Help dating a Cat Ten

[CWAMuseum]

This Caterpillar Ten has no serial number plates on it. For that matter, no plates at all that I can find. Is there a way to date it? Is there an engine number, or alternate location for a serial number plate?

 

[TomA in CA]

Nice wide Ten. Many castings have date code letters cast into them. Someone here may be able to tell you how to decode them.

 

[Sbird]

I'm not familiar with the Ten but on my 1941 D7M the plate is on the left side of the frame on the back. Maybe to the left of the hitch on that one???

 

[CWAMuseum]

I'm not familiar with the Ten but on my 1941 D7M the plate is on the left side of the frame on the back. Maybe to the left of the hitch on that one???

On our other two Cat Ten's, the SN plate is large and is on the back of the seat. You are correct about the D7 as we have one of those also.

 

[CWAMuseum]

Nice wide Ten. Many castings have date code letters cast into them. Someone here may be able to tell you how to decode them.

Thanks. I can examine it in other places and take more pictures if I know specifically where to look and what will be useful.

 

[CWAMuseum]

Nice wide Ten. Many castings have date code letters cast into them. Someone here may be able to tell you how to decode them.

I looked all over the crawler and found no obvious casting codes. However, there is a lot of grease and grime that could be covering them. Before I go scraping to look for numbers, if I could get some hints on where to look, I would appreciate it.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I will say this it is before the early D-4 Diesels which started in the mid 1930's or a bit earlier. Our D-4 is a 4G8 and is in the mid late 30's about 36or37 according to Dad is when Grandpa bought it new. Probably traded a Sixty in on it. Since he had a Sixty. Nobody ever said what happened to the Sixty so I'm guessing that is where it went. As or the 10 They were a small tractor as you know from owning it. Might have the tag behind the hitch .Was never around a 10. A lot of them had the S/N tag on the back of the rear housing like Sbird stated about his D-7

 

[CWAMuseum]

According to my research, the Cat 10 was made only between 1928 and 1933, so early 1930s is a good guess, and perhaps as close as I'll get. There are no plates or numbers on the rear of this crawler. I have found out that the donor wants to work on it this winter, so perhaps I'll find out more once it's taken apart. If he can get it running, then he wants to show it during the parade at the August show here at the museum.

 

[TomA in CA]

Nice, with the desirable PTO attachment.