Captain Clutch And The International TD7E
The other day I was talking to my wife and Moosey about "Clutch Cargo" and how my heart started racing when I first saw this beautiful IHC TD-7E crawler/loader. She started laughing and told me that the clutch for my libido must be stuck in the wrong gear. Anyway, she wondered how my fascination with crawlers came about, so I will now spill the beans. My earliest memories were pushing piles of mud, sand and rocks with tiny toy Caterpillar dozers. I remember getting up early on a Saturday and going out into the yard to fill my tiny International dump truck with dirt from my mom's flower beds. After an hour or two of this and 10-15 loads of dirt, I was very pleased to see that I had covered most of the kitchen floor while my parents were asleep. I knew that they would be both surprised and happy.
Of course, it was about this time that "Clutch Cargo", the white haired cartoon hero with the oversized jaw and bulging biceps was every kid's favorite cartoon. Clutch was a writer and a pilot, an adventurous guy. He flew airplanes, drove bulldozers, trucks and any other machine needed in the assignment to fight the bad guys. Clutch even had a dog sidekick named "Paddlefoot" who sometimes helped him out of jams by flying the plane while Clutch was fighting them off. I've shown Moosey some of the old episodes but Moose wasn't really interested until Paddlefoot started barking.
The funny thing about Clutch Cargo was that the only parts of him that moved were his flapping lips and pumping arms. But his plane, a 1927 Bellanca C-27 Airbus, was a cool machine. Clutch took great care of his machines. He'd be looking out the window of the plane at a jungle full of head hunters, one eye on the oil pressure gauge and always at the ready to save the day. Thinking back on all of this prompted me to name this beauty, "Clutch Cargo" after my childhood hero.
Clutch is powered by the famous D-239 diesel engine and just sings, on a very cold morning he needs a sniff to start, but other than that fires right up. He builds 45-50 PSI of oil pressure and runs within normal operating temps. The radiator was just boiled out and cleaned. The engine oil and filter are new; there is fresh 50/50 antifreeze in the cooling system. The oil pressure and water temp gauges are new.
He has the powershift transmission onboard with 3 speeds forward and 3 speeds in reverse, shifting is smooth and easy. The tranny oil, suction filter and pressure filter have just been renewed. The main gear lube has just been renewed.
The hydraulics are very smooth and responsive and with the 4-in-1 bucket, you can dig, doze, chomp, load, extremely powerful and versatile.
The undercarriage is like new, rollers, rails and track pads show very little use. The hour meter reads 2161 and still works, I do not know if that is accurate but looking at the machine it appears very close. There is also a newly upholstered operators seat and back.
I have been asked about the new seat: The material is faux alligator skin that might have come from a gator that Clutch had to fend off years ago!
The buy-it now is a great deal for this complete, land clearing, road building, land scraping machine. If you have any questions please email and I will respond quickly.
Remember the Olympic Peninsula: Where God grew great fir trees, women are women, and "Yellow Iron" rules the woods.
[This article relates to eBay auction number 130088298867 - Mar 2007]
Moosey says, "hey."