H15 HD5 SHOWTIME

So a couple of days before we went to the"Redwood Region Logging Conference" antique equipment display we got to visit with Loyd Mittelstatd. Lloyd with his father and 2 brothers had a sawmill they started in Cloverdale Ca.(Sonoma County) Known as Barnes Lumber. They acquired the tractor from a private timberland family that had purchased it new. The family was using it to log with when an untimely death in the family (not related to the logging project) prompted them to sell it to Lloyd and his family to continue logging on there property. Lloyd remembers the tractor as being almost new at that time, only a couple of years old.
They continued to log on that property for several years and then went on to log different parcels of property in the Occidental, Forestville areas of Sonoma County. Lloyd tells stories of having to cut into quarters 14' diameter redwood logs to haul to the mill. They had 3 or 4 company trucks including Macks, Pete's and KWs at different times. They cut a lot of fir also, mostly depending on what the mill needed to cut for lumber at the time. He talks about loading logs with an HD5 loader that they had to adjust the hydraulic pressure to be able to load the big wood and getting a hot oil bath when a hydraulic hose would break. That all went on until about 1970 when the sawmill burned down. At that time they elected not to rebuild the mill and the tractor sat. We were able to track Lloyd down with several phone calls knowing that the family still runs a lumber yard in Cloverdale. After emailing some pictures to Mary Jane, Lloyds wife. She called and said "we've gotta come look". It was a very enjoyable visit and I hope I got the story right.
    The tractor sat for several years before John Guilliams of St Helena, Ca. purchased it for developing his vineyard and winery property. John used it for several years and then parked it sometime 15-20 years ago where it sat until he donated it to our collection. We would like to thank John again.

We removed the angle blade and leave the C frame on for hauling so we don't have to use a pilot car for moving up the highway.
We carry the blade on the boom truck so we can put it on after we unload
It's about a 3 and half hour drive








We were able to use the yard forklift to put the blade on so we didn't have to get are boom out

We've always tried to post all the basic info, which seems to be helpful.


So the first day is Education Day. Over 1800 school students visited the Lumberjack Show,Wild Things, and Historical Displays, (and trust me there favorite thing is blowing the steam whistles)
Footprints all over our $2000.00 paint job was somewhat nerve racking. But they enjoyed it.
So one morning we had a tractor pulling competition between a Cat 15A D8 and a International TD24    So I 'm struggling on getting this video on here. I'm going to post the 2 links separately. They link to the photo bucket pictures. If this doesn't work someone that wants to help can jump in.
    http://vid966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/doowder1/logging%20show%20setup/P3200154_zpskg5afa6h.mp4

  And of course there's a payoff video

   http://vid966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/doowder1/logging%20show%20setup/P3200156_zpsm2kxxuj8.mp4

 Hope that works
One of our visitors that we we're expecting is ACcrazy (Bruce) from the Allis Chalmers Forum lore. Bruce is one of are go to guys for Humboldt County. He's working on some other sightings he's heard about.

 When we left we had to get out our boom to load the blade.


It was a great time had by all. We met lots of appreciative people for sharing our tractors with them. It's that IRON DISEASE we have.

  I'll start a different post for the treasures we made deals on and will be procuring for future collection.

IRON DISEASE!!!!! That is an understatement, maybe? Great stuff you've posted here. Thnx, and keep it coming! Darrel

It was good seeing you and David again Mel!
Your machines look fantastic as usual. I was very impressed how quiet the HD15 is. I thought it would be a real screaming me me with that Jimmy powering it. It sounds like a new machine.

I think that TD24 would have won if it was geared a little lower. Every time he clutched it and got the RPM back up he'd yank that 8 backwards.

Mel, as usual, you have given us much pleasures in reading your posts along with all the pictures... Very interesting in the history too

Hey John, I beleive you would mean an "HD41". I think a "31" is non-existent. LOL! darrel

I could be wrong...maybe there was a 31. Now ya got me thinking. Maybe they should have made one. Darrel

They sure did make an HD-31 which became the FA-31 after the Fiat-Allis Merger.   I pulled 2 HD-41B's off the mountainside above Palm Springs about 10 years ago that had been sitting for some time. we used a D9D with my 15 year old Son operating it and a Case 1150 Track loader to maneuver it around the corners on the mountain dirt road. I'll post pictures later.

[TUBE]http://youtu.be/q06sKAFbdjo[/TUBE]

Sorry John; I stand corrected. Darrel

An HD41 would sure look good sitting in your yard, just saying........

Always amazed to see the effort that Mel and his crew put into these Old Allis Dozers.  

Doug, yes you need a powershift winch. Might be  G80 let me do some checkin.