Big track

Saw this big track on the road the other day.
Thinking it's going to take lots of trailer loads to get whatever it is together….

Looks a lot like a Link Belt LS278H track to me. 250 ton crawler size anyway. Kobelco or Manitowoc possibly.

Junkyard said:

Looks a lot like a Link Belt LS278H track to me. 250 ton crawler size anyway. Kobelco or Manitowoc possibly.

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I'm with you. Only wonder why it doesn't have a boom section straped on top of it.

If it's the wider shoes like I used to haul they're 67-68k by themselves. Pretty hefty track. I think the standard shoe had them down around 50. Most of the 250 class crawlers have tracks in the 55-65k range but it's been a few years since I've been around them daily and I've slept since then!

There is an Essex Crane Rental yard close to me, I see loads like that regularly. One track per truck, counterweights, main cab, booms, etc. They use mostly drop decks.

Can a person tell the difference between a track that goes on an excavator and one that goes on a crane just by sight ?

We has some huge, long stick excavators in the area several years ago when they demo'd the paper mill.

Yes you can, one way is by the shoes. Most larger cranes the shoes are the chain partially due to finding a bolt on shoe that wide capable of supporting a load such as a crane would be a challenge. Excavators have a chain and bolt on shoes, usually with a grouser of some sort for traction. Also, it's rare to see a excavator with removable tracks until you get into shovel size machines and they aren't easily removed like a crane. Most of the newer cranes can self erect. Some of the mass excavators can be gauged in but I don't ever see them hauled minus the tracks.

Cranes don't walk near as much as a hoe would so the designers chose ground pressure and stability over a track more suited to traveling. The exception to that are the 100 ton and smaller hydraulic crawler cranes. They use an undercarriage very much like a trackhoe because they're used on pipeline, tank building, drilling and stuff like that where they need to be mobile and maneuverable. Most of the bigger crawlers are built very close if not exactly where they will be used and have to stay on mats as they are so heavy they'd sink or at least settle and become unstable. You'll also notice that most crawler cranes have tracks considerably longer that an excavator, again due to ground pressure and stability.

Kind of a random poorly organized synopsis but hopefully it gives you an idea . There are some others on here that know way more than me about them perhaps they'll chime in. I do have a lot of crane pics from moved over the years.

Junkyard

Pixie said:

Can a person tell the difference between a track that goes on an excavator and one that goes on a crane just by sight ?

We has some huge, long stick excavators in the area several years ago when they demo'd the paper mill.

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I would say just by sight, yes. From my experience, most excavators have grousers on them. Cranes from what I know are smooth

Crawler cranes of over 50 ton capacity generally use flat tracks. That is the pads are pinned together and the sprockets are usually cog wheels instead of sprocket teeth. Excavators over 50 tons in weight generally have a variable gauge carbody. The track frames can be moved in and out for transport and working position. Excavators over 50 tons will usually be torn down and the track frames hauled separate when crossing most state lines. Many times the carbody will have to be removed from the house and hauled as well.

Junkyard summed it up pretty well. When the working crane weight gets up around 250,000 lbs without load, heavy matts are the name of the game. In my working life we assemblied our big cranes up on two rows of 20 ft. long matts set side by side for a 40 ft wide solid pad. They never traveled off the matts. Even with that it was a solid prepared surface under that. A major crane rental service lost one a few years ago when walking on asphalt to a teardown area with a folded lufting boom and 330 ft. of main stick. A void was under the asphalt and over it went crushing a smaller office building and a pickup. Fortunately the building had just emptied a few minutes earlier and no one was injured.

More windmills going up?