undercarriage question

Hi ,glad to know and join you .I am a freshman in undercarriage field.
Hope I can learn a lot from you .

KTSU is a Chinese company,but it adopts Komatsu technology and has a joint venture with Komatsu.The quality of rollers is on the same level with DCF,but I am not sure about the chains.
QuikTrax,do you know how to compare the drawings of undercarriage parts? I just start my work in this field,but want to be professional.Is there any main specification need to be attentioned?
Many thanks!

I'll throw my 2c in here. Now my experience is in open-pit mining running tracked machines like D10 & D11 or tractors of a similar size from the Dark Side. Now on machines like that running flat-out for 20 hours/day maybe 7000+ hours/yr on average you can't afford to make mistakes on undercarriage. This is the other end of the spectrum to someone running say his D5 for maybe 30-40 hrs/wk moving a bit of dirt. On that machine you can look on price for your undercarriage needs, in my type of application you have to look at quality because the last thing you want is your tractors in the shop all the time having undercarriage work done. If they're in the shop they're not earning money.

We also pay close attention to how much tractors get walked from work site to work site within the mine. I've posted pics on here before of the 100T lowboy we use to move all our tractors, drills, & backhoes, and believe me it's kept busy all the time. Any distance over 1500 metres (about 1 mile) and it gets put on the lowboy. "If it's walking it ain't workin' ......." is our motto. Consequently we can have tractors go 10,000+ hours on rollers and idlers, and a similar number of hours on link groups (rails to some). We have tractors with 20,000+ hours that haven't even had major or minor bogies touched yet. Our big consumables are grousers (shoes get 4 lives - original & 3 re-grouserings) and sprocket segments.

I had plenty of experience on previous job sites with Berco undercarraige and quite frankly now I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 40-foot pole. For obvious reasons we wouldn't even think of going with some of the "bit part players" in the u/c market in our type of operation. It would cost us far more than it would potentially save.

Well said Nige...... experience has shown me if you want quality you pay for it.

I visited the Cat factory at Peoria a couple years ago, at that time they were making undercarriage at their facility for the machines built in the USA.
Thats not to say they don't outsource for the Asian or European markets.

We have a Deere 750c with Deere's coated bushings that has outlasted the standard undercarriage by far.
We also have a D7H II with ITM that has been a big disappointment over previous Cat undercarriages in terms of hours of use.

We look at several things when it's time for undercarriage, operating conditions, maintenance (track tensioning for conditions), brand, and cost of replacement. There are alot of factors when you are trying to determine what to buy and how much to spend. And at times it turns out to be a crap shoot.

kbeen. Do you think that brand may have undercarriage parts for an old Allis HD 21b?

Allis Nut that is very possible. here is there info. 1Trek Inc
.1515 Osprey Dr, Desoto, TX 75115 » Map
(972) 224-1589

Allis nut. HD21 is same pitch as D8H 9 inch. Length no-links will be different, but you can cut to suit. Just check the width. But do know in my younger days took the tracks off a HD21A and put them on a D8H. Had to lengthen them. But owner used the AC rollers on the D8H. modified the D8 end caps to fit ac rollers. Lots of things can be done if your short on cash and long on time !!.
Something to check anyway.

I'm in the market for a undercarriage for a 953C track loader ( 2zn00742). This day in time I can't see spending the money for a CAT system, so I was wondering if anyone new anything about VTRACK, ITM or ITM? I don't want any of that CHINA JUNK. Any info is appreciated.

Go with the ITR. ITR is Korean/China and they have been the OEM for small Deere dozers for about 2 years. BERCO lost the contract.

undercarriage for a 953C track loader ( 2zn00742).

rray said:

Go with the ITR. ITR is Korean/China and they have been the OEM for small Deere dozers for about 2 years. BERCO lost the contract.

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JDFG1974. We'd be glad to quote you on any undercarriage parts you need and we have warehouses across the country including one in GA. Feel free to contact me anytime. Steve. www.pdmechanical.com

QuickTrax said:

I know that DCF (Dae Chang Forging--maybe mis-spelled) makes a significant amount of chains for multiple equipment companies. I have heard that ITR is making chains for smaller Deere machines. If you spent enough $$$ with a manufacturer you could have Randy88 stamped in each link. I believe Berco still makes all of the bigger chains for Deere. I know salesman for aftermarket manufacturers that have been to forging plants in Korea and stacks of new Cat links were on pallets. When it comes to rollers, Jinsung was once a major manufacturer of aftermarket rollers and Cat eventually bought out Jinsung. Brands like ITR and V-Track have manufacturers make rollers, idlers, and segments for them and stamp their logo on the parts when forged. A company called KTSU, its abreviated because I can't pronounce it and surely can't spell it, makes rollers and they are in either Korea or China, another company called Sajun (spelling) makes Idlers. I am not sure who makes Case undercarriage. KUT (Korean Undercarriage Track??) is a big producer of chains in Korea. There are many other forging companies overseas. Undercarriage has become a big melting pot of manufacturers around Korea and China. Berco was strictly a Italian company and now they have plants in China. Cat has u/c parts made overseas as well. I am not sure where Cats u/c components are assembled but I do some parts are made overseas.
Thanks, QuickTrax

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actually,JINSUNG produced rollers and seals in the past years but CAT bought the seal factory from JINSUNG finally. we supply bushings for jinsung,they are used for track rollers

Ok, i don't have any direct experience with heavy equipment U/C parts, but i'll give people a good worldwide manufacturing insight from my work in the aerospace industry.

The very same factory, regardless of location can turn out both high-quality parts, and junk at the same time.

It all depends on who the customer is, and what their quality requirements are. I'd like to think that the major players (whether OEMs, or high-quality aftermarket suppliers) have excellent quality standards that they require their suppliers to manufacture their parts to.

As a generality, some cultures around the world just have less ethical standards about making quality parts, and making substitutions. the Chinese manufacturers (in general), seem to be more likely than others to cut corners in an attempt to sneak out a little more profit, or to be able to sell parts cheaper, or both. Now, if a major OEM is buying their parts, and watching them carefully, they can't substitute junk, because their customer will see it, and will stop buying their parts. The problem comes, where nobody is watching (I.E. the supplier is selling them under their own name, or selling to a customer that isn't watching carefully) quality substitutions can easily be made.


The same supplier that makes OEM parts, can then make their own parts, using the same tools and processes, using cheaper raw materials, and/or eliminating some of the less-visable process steps. Or, they can keep the scrap parts that are unacceptable to their primary (OEM) customer, and sell those parts under a different name, instead of throwing them out. It really doesn't matter where, or what factory makes it, it depends on who's name is on it, and how well they stand behind it.


I guess to summarize, major names are much more likely to sell consistent high quality parts, which will have consistent long life, because they hold their manufacturers to high quality standards. The lesser brands / unknown brands are much more likely to be inconsistent in their quality. You might get good parts, you might get junk parts, you really never know. As to which to buy? I guess you have to look at your budget, and your tolerance for inconsistent quality parts, and unknown lifespan.

mike944 said:

I guess to summarize, major names are much more likely to sell consistent high quality parts, which will have consistent long life, because they hold their manufacturers to high quality standards. .

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Yes, and no.

13 front wheel bearings in 100k miles on a Chevy colorado all from MOOG
aint my idea of any such controls on said large company.

Occasionally bad parts do slip through "the system", but as an engineer who deals with failure investigations somewhat regularly, it's possible, but highly unlikely you got 13 bad bearings in a row. I'd suspect some other component on your truck was manufactured improperly, and is causing them to go bad.

When bad parts do slip thorough, somebody who stands behind their parts and replaces them without hesitation is valuable.

Sorry Mike, 2wd truck (so no drive axle torquing issues, just 4 bolts on a flange),
truck was aligned, no pulling or tire wear.

I've got it down to 1 hour 15 minutes, wrote down all the tools needed.
Warranty yes, but it don't cover my time swapping them out.
Some lasted under 2 weeks, no powerwashing either (to mess up seals)
and no off road mud.

Yair . . .

digger doug Wheel bearings don't fail for no reason, there has to be some other problem as mike944 points out . . . I'd swap out the hub right back to the suspension.

Cheers.