Need help to find out what year and model my thiokol is. I bought it to restore. Looking for a manual and miscellaneous parts.
Can anyone help me out.
Thanks
The machine is a Thiokol Trackmaster model 4T8N. I'd put it at a 1960/61 given it has the features of the earliest years. The cab is standard design of the earliest models post-University design when Thiokol took over the IP. Notice the narrow track design (hence N) which was more for ice than snow.
The front and rear steel frame parts are non-standard add-ons. The rear tow bar has been beefed up a bit. The bar between the two rear diffs is an add-on after it was determined that the prior steel tube was insufficient and would fail. The standard Thiokol re-issued tube was more substantial however the square stock there is non-standard/home-brew but clearly will do the job. The windows are the right early design... a bit more simplistic than the 61's which leads me to it being a 1960/61. You'll notice the 4T8's had the slightly more slanted front panel design as well which made them somewhat unique as well as the shorter cab design but Thiokol kept the chassis the same. The 4T8 is a bit odd for that reason which is one reason why there were very few produced.
Here are a few pics for your reference....
I add a pic of an early model 4T10 so you can see the cab difference in length and also note the exhaust is early-location same as yours (prior to routing under body). Note the angled door which yours should have as well. I'm not sure why but it seems yours has some sort of either body reinforcements or has had panel replacement...or something else. Sometimes people get their fingers into these and 'do things'...some times proper, sometimes not, hard to say.
The third-to-last pic is the following year 4T10 where they settled in on the final front-end and rear door design...these were the teenage years...this photo has some non-standard bits on it but it's a nice photo that shows back-to-back the rear door comparison and the updated front-angle design.
Then, you'll see the maturation of the Trackmaster 4T10 from teenager to adult and that is in the form of the Thiokol 601--painted proper Air Force blue. This particular example is finest 601 restoration on the planet as meticulously and masterfully done by Weatherby on the forum. The full concours restoration thread was kindly posted by Weatherby and you can use it as reference for some of your work (minus differences of course).
I haven't commented on any of the differences in drive train, track design, etc... as that's been covered under seperate threads that you can research.
It's good to see some more Thiokol discussion after people have been somewhat distracted by all this Tucker conversation... whew. Breath of proper 2-track air.
You've probably already done it but you can go onto youtube and do some 4T10/601 searches to see them playing in the snow. You'll notice that they are faster than all other cats of the period (exception being the bombi-bus but that's a different type of unit so hard to include in a proper comparison).
Feel free to PM me with questions. If at some point you decide to sell it, please let me know first as the museum could always use more unique specimens.