HD21G RECOVERY TO AC COLLECTION

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   Ok, guys as busy as we have been we took several Saturdays to retrieve this HD21G loader. This loader belonged to Tom Engle and was parked on his property in Sonoma County Ca. between Healdsburg and Geyserville on hiway 101.  Sooo....I hope I have the story right... Tom and his family migrated to the area in the late 1950s or early 1960s from the San Diego area. Tom used the tractor on his property for miscellaneous projects and improvements for several years. It was parked along the highway where it was very visible. My brother and I first stopped and talked to Tom about it probably 25 years ago....knowing that it had not moved for many years...thinking he might get rid of it. I remember it as a fun visit....and he liked his one AC as much as we liked are dozen ACs!  (not a surprise to anyone on this forum) He was pretty sure he was going to use it some more. We made our first official offer on 2-15-08....still have the letter on my file cabinet. We thought it was a generous offer...more than scrap was worth at the time.  It weighs appox 75000# with the rippers....he was appreciative of the offer and said he would consider it.

Once we made the offer we knew there wasn't much else we could do....we did continue to stop by or call him....and he was always happy to talk tractors (like us) We also had friends that would stop by and lobby on our behalf...that it would not go for scrap. He made the comment to one of them that he had been offered $10,000.00. That was about the time the delivered scrap price here in Ca. had escalated to $500.00 a ton delivered....could have made the tractor worth about $15,000.00....so after knowing that...we quit worrying about it. We were still very sure that Tom would not sell it for scrap...but we knew we could not compete for the value that was now on it.
  So to fast forward a bit.....Tom passed away a couple of years ago. His son Tom is handling the estate. They have had to do a lot of cleanup....and knowing how important this tractor was to there father...it was the last thing to go. Tom had placed an ad that RickV (of ACforum fame) spotted. He contacted Tom and made a tentative deal to take the tractor....Rick later contacted us to see if we had interest in helping him move it.....or maybe take it....he was also thinking it might be too big of job being that far away.We contacted Tom and made arrangements to buy the tractor and move it.  The time frame to move it became very complicated for us....do to fires last year....then maybe being to wet where the tractor was parked...then fire work again this year. Need to thank Tom and the estate for there patience to do this.
   So the first thing we had to worry about to move this tractor was ....literately will it move. It had been sitting for so long we had lots of concerns...track links rusted together(we've had that)...brake bands rusted to steering clutches (we've had that)...engines froze up with the clutches all stuck (we've had that)    Sooo... we we're taking bets on what happened.  
  So I haven't posted anything for some time....videos were always a problem with Photo Bucket....There gone from videos....so I have taken the big plunge to" utube " ...spent some time trying to figure out how to keep it separate from my day to day PC accounts. I have edited and spliced lots of video for posting...if it works.  So I'm going to try the first upload now to see if it works....then I can continue the story.

    https://youtu.be/-PUOlp0AwWU

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