M2 HST Cletrac - the two that followed me home...

Medic, you won't find him, the gravel road to his house is so long, you'd think you were on a ranch in Texas!

wanderingwillys said:

UH OH - trouble found us!

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HaHa indeed it has!

Stalwart said:

Medic, you won't find him, the gravel road to his house is so long, you'd think you were on a ranch in Texas!

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Or Canadia... Plus I enjoy the protection of the King County Ecology Police...

Seriously though - I want to get out to more events but as Stalwart can attest to my schedule is pretty thin on time here in town! I will give it my best effort!

srodocker: He has another little dozer that looks similar but is steel tracked, and also has that Hawk Missile Launcher which is tracked... Only two Cletracs though (unless one extra emerged from the scrub back there).

hwcurtice: The Cletrac's were used for two jobs, the purpose built job of towing / servicing aircraft on unimproved air fields and secondly as an artillery prime mover.

They have a 150psi/1200psi PTO air compressor for running air tools and airing up struts. Also have a 110v DC PTO Generator on the front fender. I threw in a few pics of a fairly complete one in OR at the Evergreen Air Museum.

AaronW: Thanks for the info - I will definitely follow up with him

To all - as things progress I will indeed take a lot of pictures and happily share them here - I plan on taking a bunch of before pics as well...

Thanks again

Matt

Matt, I think there were 3 of them in Kenmore a few years back sitting in the weeds. I'll call the guy that was looking at them later and see if he knew what happened to them. They may have the parts you desire.

That'd be awesome - oh yeah btw - Shelby wants a Stollie in a bad way... I'll just give him a little shove under the bus

Stalwart said:

Matt, I think there were 3 of them in Kenmore a few years back sitting in the weeds. I'll call the guy that was looking at them later and see if he knew what happened to them. They may have the parts you desire.

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I was JUST telling a coworker how cool those things were.

A new dream quickly snuffed out.

...so verrrry cool...!!!

Just a very cool way to get around...and tow stuff too....!!! Envy factor is way up there...(drooling).....

Well - went and picked up Thing I the other day prior to heading out of town for another marine engine adventure...

I built a drop lunette eye bracket for the trailer and it's much happier with the 36" pintle hook height on the duece now...

Anyhow - SN 4JA836 is home... with a busted track (I have a new track for it)

Matt

Dam.Two more Cletracs that I'll never have a chance to buy. I gotta get me one of those some day. Guess I need to start looking out west. Nice tracks ww.

just another pic of "Thing 1" now that she's loaded up and ready to go to her new home. The other pic is just the MFG stamp on the rubber pad of the track-thought it was kind of cool that it was actually still there, and we could read it.

Saw your post on these a while back. Been busy with work and winter so have not had much time to chime in here.
Congrats on the "Army Cat(s)".This is what my brother and I called our Cletrac M2 when we were kids growing up on the place here.My Dad was Army Air Corp in WWII and used these on the job at various airbases while in the service.He bought a Cletrac surplus in the 60's for work here on the "homestead". Some of my fondest memories was being the "cat skinner" while Dad set choker for me. I was young enough at the time that I could not see over the top of the fenders while standing flat footed on the ground.Me,Dad and that Cletrac cleared the trees off the ground my house sits on today.
He passed away a few years ago and his widow let me have what's left of that machine
and another parts machine.Both were nothing left but frame ,finals, transmissions,sets of road wheels and one has a nice pair of tracks.
Been gathering up more pieces so as to restore one or two.I now have 6 machines.3 are mostly complete,two of which are runners. The most complete one has a stuck engine but has lots of goodies,but still no air system.
I made a deal on one more ( the most complete so far), will be going after it this spring hopefully.
BTW, did you end up with that parts machine in Sumerlin Oregon a short while ago? Hope so --it had one track and some other parts.EVERY part on these things are rare-we gotta save it all .
We ought to stay in touch,I'm like you--need some more parts(windshield frame for starters).As I progress I will end up with extra parts to sell or trade I'm sure.
Oh, and if interested, I can post few pics on how I installed the track on one by myself if you would like.
Again,CONGRATS and ENJOY!
Jim

Thanks Jim - I would love to chat about what we can help each other out with - I tried like the devil to get that machine in Oregon but by the time we got to the stage of negotiating a price he checked with his folks that ran the yard and his dad had scrapped the thing... I have some pictures of it and the serial number but that's about it - I was super bummed as I needed one of the compressor drive units and it had one...

As you said parts are rare and need to be conserved - I am planning on making some copies of any interesting brackets or parts which can be fabricated - I also was looking at having some of the harder to find stuff like W/S knobs reproduced...

I have 2 W/S frames in reasonable shape - one is just the outer frame but most of it looks pretty easy to copy - the lower mount to the hood is a bit trickier...

Anyhow feel free to email, pm or whatever - happy to talk tracklayer - best regards

Matt

waayfast said:

Oh, and if interested, I can post few pics on how I installed the track on one by myself if you would like.

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That'd be great if you could post up some pics and a little blurb on how to install a track solo - they are kinda like big snakes; start rolling it around and they just take on a mind of their own!

Thanks

Matt

The GF spent lots of time on her computer organizing all her pics---now I have a heck of a time finding anything LOL.BUT I will try.
The GF and any available offspring were NOT available to help with the track install. So I just went into HERMIT mode--figure out how to do it solo.
Had an unusually warm day in NOV and wanted to take advantage of it so as to get the machine mobile and drive it into the shop before the WHITE DEATH arrived.
Found a piece of 2 or 3 inch pipe (Buried now so can't measure?)10 feet long in the resource depot(junk pile)Welded some heavy 2x2 angle onto the pipe(up wind of course as the pipe was galvanized)These 14 inch long angles were spaced ne at each end and two spaced to be just missing the upper road wheels. Then two chunks of 4inch channel welded to the opposite side of the pipe.Then the TRACK RACK was bolted the the floor of the front bucket of the GF tractor.

Then use studs and spacers at the top of the road wheel springs, compress (lift) both sets of bogie springs so as to get maximum clearance so you have enough "slack" to get the track on.The maintenance manual (Jensales repro) shows the proper procedure.It's best to compress the supension before jacking up the machine-the weight helps to give a "head start".Jack up the side you are dealing with and make SURE it is safe and steady with blocking that WILL stand the weight .Safety first!

That's pretty similar to the design of the factory tool I have seen pictures of in use on the John Deere factory floor in 1942 - only theirs had an adjustable spreader function and some kind of offset bar so you can use it with an overhead crane...

I am pretty much in the same solo boat for most projects - by the end of summer I will have some help as the GF is moving down from Alaska...

Anyhow - great info; did you chain up any of the road wheels or just let them droop? - (edit: we posted back to back - got any better info on the stud and spacer arrangement?)

Matt

I leveled the dirt under the road wheels and put down some ply wood so the track would not "dig in" as I pushed it into position.One thing here--I was not on very level ground and fought a lot harder because of that. Level for both the Cletrac AND the front loader tractor makes alignment MUCH easier.Level AND paved or concrete would be the ideal condition for both safety and ease of operation.
Pick up the track with the TRACK RACK and get close to the Cletrac as shown.Use pry bars to shuffle the track off the rack and onto the machine.I did it with the fender on but would have been somewhat easier with the fender off.
Those blocks of wood tied to the drive sprocket prevent the track guides from falling into the wrong groove.Kinda hard to explain on here but when you start it will become clear.Actually small chunks of angle iron may work better--track guides would slide off steel easier-- kinda bit into the wood but it got it done.

Yep, stole the idea from that same photo.Saw that in my "Highspeed tractor" book by David Doyle.I was thinking of copying that exact design but for the front loader trick I found I did not need to be so elaborate.
Spring compressor is pipe or tubing 1 and 15/16 OD and 1 and1/2 ID. 1 and 15/16 long.I welded a "cap" on one end with a 1/2" hole to put the stud thru.Stud screws into the threads at the top of the spring and the 1/2 nut does the pulling.LOL seems like I remember thinking a Gasser Deuce exhaust manifold stud was just right for the job.Book calls for 4 and1/2 inch total length.
The caps on top of the springs come right off with a few bolts---just a cover ---it's not "loaded" so to speak.Will be full of grease( or shoulda been).Once its ceaned up you'll see how it works.

Be sure to look at your track guides. I found some that had been "folded" over.Much easier to fix lying flat on the ground while being held up by the rack.I really doubt I could have had ANY luck doing what I did to fix it if it was installed on the machine.There simply would not be room to work.I used a torch for heat (Talk about NERVOUS!!!) and wedges to spread the guide out to kinda where it needed.
Also be aware that the "narrow" end of the guide feeds to the drive sprocket first while in forward motion. Don't install it backwards.

M2 HST Cletrac

Just when you thought you had it all someone posts another photo. Now you need the Cletrac TRAILER to go behind the tractor.

This was taken on the ALCAN highway at the end of or just after WWII. Its the only image I have ever seen of a trailer? Theater made or factory?

Cat Man
(Love those tracks)