sultan
Senior Member
I hear people go on all the time about how great a sin it is to dig over the final drives, and that one should only dig over the front idlers, but in reality, how important is it to follow that rule? Is it really that harmful to the machine? Has anyone ever seen premature final drive failure because of this? (all the failures I've seen/heard of seem to be either from old age or from lack of oil changes)
I usually try to dig over my idlers whenever possible, but there are occasional instances when I have to dig on both sides of the tracks or I just need to dig a little behind me and it would be awkward to turn around the undercarriage just for a little digging. The only clear benefit of digging over the idlers that I see is safety: pushing the travel levers/pedals forward should move the machine forward. When the controls are reversed due to facing backwards, theres a risk of carelessly tracking in the wrong direction, with potential dangerous consequences in some situations.
What do you guys think? How important is it to only dig over the idlers?
I usually try to dig over my idlers whenever possible, but there are occasional instances when I have to dig on both sides of the tracks or I just need to dig a little behind me and it would be awkward to turn around the undercarriage just for a little digging. The only clear benefit of digging over the idlers that I see is safety: pushing the travel levers/pedals forward should move the machine forward. When the controls are reversed due to facing backwards, theres a risk of carelessly tracking in the wrong direction, with potential dangerous consequences in some situations.
What do you guys think? How important is it to only dig over the idlers?