Airborne WWII Era Clark Dozer and LeTourneau Scraper

[bryani289swmi]

Greetings,


I wanted to post a few pictures of items I've picked up in the past year or so and make a few contacts. First is a Clarkair Tractor Crawler-Airborne Model CA-1. This is a picture of us just prior to loading it up at the Rantoul, IL show last summer.



I picked this this one up from a friend to restore for him, it is complete with the side weight boxes (not pictured). Currently in process of sandblasting and painting.



Just got got this back home a couple weeks ago, I hope to return it to the original color at some point. This LeTourneau was built in Taccoa, GA, the order for it was placed on April 12, 1945 and it was built a short time later. The serial number is C5T-2492-D4-A.



I think I have all the manuals for the units, just looking for some original parts that have been replaced (lights, gauges, Tillotson carb, etc) and to talk to any other owners and experts. Thanks.

Bryan

PS- I have no idea why some of the pictures show up upside down

 

[Ray70]

Cool stuff... thanks for sharing. Now I'll go take an asprin for my headache, from standing on my head looking at the pics.

 

[airbornebandsman]

Nice, Wish I had one of those airborne dozers.

 

[CARNAC]

All I can saw is WOW and I want one!

 

[Jeepsinker]

Me too! That is one cool little dozer!

 

[jhooah]

Have one, there are several under restoration, G503 site has some info posted under tracked vehicles, there is a gentleman near Chicago I tlked with about a year ago that was putting one of two back together and possibly fabbing some parts for resale.
I'd say there are about 50 in collectors hands (that's a SWAG) but they do come up often. the ground on this was positive 6 volt ground, so I'd be interested in what yours is running. Seems like the 82nd ABN museum's CA-1 had starter problems and it was likely as they were punching 12V neg ground through the starter.
I'm in Virginia, not too much on the internet regarding them other than "Sklyers" ?(sp) web sight. I did end up with a second set of manuals, don't buy the set from the tractor web page (I think it's SCB or such), they sell three and they are not as good as Portrayals copies.
V/R W Winget
Carrollton, Va.

 

[bryani289swmi]

I'm looking for someone with an underseat tool box. Both the units I have are missing theirs and I'm looking for someone who could give me the dimensions so I could fab one up. I had thought I could get the dimensions from the one on display at the Dayton Air Force Museum but theirs is missing the toolbox too. I was going to post this over at the clarkair dozer board but something seems to be wrong with the board there, I can't get signed in and haven't found how to contact the board administrators there. Thanks.

Bryan

 

[a109836]

Why does the Army dismantle things like this?

I came across a stripped down Cat 613b scraper for sale on Ironplanet, why would the army dismantle something like this, was it a rebuild? The motor and Tranny is in a wood crate and everything else is in the bowl of the scraper.

 

[maddawg308]

Love the LeTourneau scraper setup! Those are few and far between anymore, like anything LeTourneau - as time goes on, they are just fading away...

 

[KsM715]

It was in the middle of a rebuild when it got " surplused" out. If I thought I could get it home and put back together I'd take a shot at it. I have a lot of top soil I need scraped of the lower part of my propery and brought up to the house to build my yard up.