CASE 450 Undercarriage. Swapping Tracks

[TheDirt]

Alrighty, my first real post here,
Maybe this has been addressed elsewhere but I haven't come across it.
I've got a '79 Case 450 dozer which I use primarily in the woods. Now that it's spring I have it back in the shop to go through for a couple weeks of downtime. I blew out the track tensioner seal on one side so I took the track off in order to get at it. Once getting the track off I realized how hammered my chains are. They seem to have a lot of play in the links, though the wear doesn't appear to be all that bad visually. Anyway, I was thinking I would take the track off the other side and maybe swap the sprockets, when it hit me that it might make just as much sense to just swap the tracks if I have them off anyway. That way I might get a little more life out of them by having them wear a little different. I don't know if this makes any sense, but if anyone has ever done this, or has any advice on why not to do this it would be much appreciated!
Thanks!

[QuickTrax]

I have some customers that swap tracks every few hundred hours. Most machines wear undercarriage on one side faster than the other because the operators find it a habit to turn one direction more than the other. If you have a few different operators it wouldn't matter. If you only have one operator I think it would prolong the life of the U/C.
Good Luck, Quicktrax

[TheDirt]

Thanks, QuickTrax.
I will go ahead and swap sides, I'd never thought about which side I tend to turn, but now that you mention it I probably do tend to work to the left. Interesting.
Here's another one: I seem to throw tracks pretty often, I was told that it might be because I don't have rock guards on the bottom of my frame rails...does this make any difference? it does seem that I will lose the track when it is on the uphill side and the track is stretched away from the machine by the friction of the ground And I never lose them on snow or ice, just on rock or dirt, where the machine won't slide.

[QuickTrax]

They will definitely help. Check your idler slack and make sure it is shimmed correctly. Make sure your tracks are adjusted correctly.

[sfchovis]

If you swap sides, do you have to turn the pads around.

Hovis

[g_man]

You would run the tracks in the same direction. Just on the other side. So no, keep the pads the same. They only go one way. Grouser in the rear of the pad when it is on the bottom in the dirt.