Chamberlain 2000 Artic Loader

Has anyone here seen a Chamberlain artic loader or have info i used to operate one about 30 years ago and have only seen one ever

Anything like this one?

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Yep, I own one, it's undergoing a lengthy restoration at present, although it was running when it was driven into my yard.

I know where there's about 6 of them. One turned up to the Chamberlain day in March 2009 at the Dardanup (W.A.) Heritage Park.

I'm not sure how many were built. About 250-300, at a rough guess I reckon. Chamberlain started production of them in 1971, and sold quite a few every year until they ceased construction of them about 1979 or 1980.

They were fitted with the Perkins 6.372 (a 6.354 with .100" bigger bore), an Allison TT2200 transmission with automatic hi-lo range in each gear (under heavy load they change down automatically, under light load they change up automatically).

They used Twin Disc axles fitted with Girlock 4 wheel disc brakes. The brakes are the biggest failing of them. The type of Girlock calipers fitted were nearly obsolete when new .. now, you cannot source a brake part for them anywhere in the world.
I tried for over 4 years to find brake parts, and eventually found one caliper in the U.K., and they wanted .. wait for it .. $4000 for the one caliper!! Yes, $4000!!! :

I acquired a full set of reconditioned Wagner calipers from a Cat 910, and they are going on my loader. I have to modify the caliper mountings and change the discs, as the Girlock discs are about an inch thick, way too thick for the Wagner/Cat calipers.

The 2000 also used Vickers hydraulics (pumps and valve bodies), but the models of Vickers used, are now also obsolete.
That's not much of a problem, as pumps are easily modified to fit, there's lots of NOS surplus out there, and Vickers stuff is always available somewhere.

I had to make up a new poppet valve for the bucket control valve, it had shattered, and the bucket was doing crazy things when you were raising and lowering it.

There's a bloke in Merredin who rebuilt a Chamberlain 2000 from the ground up in the late 1990's. I never actually saw it, a machinery dealer bloke I knew, saw it and told me about it.
I never did find out the owners name, or where the loader ended up.

I expect it will be another 18 mths before I have mine finished, as gathering the parts and getting the money together to rebuild components takes time.
I've got to pull the tranny, it has a serious leak from the input shaft, but I bought another tranny from the States for a very reasonable sum, to give me one to rebuild to replace mine, if need be.

They are a pretty good old loader, and Cat was worried enough about the competition from Chamberlain, to put out a "comparison sheet" that compared the Cat 930 and the Chamberlain 2000.
They were quite equal in performance, but Cat slammed the Allison tranny, the poorer quality ram seals, and a few other items, as being way below Cat standards and quality.
I think the Chamberlain was a bit cheaper than the Cat, which had them worried as well.

Chamberlain display, Dardanup - March 2009 .. www.pbase.com/onetrack/wheeltractors

Nice loader onetrack never seen one my mate has a chamberlan conquip ind loader

Yes it's like that you tube vid

There was a one off protortype Chamberlain 3000 loader made at Welshpool. Had a GM in it and was about the 988 size. I wonder if its out there somewhere ??

That Chamberlain loader has a similar look to the Fiat Allis 645

They reckon the Chamberlain 2000 was modelled along the lines of the Allis-Chalmers 4WD loaders. The Chamberlain 2000 uses Twin Disc axles that could possibly be the same as what the A-C loaders used.

Chamberlains had a habit of buying stocks of components that were going cheap, because they were becoming obsolete.
This makes it a little harder to source components .. but fortunately there are plenty of aftermarket suppliers for nearly all the components, and you can modify later stuff to fit easily, as they are such a basic design.

Didn't know about the Chamberlain 3000. That would be an interesting story. I couldn't imagine it would have survived.

I did my apprenticeship at Chamberlains from 72 to 76. I spent a lot of time in Research & Development and the Chamberlain 3000 was religated to a workhorse by the time i was there.
Another interesting protortype was a Champion (306) with a Chev 327 V8 in it. But that one was broken up and the engine dissapeared ? It would have literally drank the fuel.

I have a 2000.Great machine. Presently looking for a diff centre for it