HD 15 to AC collection
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Construction and other equipment
Forum Description: everything else with orange (or yellow) paint
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97198
Printed Date: 21 May 2024 at 2:57am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: HD 15 to AC collection
Posted By: AC Mel
Subject: HD 15 to AC collection
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2014 at 11:03am
Ok guys, been busy since the Steam Show so haven't had much tractor time. It rained in N. Calif. yesterday so we made a 2 hour trip to the Napa Valley area to visit with a gentleman who would like to donate his HD 15 to our collection. This would be a HD15A serial # 213 It has a Carco front cable unit, Carco angle blade and Carco winch  It's been sitting for 20 plus years, but was running when it was parked  Do to it's location and access it pretty much needs to be started to drive out of there. We'll be traveling to work on it as time allows. It's a perfect specimen that is very complete |
Replies:
Posted By: darrel in ND
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2014 at 10:02am
| Fantastic, Mel. I am always glad to hear of an AC finding a good home! You do know, that if I ever get to your neck of the woods, I will be awefully inclined to stop in and take a peek at your collection. Darrel |
Posted By: Mactractor
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 2:57am
| Another tidy looking 15 Mel. Keep up the good work. Would not be too many around with Carco blade setup would there? All the 15 dozers I`ve seen in pictures had Garwood angle blades and a couple with Baker straight blades. |
Posted By: chumduffy
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 7:34am
I would give "both" my left nuts   to have that tractor Mel!!..... lucky you!!... Your a good man!! Can you put up a video of her working once you get that 671 "jimmy" runing? Chum..... 
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Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 10:27am
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Darrel if you get this close and don't stop by we would be disappointed.Warren Lucas of Lucas Mills in Australia found time to come by on a business trip to the west coast. We'll expect you in Jan /Feb, cause that looks like a good time to be away from North Dakota. We'll do an AC playday when you get here. Mac the Carco units and blades were popular here on the west coast in the logging field. Garwood was just as popular so it can go either way. I think it probably was determined more by who the AC dealer was aligned with at the time. In 1956 the first year of HD11 production our father spec. a Garwood front unit, Baker straight blade and Carco winch for a logging tractor. We're just trying to catch one of everything and if we get this puppy home it will be the first HD15 Carco angle blade. Chumduffy, We'll work on that video thing too. |
Posted By: ac_sd
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 10:43am
| Good for You Mel! There used to be an HD-21G up in that area of California a few years ago that was very straight and complete. I hope the scrappers" didn't get it. It would look good in your collection also! I told Warren next time He's here I want to see Your collection and also go up to see what John Parks at General Gear has. Fresno Tractor also has quite a lineup of AC Crawlers (and parts). |
Posted By: JohnCO
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 12:39pm
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That machine looks to be in pretty good shape, hopefully getting her fired up and loaded won't be too big a deal. Good to see wet in the pictures! ------------- "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant |
Posted By: AusHD6
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2014 at 4:52pm
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G'day Guys My ears were burning, I thought someone was talking about me! Darrell and Bob if you get up to see Mel and Dave's AC collection you'll be more than impressed, I was like a kid in a candy shop, although my wife fell asleep in the car..... I missed Mel but Dave showed Matt and I around for over an hour so it was probably just as well Jenny fell asleep!! Dry as hell down here in Aussie, just like I guess California still is? Great to see pictures of two real nice HD15's on the Forum and better still to see that they both have good homes. Cheers from down under. AusHD6  Here is my first forum picture, hope it comes out alright, this shot was taken in Feb' last year when we were dragging rocks in place for our new workshop retaining wall. The rock which we guess weighs over 30 tons is on a steel sled getting dragged by a 966C and a HD6EP plus getting some "push" help from another HD6EP. |
Posted By: ACcrazy
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 7:28am
All right Mel! And another one finds new life.  Nice pic, AusHD6. That's a mighty big rock ya got there.  |
Posted By: darrel in ND
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 8:04am
| Sounds good, Mel. Jan/Feb is the best time to leave this state, but the cattle may get aweful hungry by the time I got back home. In a year or so, though, the boys can handle that deatail. Darrel |
Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 10:35am
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Warren, great to hear from you! I told you it wouldn't take much to figure out those pictures. So we'll be looking for more soon. So Bob, The HD21G, would it look like this? can you tell us anymore about it? 
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Posted By: Tracy Martin TN
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2014 at 4:49pm
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Nice looking unit. Hope it doesn't take much to get the gal going. Save the Orange! Tracy ------------- No greater gift than healthy grandkids! |
Posted By: HD6 Merv
Date Posted: 05 Nov 2014 at 1:29am
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great pic warren; be better with 3x HD6ep,s ------------- tits tyres and tracks they all cost you money |
Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2014 at 10:39am
Ok, this is are trip yesterday morning. This tractor has probably been sitting for 15 years. We learned from the owner that there had been an attempt to start it in the past year, but they gave up when the engine would only make a partial revolution. With the front cable unit in the way it is difficult to turn the engine manually. They were thinking that there could have been moisture in some cylinders to cause it to stop. So we knew that much to start with. So one of the new Allis Chalmers tools that we carry now days is a Craftsman electric leaf blower that we can run off the welder on the service truck. Yes I got to be a home wrecker, we displaced rats and mice. As you know it seems like we don't even take anything on unless it's been sitting for at least ten years So while I removed all the injectors David removed all the floor boards so we could access the drive shaft to try to turn it over manually. Our thoughts were if we took all the injectors out, with no compression maybe we could turn it over manually first.  They needed to come out anyway because three of them were stuck. We were able to get them all working ok. (had brought extras in case)  So with all the injectors out and a pipe wrench on the drive shaft we were able to turn it back and forth enough that we could tell it was beginning to go further each time. So we put a battery in and spun all the junk out including diesel I dumped in the cylinders. It began pumping fuel out of the fuel manifold so we decided that it was close enough  So we got it started even without either,it actually started faster than we thought, so fast that we didn't have time to get pictures of the smoke that looked like a volcano eruption  So it was pretty exciting for it to come to life that fast.  So it went south after that. I pulled the blade control lever and promptly broke the cable. My first attempt to move and steer blew a hydraulic hose to the steering clutch. But we do have a plan for all that so stay tuned. |
Posted By: Mactractor
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2014 at 12:47pm
| You obviously know your way around 71 series Jimmy`s Mel. Good work |
Posted By: darrel in ND
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2014 at 10:47pm
| In my feeble mind, a project such as that is more fun than hunting, fishing, golfing, watching TV, or any other so called past time. Just seems that my projects always end up taking way too long. Best of luck to you on this venture, and I will be looking forward to seeing machine at your place when I come and visit! Darrel |
Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2014 at 3:10pm
Ok, went back yesterday. Tied up the blade with a chain using the forklift. Replaced a hydraulic hose for the steering and got it started again and moving. We even had to angle the blade to negotiate some obstacles to get out of there  Got to a spot where we cut safely use a torch and load it  Had a discussion about removing the blade.  Took the blade off and the c frame with the forklift   So the reason we opted to remove the blade and trunnions was to be able to haul a legal load through an area that was restricted for over width loads. Probably saving us 3 hours of extra drive time through gnarly traffic  So the plan is to go get this Friday,stay tuned 
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Posted By: ACcrazy
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2014 at 7:02pm
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Excellent!
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Posted By: ac_sd
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2014 at 7:46pm
| Hi Mel, That HD-21G looked just like the one in your picture. It was northwest of Santa Rosa/Windsor. My wife and I were there for Her work on a wine tour and it was up off of Hwy 101 the way I remember it. I could find the area driving but on the computer map hard to determine. I had some pictures of it if I can find them, I'll post them. Nice old '15, Mel! |
Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2014 at 10:39am
Ok, we made the trip to retrieve this last Friday. As I said earlier it was very tight quarters and we knew it would be tough to get the trucks turned around But that went well and we were able to get where we needed to be off the pavement. Got the tractor started again. (and had to finish smashing a 50 gallon drum that we ran over on the first move)  Got it tied down and moved out of the way so we could get the other truck and trailer in.  So it's important to have all the right equipment to take on a tractor rescue like this. Everyone should have an old septic tank form to take and use as cribbing to stand a C frame on so it will be hiway legal and a septic tank knuckle boom truck to load pieces. The original plan was to break this down to hiway legal to get it out of there  The C frame was appox. 9'-8'' and we needed to tip it up to get it under 8'-6'' to be legal. It needed to be a little over 4' to be high enough. A survey of are back yard looked like the old form was high enough and heavy enough, so it became Allis Chalmers tool #CF123 (c frame123)Probably saved from scrapping for future C frame retrieval.  We put the blade on the back of the truck and were good to go.   So we presented a Redwood Valley Gravel hat to tractor donor John Guilliams (a much prized and coveted hat that are hard to earn). He's pleased that it is going to are collection and not scrap. He's a classic car collector and has a whole bunch of projects that he would like to get going on. With that we headed home.  Now it's parked by the wash rack for cleaning and service,reassembly and then an AC playday  |
Posted By: Mactractor
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2014 at 12:45pm
| Very ingenious methods Mel. I`d never have guessed crapper componentry could be of so much use |
Posted By: DiyDave
Date Posted: 18 Nov 2014 at 5:50pm
Now there is a perfect example of farmer ingenuity, in repurposing sh t!
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Posted By: AC Mel
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2014 at 10:17am
| Ok guys, don't give us to much ingenuity credit. We've always lived by the motto "poor man has poor ways" and that was the best we could come up with at the time. But being in the waste water business we do know are sh**t and it's been helpful in collecting ACs |
Posted By: JohnCO
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2014 at 12:37pm
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Great story and pictures, thanks for posting! Reminded me of a friend from California telling me about a septic pumper truck, all polished up chrome and painted black with the company name in gold on the side of the tank. Below the name, in cursive was "Your s%^t is our gravy". ------------- "If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant |
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 05 Dec 2014 at 12:50pm
| wow...that WAS neat...thanks! |
Posted By: Dozer man
Date Posted: 08 Dec 2023 at 11:18pm
| So not to hijack your forum but I have bought and restored several cat dozers like the d7 3t D6 9u but I’m looking at a Allis hd 15 that’s pretty nice but the tracks are at about 40% I will be using it and don’t mind to pay for tracks in the future but I’m worried i won’t be able to find some to buy |