The old Case 310 Dozer fired right up even after being idle for a few months. I had been on bed rest after gall bladder surgery, unable to do my farm chores, and was tired of being cooped up in the house. Even though I was still recovering, it was time to get a few things done. First thing—test the hydraulic functions on the dozer, make sure it was still in working order.
I backed the machine out of the tractor shed and into the dirt road. So far so good. I moved the crawler forward. All of the sudden, the track on the left side began to slide off of the rollers. Uh oh.
READ MORE: A PRAYER THAT ANSWERED FINAL JEOPARDY!
That wasn’t good. If the track slipped any more, it would be an expensive problem to fix. I tried backing up and pulling forward again to get the rollers to align. That made it worse. The dozer was smack dab in the middle of the road, but I couldn’t risk moving it any further.
To fix it, I needed to use a big jack to lift the dozer, align the track and tighten the bolts. I couldn’t muster up the energy to pump the jack myself. I placed my hand on the hood of the dozer and prayed. “God, I need your help. You know I don’t have the strength to fix this.”
I headed back to the house, too embarrassed to mention my dilemma to my wife. I knew she’d say I shouldn’t have been out there messing around with the dozer first place in my condition.
I ate a little something, rested, and prayed again before heading back out to try and fix the problem on my own. How could I move the dozer without injuring myself? Maybe I could nudge the track back into place with a long iron crow bar…
I dragged the jack and crow bar from the tractor shed and knelt by the left side of the dozer, prepared to get to work. But there was no work to be done. The track was perfectly aligned!
Who had fixed it? I looked around. There should have been some physical evidence in the dirt—digging, knee or boot imprints. But there was nothing. No digging. No footprints. No tracks.
I started the dozer up and drove it back into the shed. The track stayed right in place. A better job than I could have done myself. Whoever it was who had done it…
