West Kansas Picking Trip – March 2016 Our arrival and quick view of the yard. Here Don is looking at Stuart tank Cadillac engines. There were a bunch of them, but only 4 complete. Lots and lots of Cadillac engines. Here is the pile of Cadillac engines. All the crankshafts were gone. LVT 4 front drive assemblies. Why on earth would these be in the sandy west of Kansas when they are for an amphibian? The Lee-Grant front end. Larger cable reels stacked up next to the oil pans. Wire spools anyone? We found 1/2 track top bows buried in the sand dune. One end of one was sticking out. Pulled and found a bunch more. A louvre stuck in concrete. We got it out! Look at the size of the gin poles and you can understand why the frame was broken. The M75 parts half track next to the M2. The M2 yard dog. The gin pole on this had to have been 20′ long. The chassis was broken in half in front of the rear drive axle from all the years of abuse. Good for parts. Halftrack fenders. M3 frame rails. The yard was littered with halftrack frame sections. They had been cut up and used as racking for steel storage and work tables. Re-purposing at its best. WWII semi trailer. I brought it home. Need to have an intervention, and soon. Everyone thinks picking is all fun. Here, we have gone to an extreme length to supply our customers with parts. Dan was gagging and almost lost breakfast removing the dead pigeons and pigeon scat that was over 12″ deep. We had to shovel a path into this bin to get the generators, starters and drive shafts. Dan taking the first scoop. He only made it to the second scoop before he almost lost it. I had to take over. The smell was incredible. We had to throw our clothes away at the end of the day because we stunk so bad. Don and Dan sorting out the carb and fuel pump cores. 1/2 ton Dodge drive shafts with the mechanics joint. LOTS of them. Filling the truck. 1/2 ton Dodge drive shafts, 20mm ammo cans. Don and Dan dragging a crate to use for loading. Forklift was unavailable. 60 NOS Halftrack front drive shafts were discovered. NICE! Getting things ready for the trip home. We spotted this Cletrac along the road. The owner was very gracious and showed us his collection. A very LARGE collection. Cars, trucks, boots, door knobs, hot rods, gas station signs and pumps. He is a true collector. The M7 mine storage boxes were near new. Covered in 20 years of dust, but cleaned up nicely. Halftrack drive sprockets were scattered around the yard in piles. The owner told us he sold and/or parted out over 90 halftracks over the years. Stuart idler wheels. Brand new oil pans for the Cadillac engines. These were all NOS at one time. Left to the elements, time has taken its toll. What we believe is a Lee-Grant tank front end assembly. LVT4 front drive assemblies. Why on earth these were in the middle of dry sandy Kansas is beyond me. Luckily, the pile of Stuart starters were all in boxes and the pigeons did not get them. Stuart oil pans, M8/20 air cleaners, carb cores, fuel pump cores. We found a Cushman Model 32 side car. Cool! Some of the pieces we picked out of the yard. We found a stash of NOS Stuart tank generators. Damn pigeons made a mess though. The M4 boxes as found in the yard. 11 M38A1 jeeps arrived. This load was waiting for me when I arrived at work this morning. West country vehicles are so nice because of the lack of rust. Glad to have them! The load arrived. Always fun unloading at home. Offloading the engines, boxes, semi trailer etc etc etc.