baldrick56
New member
My first posting - so apologies for the length!
For some months I had been looking for a fearsome beast to complement the lonely Fergie grey tractor in the wild country of Central West NSW. Regularly these seemed to appear in online ads but either I kept missing out through my insistence on viewing the things before I parted with my hard-earned or they were in locations more or less impossible to reach since covid has closed borders etc. One particularly galling ad to let slip was from a seller in the next town to my home location a mere 15 kM away, this was for a Case 580 which I judged fearsome enough. However this ad suddenly re-appeared a couple of weeks after I'd missed out (albeit at a higher price) - strange, was the condition of the thing so bad the buyer had taken fright and fled? Determined not to miss a second chance I went to view soonest (even though I lacked expertise for what I was looking at), yes some faults were there (even I could see that!) but it started, ran OK, and all the hydraulic arms functioned. Offer made and accepted by the seller the story of why the ad reappeared was that the previous buyer had offered sight unseen and then failed to find transport for it (at least for less than about 40% of the price of the machine). Suitably warned I spent the next three days working the phones to find someone who could move it reasonably quickly and for a fair cost. A few false leads then I found someone who had the capacity and quoted me a reasonable cost so it was booked in, buyer advised, nothing more to do but turn up on the day.
Now in legend for Odysseus victory was only achieved in the Trojan war after ten years, followed by a further ten years of adventures and derring-do to get home to Ithaca for me Atroceus, my helper Achyknees, and skilled navigator Oracles I'd hoped that relocating a digger would be achieved in somewhat less time and hazards but:
As Odysseus angered Poseidon then was captured by the Goddess Calypso, in our case having loaded Caseodocus we angered Telstrapedes, a many-headed giant who here in Aus has the power of a God. How did we do that you ask? Simple expedient of hooking one of their phone cables with the boom as we passed under. Unaware of this and shortly after the Great Western Highway staged its own homage to the the 'Blues Brothers' at least the latter part of the movie where they're trying to make Chicago with increasing numbers of cops tailing them. Jake and Elwood managed to outrun the cops, in our case the Case was intercepted and instead of a pyramid of wrecked copcars there was a line of stopped vehicles on the shoulder. A mighty battle took place on the deck of the galley fought with tape measures against tasers and guns. Seven years Odysseus was held captive by Calypso and it felt like the same timespan for us as Coplypso escorted us to the vehicle inspection station, otherwise known as the home of the Witch-Goddess Aeaea {named after the cries of anguish that emanate from the place} to run over all the legal 'niceties' with Letrippades the controller of the place. As fate would have it we were under the maximum height limit by 15mm {half inch}, and only hours later after Cycoloops failed to find anything else wrong were we allowed to proceed - as a bonus without being turned into swine by consuming drugged cheese and wine (though that was tempting by this stage).
Now Atroceus had not had coffee since a 6:30 am start so our little pinnace raced ahead of the Mother ship for the next hundred kM and suitably caffeinated awaited the arrival of Oracles. Some guidance by signals proved not completely effective as Oracles sailed past the crucial turning, another phone call provoked the necessary U-turn and the two ships sailed in convoy to the gates of Ithaca.
Warned that the battery was duff no-one was too surprised when Caseodocus failed to fire up, a brand new high capacity battery formed part of the ute cargo so everyone was more surprised when this too failed to kick over the motor. We pressed on with unloading the machine by gravity and whilst sitting in the cab and exploring {OK playing} Atroceus found an unexplained black button that when pushed whirred the starter into action. With the arms raised unloading was way easier, tempered only by the discovery once it was on terra-firma there appeared to be no oil in the sump and little water in the rad. The powers of anticipation had prompted Atroceus to bring twenty litres of diesel fuel plus the same of water but of oil was there none. Nothing for it but to leave the beast in the neighbour's front yard and drive the thirty minutes back to town for oil.
The brute beast greedily satiated the starter was activated again, by this time Oracles had long departed for adventures new so we were on our own as to operational wisdom. Even before Atroceus started rolling bad habits were developed in that observing a mismatch between sound and fury over progress it wasn't until a backward glance solved the mystery, revealing that a furrow was being ploughed by an unretracted rear stabiliser this also doubling as the parking brake for Caseodocus. Stabilisers folded progress was steady alarmingly so since one of the faults revealed at the beginning was that the brakes didn't work. That wasn't a problem in the early stages since uphill was the way forward however the opposite is true for the latter part. Atroceus thus became aquainted with the loader bucket control which made an effective sea-anchor, bit too effective if over used as steering took a holiday (don't ask me how I know that).
Sighs of relief all round as Caseodocus flopped into home territory nothing to do now but write an extensive shopping list of new parts needed!
For some months I had been looking for a fearsome beast to complement the lonely Fergie grey tractor in the wild country of Central West NSW. Regularly these seemed to appear in online ads but either I kept missing out through my insistence on viewing the things before I parted with my hard-earned or they were in locations more or less impossible to reach since covid has closed borders etc. One particularly galling ad to let slip was from a seller in the next town to my home location a mere 15 kM away, this was for a Case 580 which I judged fearsome enough. However this ad suddenly re-appeared a couple of weeks after I'd missed out (albeit at a higher price) - strange, was the condition of the thing so bad the buyer had taken fright and fled? Determined not to miss a second chance I went to view soonest (even though I lacked expertise for what I was looking at), yes some faults were there (even I could see that!) but it started, ran OK, and all the hydraulic arms functioned. Offer made and accepted by the seller the story of why the ad reappeared was that the previous buyer had offered sight unseen and then failed to find transport for it (at least for less than about 40% of the price of the machine). Suitably warned I spent the next three days working the phones to find someone who could move it reasonably quickly and for a fair cost. A few false leads then I found someone who had the capacity and quoted me a reasonable cost so it was booked in, buyer advised, nothing more to do but turn up on the day.
Now in legend for Odysseus victory was only achieved in the Trojan war after ten years, followed by a further ten years of adventures and derring-do to get home to Ithaca for me Atroceus, my helper Achyknees, and skilled navigator Oracles I'd hoped that relocating a digger would be achieved in somewhat less time and hazards but:
As Odysseus angered Poseidon then was captured by the Goddess Calypso, in our case having loaded Caseodocus we angered Telstrapedes, a many-headed giant who here in Aus has the power of a God. How did we do that you ask? Simple expedient of hooking one of their phone cables with the boom as we passed under. Unaware of this and shortly after the Great Western Highway staged its own homage to the the 'Blues Brothers' at least the latter part of the movie where they're trying to make Chicago with increasing numbers of cops tailing them. Jake and Elwood managed to outrun the cops, in our case the Case was intercepted and instead of a pyramid of wrecked copcars there was a line of stopped vehicles on the shoulder. A mighty battle took place on the deck of the galley fought with tape measures against tasers and guns. Seven years Odysseus was held captive by Calypso and it felt like the same timespan for us as Coplypso escorted us to the vehicle inspection station, otherwise known as the home of the Witch-Goddess Aeaea {named after the cries of anguish that emanate from the place} to run over all the legal 'niceties' with Letrippades the controller of the place. As fate would have it we were under the maximum height limit by 15mm {half inch}, and only hours later after Cycoloops failed to find anything else wrong were we allowed to proceed - as a bonus without being turned into swine by consuming drugged cheese and wine (though that was tempting by this stage).
Now Atroceus had not had coffee since a 6:30 am start so our little pinnace raced ahead of the Mother ship for the next hundred kM and suitably caffeinated awaited the arrival of Oracles. Some guidance by signals proved not completely effective as Oracles sailed past the crucial turning, another phone call provoked the necessary U-turn and the two ships sailed in convoy to the gates of Ithaca.
Warned that the battery was duff no-one was too surprised when Caseodocus failed to fire up, a brand new high capacity battery formed part of the ute cargo so everyone was more surprised when this too failed to kick over the motor. We pressed on with unloading the machine by gravity and whilst sitting in the cab and exploring {OK playing} Atroceus found an unexplained black button that when pushed whirred the starter into action. With the arms raised unloading was way easier, tempered only by the discovery once it was on terra-firma there appeared to be no oil in the sump and little water in the rad. The powers of anticipation had prompted Atroceus to bring twenty litres of diesel fuel plus the same of water but of oil was there none. Nothing for it but to leave the beast in the neighbour's front yard and drive the thirty minutes back to town for oil.
The brute beast greedily satiated the starter was activated again, by this time Oracles had long departed for adventures new so we were on our own as to operational wisdom. Even before Atroceus started rolling bad habits were developed in that observing a mismatch between sound and fury over progress it wasn't until a backward glance solved the mystery, revealing that a furrow was being ploughed by an unretracted rear stabiliser this also doubling as the parking brake for Caseodocus. Stabilisers folded progress was steady alarmingly so since one of the faults revealed at the beginning was that the brakes didn't work. That wasn't a problem in the early stages since uphill was the way forward however the opposite is true for the latter part. Atroceus thus became aquainted with the loader bucket control which made an effective sea-anchor, bit too effective if over used as steering took a holiday (don't ask me how I know that).
Sighs of relief all round as Caseodocus flopped into home territory nothing to do now but write an extensive shopping list of new parts needed!
Last edited:
