Posted by David Sherman on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 01:13:43 :
In Reply to: So here's the story... posted by Glenn Reid in CA on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 00:45:09 :
That's too nice of a cat and too nice of a truck to do this, but in the old days, a guy would just back the truck up against a dirt bank if he could find anything remotely close to the height of the bed and drive it off even if it was a bit of a drop. A few planks or logs might be used to help a bit. I'd like to be able to haul my 7U series D4 around in the back of an M35, but haven't figured out a way to get it in and out of that 4' high bed in places where there isn't a convenient dirt bank. I have a pair of glu-lams that I've used to slide or roll machinery up into the bed, but it wasn't easy and I don't relish the idea of trying to drive a 10,000 lb cat up a pair of glu-lams. I guess that's why God made low-boys, but in my valley there's only one place to turn a lowboy around in the whole 15 miles of road.
By the way, that's a real nice looking D2. It's sure built the same as my D4 -- 4 track rollers, 4-cyl engine, pony motor, governor control on the air cleaner, fuel tank in the seat back, same injector pump, etc. But yours is in infinitely better condition. I still use mine for work and leave it out in the weather. The reliability of those old beasts is amazing. They don't have a lot of power but they just keep on going. I think peak torque on that engine comes at something like 900 rpm, and the pony motor will start it no matter how low the compression gets. They just keep chugging away.