“Here are a couple of photos of me pushing back a brush pile. Driving the RS196K takes me back to my youth. I worked on a farm that had an Oliver Cleatrac, which we used to haul firewood with. I have attached some photos you might find useful, and I’d like to share some highlights of the build.”
“Once I got everything unpacked and accounted for, I started washing the parts with a mild detergent solution, rinsed them, then dried them in the sun. As you can see in the photos, I took over one side of my garage and started hanging the parts from the rafters. I rolled and brushed on 1 coat of Rust- Oleum primer, and 2 coats of paint.”
“Once everything was dry, I started the actual assembly. I tried not to rush through the project, as my wife and I were having too much fun. I decided to paint and assemble just the crawler first, then go on to the attachments.”
“Because of the size of my work space, this ended up working out great for me. Following the instruction manual was easy, and my wife [7th grade science teacher] remarked several times how well written it was. I had anticipated the track installation to be much more difficult, but they went on as easily as the manual described.”
“My worst problem came when I realized my jack did not go down low enough to get the tracks onto ground level after taking the blocks out. We ended up replacing the blocks with some 4x4s, and I slowly drove the crawler off of those onto my garage floor. After installing the attachments, I drove it out of the garage and installed the grousers. I also want to say that the Briggs engine started on the first pull. All in all, a fantastic project.”
“I have finished building the RS196K and have been using it for several days now. The project was one of the most satisfying I have ever done. The manual was easy to follow, and the fit and finish were very good. I actually had to slow myself down during the build, to make it last longer. My wife enjoyed helping me, and my neighbors enjoyed watching my progress. I am still learning what the crawler is capable of, as it continues to impress me.”
Struck Equipment
