Little, old and little& old dozers around Snohomish WA

[LAMBERTS]

You might have a piece of history on hand. The guy who designed the Chinese dozer was John Taylor out of Tacoma. Wa. This was back in 1981-89. I was involved with the business briefly and know some details. Taylor was a mechanic and race car driver who had won some championships in the 60's and 70's and had designed a Formula Ford that won the national championship. After that he was in the home building business and had found an old Windolph tractor in a barn. He restored the Windolph and used it in light grading for sidewalks and driveways. This put him on the idea of a small dozer which was light enough to move with a pickup and trailer. When China opened up its doors in 1979, Taylor was one of the first to go over looking for a factory. He found a forestry factory in Guilin that had an ideal sized machine already in production, but was very old fashioned. He bought 4 sample machines and brought them into Tacoma where he began the re-design. He added a 6 way blade, live PTO, ROPS canopy, live hydraulics, foot steering and a shuttle reverser. The early machines were sold as Taylor TD 252 models- after some early investors sold out, Taylor added more features including adding 1 carrier roller to add stability and sold them under the name Power Track PT 400 ( 4 rollers) and PT 450 ( 5 rollers) . Your picture shows 5 rollers, but the older decal, so it may be a hybrid of 2 machines. About 200 units were sold- mostly in the NW area. However, this being the early 80's, there were some problems that showed up after time in the form of weak castings, and the shuttle reversers began to fail on a regular basis. There was a long legal dispute with the Chinese manufacturer over the castings, and eventually the Chinese bought all the design rights from Taylor and took over the business. They turned the distribution over to a company in Oregon called Rhino,who were supposed to handle customer warranties for the Chinese. Over the years this same design has appeared in a number of guises, but essentially the same machine. Taylor turned his attention to another design idea which stemmed from his racing days- a combination lathe and mill machine. This design is the basis of a business he continues to this day under the name Shopmaster, and as always, there are a lot of copies being made in China and sold under various names like Smithy and Harbor Freight. Taylor was also a car guy and built a number of custom cars over the years- one of the most unique being a 6 wheel Porsche pickup. Taylor used this car as a daily driver for a number of years until a German guy saw it and dropped a bunch of cash in his hand. You can see the same car with some mods and a new paint job on You Tube- search-Porsche Pickup- interestingly the German guy, much like some 3 in 1 companies, claims the design as his own. Taylor is still around and races stock cars, having won a championship in 2002.
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[LAMBERTS]

You might have a piece of history on hand. The guy who designed the Chinese dozer was John Taylor out of Tacoma. Wa. This was back in 1981-89. I was involved with the business briefly and know some details. Taylor was a mechanic and race car driver who had won some championships in the 60's and 70's and had designed a Formula Ford that won the national championship. After that he was in the home building business and had found an old Windolph tractor in a barn. He restored the Windolph and used it in light grading for sidewalks and driveways. This put him on the idea of a small dozer which was light enough to move with a pickup and trailer. When China opened up its doors in 1979, Taylor was one of the first to go over looking for a factory. He found a forestry factory in Guilin that had an ideal sized machine already in production, but was very old fashioned. He bought 4 sample machines and brought them into Tacoma where he began the re-design. He added a 6 way blade, live PTO, ROPS canopy, live hydraulics, foot steering and a shuttle reverser. The early machines were sold as Taylor TD 252 models- after some early investors sold out, Taylor added more features including adding 1 carrier roller to add stability and sold them under the name Power Track PT 400 ( 4 rollers) and PT 450 ( 5 rollers) . Your picture shows 5 rollers, but the older decal, so it may be a hybrid of 2 machines. About 200 units were sold- mostly in the NW area. However, this being the early 80's, there were some problems that showed up after time in the form of weak castings, and the shuttle reversers began to fail on a regular basis. There was a long legal dispute with the Chinese manufacturer over the castings, and eventually the Chinese bought all the design rights from Taylor and took over the business. They turned the distribution over to a company in Oregon called Rhino,who were supposed to handle customer warranties for the Chinese. Over the years this same design has appeared in a number of guises, but essentially the same machine. Taylor turned his attention to another design idea which stemmed from his racing days- a combination lathe and mill machine. This design is the basis of a business he continues to this day under the name Shopmaster, and as always, there are a lot of copies being made in China and sold under various names like Smithy and Harbor Freight. Taylor was also a car guy and built a number of custom cars over the years- one of the most unique being a 6 wheel Porsche pickup. Taylor used this car as a daily driver for a number of years until a German guy saw it and dropped a bunch of cash in his hand. You can see the same car with some mods and a new paint job on You Tube- search-Porsche Pickup- interestingly the German guy, much like some 3 in 1 companies, claims the design as his own. Taylor is still around and races stock cars, having won a championship in 2002.
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Another interesting fact- Taylor is still active in racing- he is the oldest active NASCAR driver currently running at the Bullring in Las Vegas in the premier Super Late Model series.