Caterpillars are out of my price range, knowledge, or experience, but I have been involved with a large number of "free" cars and trucks.
Usually "free" means its not going to be an easy money maker, if that was what was on your mind at the beginning, you are a fool. Its going to involve work or special equipment to retrieve from its position, the dead line is pretty short, or other difficult things are going to be present. If it was going to be easy, it would have already been gone. That means you enter into these operations because the challenges are just too great to pass up, for something that has the potential to be really a cool or fun. If that is why you entered into the challenge, you have to know how deep you are willing to go. You really shouldn't expect it to come out as a wonderful experience, but at the same time, you sort of hope it does just that.
In the end, most "free" projects I collected were barely worth the effort invested from a financial stand point. Most produced some great stories, and many were actually fun, and challenging at the same time. Nearly every one of them was a learning experience. I was always aware of the point at which it was time to pull the plug on the "free' operation and call it done.
This Caterpillar adventure has been a great story and a fun adventure, but I'm beginning to question the guy's ability to end the adventure. He seems pretty stuck on the idea of it being a money maker, and keeps chasing that end farther down into the big hole of it being an expensive failure. He needs to call it done, and start selling parts to recoup some of his expenses, while the story is still sort of a fun story.
Never really thought about this being a money maker, but getting into it for free helps keep the costs down in case it's a lost cause.
Anyway, as I explain in the last video, the shoddy job on the crossmember being welded to the roller frame kind of killed it for me. Turned a very difficult job into an exceptionally difficult one, and something that needs to be done in order to replace the roller fame.
Anyway, the 977 is off to it's new home. I had a lot of fun, made some new friends, gained some valuable experience, and broke even.
Thanks
