rayco T275 forestry mower rocking & rolling.

[australian pete]

have finallly made a start on rebuilding the rayco,had the cab off to repair transfer case that drive hydraulic pumps, transfer case was noisy, reason was no oil , dipstick missing and full of dirt, .

 

[australian pete]

rayco rocking and rolling

mower head now fully rebuilt, all new tips and holders, new belts , bearings, repaired cracks etc.now on to tracks,put up on blocks, removed old tracks, found 32 broken studs that hold rollers and track guards on, mostly from track guards which previous owner had welded on.took 3 days to drill out studs and then grind them out with die grinder, not much fun..still have 2 studs to get out, they have broken drills or easy outs broken off in them from some one else previous attempt to drill them out. having a break for a few days to earn some money.

 

[australian pete]

rayco

lifted on to blocks with 16 tonne sumitomo and volvo 4500 loader, 2 more broken studs on idler, wrong rollers fitted on one side , too narrow, track was running on raised lip.

 

[australian pete]

2 of the top roller carriers have been broken off at some stage and welded on crokked.

 

[AusDave]

Glutton for punishment!

Hi Pete.

I once bought a Fiat 70ci Dozer which had most of the bottom rollers similar to your Rayco. They were the original grease type and obviously had not seen grease for some time. The rollers in the roller bearings had long since fallen out. I replaced them with some good secondhand oil bath rollers. Had to extract some broken studs/bolts in the track frame as well. Usually just blew the centre of the bolt out with the oxy and the heat made them much easier to extract with an ezy-out or other stud extractor.
Also had to drill out with a magnetic drill, some head studs in the motor and helicoil them.

However the abuse the 70ci suffered was just ignorant neglect. Your Rayco seems to have been wantonly thrashed by previous operators with no sense of feel for mechanical parts and then had repairs done by bush mechanics using crude tools. And it looks like maintenance was only performed when something broke/fell off. And then to put the wrong track rollers on so it ran up the idler... The tracks must have screamed like a banshee when it moved.

Did you know it needed this amount of work when you bought it?
It will certainly keep you busy in your spare time getting it fully functional. I would assume you'll be the only one using it, as by past usage it looks like the Rayco would last a lot longer with a sensitive operator. Especially an operator who had poured tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours into it

Good luck with it. Let us know how it performs when it's on its first job.

Regards AusDave

 

[amunderdog]

I salute you and your efforts.
Do you think that machine will remember you saved it from the scrap pile?

 

[australian pete]

Hi Pete.

I once bought a Fiat 70ci Dozer which had most of the bottom rollers similar to your Rayco. They were the original grease type and obviously had not seen grease for some time. The rollers in the roller bearings had long since fallen out. I replaced them with some good secondhand oil bath rollers. Had to extract some broken studs/bolts in the track frame as well. Usually just blew the centre of the bolt out with the oxy and the heat made them much easier to extract with an ezy-out or other stud extractor.

im not good enough with oxy to do that, track frame part of whole unit so you cant take track frames off to turn upside down, very hard to blow studs from bottom up


Also had to drill out with a magnetic drill, some head studs in the motor and helicoil them.

However the abuse the 70ci suffered was just ignorant neglect. Your Rayco seems to have been wantonly thrashed by previous operators with no sense of feel for mechanical parts and then had repairs done by bush mechanics using crude tools. And it looks like maintenance was only performed when something broke/fell off. And then to put the wrong track rollers on so it ran up the idler... The tracks must have screamed like a banshee when it moved.

all of what you say is correct,

Did you know it needed this amount of work when you bought it?

i knew the tracks were stuffed and needed replacing, did not realise how many broken studs.


It will certainly keep you busy in your spare time getting it fully functional. I would assume you'll be the only one using it, as by past usage it looks like the Rayco would last a lot longer with a sensitive operator. Especially an operator who had poured tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours into it

you can bet i will be looking after it a lot better than the previous owners.


Good luck with it. Let us know how it performs when it's on its first job.

thanks dave, i am looking forward to the first time i do a test run, i have never operated on of these.

Regards AusDave

will post some more pics as i progress.

 

[Heavyduty]

Hope you have plenty of work lined to help offset the costs. Good job.:drinkup

 

[bill5362]

Nice work there Pete, I can appreciate the detail of the work you are doing. There is no excuse for the lack of preventative maintenance, no fluid or dipstick...that is too bad. Do you purchase at an auction?

 

[Heavyduty]

Nice work there Pete, I can appreciate the detail of the work you are doing. There is no excuse for the lack of preventative maintenance, no fluid or dipstick...that is too bad. Do you purchase at an auction?

I just bought a John Deere 148 loader and every pin was bone dry. I replaced all the grease fittings and everyone of the pins took the grease.

 

[dirt digger]

whats the weight rating on those logs?...haha

 

[Iron Horse]

Those pictures are nearly beyond belief , how on Earth did it keep going ? It's a wonder it didn't turn on the operator and chew him up .

 

[australian pete]

Nice work there Pete, I can appreciate the detail of the work you are doing. There is no excuse for the lack of preventative maintenance, no fluid or dipstick...that is too bad. Do you purchase at an auction?

yes, from auction, it was a repo.

 

[australian pete]

whats the weight rating on those logs?...haha

no sure exactly, however it is more than the rayco weighs.

 

[australian pete]

Those pictures are nearly beyond belief , how on Earth did it keep going ? It's a wonder it didn't turn on the operator and chew him up .

it is amazing, lots more shonky stuff, several swithes bypassed as circuit board was faulty, auto elec installed new board and hey presto, lots of swithces now working,one of the joysticks that control tracks was also faulty, did what it wanted, replaced that and fixed that problem.
another gem was the hydraulic ram which tilts the mower head back so you can cut through a tree, they removed the ram and welded in a steel bar, no tilt ram means you cant tilt the head back to mow a tree down, you have to push it over and then mulch it, they welded heaps of extra steel on to the frame to push over trees, this managed to crack and bend, we have removed all the additional steel so it is back to standard, had a new ram made to install when we fit the mower head after all the other repairs.

 

[australian pete]

Hope you have plenty of work lined to help offset the costs. Good job.:drinkup

no work lined up yet, have to finish and do some trials to make sure all working correctly, im sure we will find some more problems to repair.

 

[Tones]

Gees Iam sooo glad I did'nt buy that machine before it went to auction. I went and bought it little brother a Rayco c140ointhead

 

[australian pete]

Gees Iam sooo glad I did'nt buy that machine before it went to auction. I went and bought it little brother a Rayco c140ointhead

the price i paid allowed me to spend plenty on it, it will be a good machine at a reasonable price when finished, i have learnt a lot and it is character building. how does the 140 go ?

 

[stumpjumper83]

aussie pete, for that ammount of repairs, I think they paid you to take it home... It always encouraging to see someone revive a machine from the dead though.

 

[Tones]

the price i paid allowed me to spend plenty on it, it will be a good machine at a reasonable price when finished, i have learnt a lot and it is character building. how does the 140 go ?

These Rayco machines are realy character building alright,so far i have poored about $2000 worth of hyd oil on the ground, not bad for a brand new machine.Just got over all those troubles and am looking for track gear replacements and bugger me this machine is running a mix match of stuff 20yrs old(can't buy anything new or 2nd hand in Aus).Fair to say though when it works it works realy well,have cleared country that blokes with excavators have walked away from and can clear nearly twice as much as a Posi Track an hour