazing what they can do on TV.

& they did it all in 1/2 hour show!!!

How many times did they rehearse that show to get it right?

(quoted from post at 17:24:06 03/03/15) I was watching an unreal reality show and saw a couple of tough Alaskan men get an old dozer going after it had set in the brush for 30 years or so. They actually got it to start and move. I believe it was steering also and the cable did seem to lift the blade.
Now I will admit that I have brought some old iron to life after it had been sitting for some years but it took days of work and a lot of carb cleaning and fuel tank fixing. And I had access to a battery charger and a lot of chemicals before I got them going.
They [the real Alaskan people] did it with nothing but their ingenuity . It is amazing what they can do on TV.

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About 5 or 6 years ago I got a call from a gal that wanted to get her step dad's Allis D17 diesel running. He had been dead for 19 yrs. The tractor was in the barn, but had sunk to the rear rims in the dirt. We added water to the radiator, had to get one brake unstuck, then finally got it drug out with a Dodge powerwagon in 4x4. Pulled it 20 feet and it was running as if it had been run the day before.

BULLDOZER!
Him & Duckey got it done!

I think you pegged it right when you said,"UNREAL, reality show"!

I don't know why some can't believe you can't get something going if its sat for more then couple of years. I got a IH 151 combine running that had been sitting since the early 80s. Drained the oil, added new oil and coolant. Threw a battery on it and it started and ran. Drove it 12 miles home. Course it had been setting inside but dad and I got a JD 820 (2 cylinder) running that had been siting outside for 15+ years.

The people paying for the show probably made real sure the dozer would start on que ahead of time, and then had the actors go through the motions of fixing it for the camera.

(quoted from post at 17:24:06 03/03/15) I was watching an unreal reality show and saw a couple of tough Alaskan men get an old dozer going after it had set in the brush for 30 years or so. They actually got it to start and move. I believe it was steering also and the cable did seem to lift the blade.
Now I will admit that I have brought some old iron to life after it had been sitting for some years but it took days of work and a lot of carb cleaning and fuel tank fixing. And I had access to a battery charger and a lot of chemicals before I got them going.
They [the real Alaskan people] did it with nothing but their ingenuity . It is amazing what they can do on TV.

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hat was a Allis HD-10.
I had an identical one for many years, these are tough machines alright.
I had another one like it sitting abandoned in the bush edge of a field when i bought the place, apparently it had sat there for 15+ years with a crown and pinion that had lost a couple teeth.
I had my son pull it home one day with the tractor, i was in the seat(whatever was left of it)of the cat and going down the driveway i pulled it into gear and released the clutch to see if it would turn over. To my surprise it did and started belching crud and water and oil from the stack and after a couple more yards it came to life smoking like a coal fired loc.
The fun did not last long though, it started knocking and seized solid shortly after
I found out later that there had been a mouse nest on top of one piston that busted the piston and broke and jammed a rod.

I suspect the one in the Alaskan story was in a similar shape.

(quoted from post at 00:06:05 03/04/15) BULLDOZER!
Him & Duckey got it done!

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One of my favorite books. Good thing Gus Frake wasn't around to screw things up!

I bought an Allis Chalmers HD 14 dozer with a Detroit in it that had set for at least 10 years so the owner said outside with the exhaust covered.It was in the Winter cold etc so I had a fellow with a Landoll Haul All bring it to my farm after a few warm days I put a battery in it and it fired right up so who knows.

(quoted from post at 20:24:06 03/03/15) I was watching an [b:f9410fb018]unreal reality show [/b:f9410fb018]and saw a couple of tough Alaskan men get an old dozer going after it had set in the brush for 30 years or so. They actually got it to start and move. I believe it was steering also and the cable did seem to lift the blade.
........ It is amazing what they can do on TV.

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yup, "unreal" all right. I was surfing the TV and saw a log house building show last night. They highlighted the crane operator at the site dropping a load of small logs bundled together with ratchet straps. Definitely staged. They got a closeup of the foreman on camera saying something like "don't stand under that load, I don't trust those straps". the crane operator lifted that load 40-50' in the air (why so high?) and then the strap "let go" and the logs tumbled into a pile. The clue was that no one jumped out of their skin when the load fell. A couple of guys just stood and watched it. The logs just happened to fall where the main guy said "hey at least it fell in a good place" (probably right where they wanted them). They also made a big deal out of a sensor that "broke" on the crane and they had to shut down the crane and go into town for a replacement part. Then there was the drama of fitting a log truss onto the walls. The end of the log dropped into a notch and you'd have thought they landed on the moon with the high fives and cheers. :roll: That's where I rolled my eyes and turned it off.

By and large the reality shows struggle to keep an audience interested in something that is normally mundane. That's why I liked the Dirty Jobs show. They condensed and showcased something into a single segment and moved onto something else the next week.

It's amazing how long diesels can sit without getting seized, unlike gas motors . It must be that film of oil in the fuel that prevents condesation problems turning to rust .

Larry --ont.

The colder and drier the climate, the better it would be, generally.

I bought a JD R from Lee Risa that had sat for 30 years. They were baling straw and stripped the pto gears and then parked it. I fixed the pto , took lots of gear teeth from transmission and added new oil. I drained the fuel tank and put fresh fuel in, changed fuel filters and went for it. I had the tractor backed in the shop and I rolled the big motor over for quite some time. The wife was there to take a picture of it when it started. When I started the big engine the smoke was so intense that I nearly didn't get it out of the shop before I run out of air. Should have pulled it outside before starting.... Bud

I bet there was a lot more going on that what they showed.

He's on CNN now, "Someone's Gotta Do It". They're the only network that didn't want a script when he was shopping it around after DIscovery cut Dirty Jobs.

He really didn't like the way they edited the 4 (final) shows from Australia.

I bought a JD R from Lee Risa that had sat for 30 years. They were baling straw and stripped the pto gears and then parked it. I fixed the pto , took lots of gear teeth from transmission and added new oil. I drained the fuel tank and put fresh fuel in, changed fuel filters and went for it. I had the tractor backed in the shop and I rolled the big motor over for quite some time. The wife was there to take a picture of it when it started. When I started the big engine the smoke was so intense that I nearly didn't get it out of the shop before I run out of air. Should have pulled it outside before starting.... Bud