To add grouser bars or not?

Been piddling around with a new to me (wore out) D4Hll. Been fixing all kinds of problems...being new to dozer ownership...I should had avoided when I was looking to buy. I have a question for yall "old hands". Do I add grouser bars to these pads? Whole UC is 75% gone already. Dozer has 9500+/- hours on it. I have no clue if engine and trans have been rebuilt or not. I loose traction quite a bit. Makes it kinda hard to keep pushing in a straight line when cutting with the side of the blade. Should i weld bars on my grousers for added traction? or would the extra traction shorten the remaining life of my tranny? Now this is just a farm dozer...and for "playin in the sand box". What to do???

I welded bars on my 7....it sucked....took forever.....next time I'll just buy new pads.....how's the scallop on ur pads?

I say yes because the trailing edge of the pad is good not scalloped out. If you have the time and know how to regrouser the pads they can be used on the next set of rails.

A D4 doesn’t push a lot any way . By putting new grousers on you will put more stress on drive train.

PEVO said:

Been piddling around with a new to me (wore out) D4Hll. Been fixing all kinds of problems...being new to dozer ownership...I should had avoided when I was looking to buy. I have a question for yall "old hands". Do I add grouser bars to these pads? Whole UC is 75% gone already. Dozer has 9500+/- hours on it. I have no clue if engine and trans have been rebuilt or not. I loose traction quite a bit. Makes it kinda hard to keep pushing in a straight line when cutting with the side of the blade. Should i weld bars on my grousers for added traction? or would the extra traction shorten the remaining life of my tranny? Now this is just a farm dozer...and for "playin in the sand box". What to do???View attachment 184635

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Better grip in the wet , thats about it . Spending time on the area's where your machine can fail probably more important . First and only time I built up some plates I learnt what a welders duty cycle is and why you should not exceed it .

nontypical9 said:

I welded bars on my 7....it sucked....took forever.....next time I'll just buy new pads.....how's the scallop on ur pads?

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Trailing edges are sharp...but not scalloped.

I would run it the way it is, if it is a toy it will take a little longer and like said less strain on the machine.
there is no sense in putting more money in to it until you get some hours on it and see if it going to last.
have you ever done an oil sample on the trans. and motor and seen what is running around in there

The machine will only push what it weighs at the best of times. It is a finish machine and not really meant to load up the blade and hog out a lot of spoil. If you think you need to add bar, I would suggest getting a bunch of half or three quarter inch rebar and add it to every other pad. I think you would find that it makes little difference.

I guess I'm the devils advocate but here is how I think. If the drive train is going to fail it will anyway another inch of grouser isn't going to make that happen. If you run those pads to the bolts it will be to late. If you are going to do it use grouser bar, it is available in 10 ft lengths and is pre beveled. Is it fun? no, is it a low cost improvement? yes if you do it yourself. Up to you, if it were mine I would go for it.

I did my D3 LGP a couple years ago, and could really tell a difference. I had a local metal shop cut me some AR500 steel, that I added to the grouser pads. It was fairly noticeable in how much it would push. But the transmission does run a bit warmer now.

Depends on the work you want to do, the ground your working in, etc. How much you use it, etc. Lots of work to weld bars on old pads. You might find some used pads with better grousers, you don't need all of them to make a difference. It will ride a bit rough on hard ground though.Sometime flatter pads are better for certain work. They tear things up a lot less. Less wear and tear on the whole driveline for an older well worn machine, those grouser don't look all that bad anyway. I sure have seen worse.

@ $35ea plus bolts and labor, I'd consider new aftermarket ones.

Also keep in mind if you build up the grousers it will put more wear on the track chains as well as the drive train.

Now this is just a farm dozer...and for "playin in the sand box".

How much money do you want to spend? How do you know the undercarriage is 75% worn? If you are not going to be making any money with the machine how are you going to justify the expense? You can compare against the cost of rental or having a contractor doing the work. That number of hours would indicate the machine is likely on at least the third undercarriage and maybe more. Then again how do you know the hour meter is correct? Does the machine have the 3204 engine or the newer unit. The 3204 was only good from 8,000 to 10,000 hour on good maintenance. Do you know where this machine came from and are there any prior records? I'll guess that a rebuild on the trans and converter will run in the low to mid twenty thousand dollar range. New pads at the price above would run $2,800 plus freight and taxes. What I could kind of make out on the photo shows the bottom roller flanges nearly hitting the track chain pin bosses even though the left side idler is not adjusted out. I could not make out the sprocket teeth. How far into this black hole do you want to go?

All here have recommended plenty of good advise. Remember though that it was free and make your decision accordingly.

If your trying to cut a road in a sidehill, starting at the forward end of your cut just slightly angle into the cut and lift the blade slowly as you move forward cutting the bank, back up 20'-30' and repeat all the way to the back. Now start picking up what you've knocked down and using the tilt and angle to lose it to the downhill side.
Mike

I've figured out how to compensate for the lack of traction when loading up the side of the blade...or cutting 2-3 foot at a time. I angle the blade away from the cut...that offsets the lack of traction on the track doing the cutting and more or Less stays straight. As opposed to pushing with a straight blade...the loaded side wanting to turn into the cut.

My mindset for buying this particular dozer was the rippers. (you see Very few d4hs with them ) I figured they were worth $ 5-6k so I paid more for this dozer because of them. However with the lack of traction due to grouser bar being wore down...they are worthless when fully depressed in the down postion...I ain't going nowhere. Sad thing is the more im learning about dozers...the more i realize i got screwed. At least UC wise...only thing in good shape is new sprockets. A fellow member pointed out the wore out components on the tracks...I researched it...yup he was right. My rails are missing 2 links per side due to streching and wore idlers. Hindsight being 20/20...I don't quite think the rippers were worth either. I could had saved by buying a dozer with a better UC vs this one. I can run them about 1/2 to 2/3 down without slipping too bad...and go over the same ground a few times to get the desired affect. As far as grouser bars go???...if I choose to weld bars on It will be 1/2 x 1in bar mild steel stock cut at 22+degrees on the ends to help turning and not digging in too awful much. I have nothing but black dirt where I live and these would last for years at the rate I will use the dozer. Biggest cost here is my time. I figure I won't put but maybe a 100 hours or so a year on it. So far the engine and tranny seem fine. So I will work with what I have and not push it too awful much. There are additional heavy screens and more 3in Sq tubing to add to it to keep from getting impaled by tree limbs when clearing brush. So no matter what to bar or not to bar is a long way off.

If it is struggling with 3 shanks ripping at full depth, use 2 or 1.

You don't see many with rippers because the machine is not much good for ripping in the first place. The work OK for busting through pot holes in gravel roads. The also work OK in sand a gravel soils. The machine is way too light to work in any kind of rock.

These machine are great finish machines. You can see the corners of the blade and develop good feel for the material you are pushing. The do wonders on drives ways and residential developments but are a little tall when loaded on a trailer. You don't see them used much by the big contractors in my area as they like the oval track machines better for that use.

Pulling links from the tracks would explain the idlers being all the way in. How many pads do you have on each side?

John C. said:

You don't see many with rippers because the machine is not much good for ripping in the first place. The work OK for busting through pot holes in gravel roads. The also work OK in sand a gravel soils. The machine is way too light to work in any kind of rock.

These machine are great finish machines. You can see the corners of the blade and develop good feel for the material you are pushing. The do wonders on drives ways and residential developments but are a little tall when loaded on a trailer. You don't see them used much by the big contractors in my area as they like the oval track machines better for that use.

Pulling links from the tracks would explain the idlers being all the way in. How many pads do you have on each side?

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Factory specs are 39 links per side. I have 37 per side. Plus in another thread i described how i found another surprise...wallowed out shot track frame pivot...and my unconventional fix...but hey it worked. I figured its already ruined...a proper fix would had run into the thousands plus im not setup for heavy lifting of components...my fix was about 20-25 bux worth of DIY rigging & i didnt have to take it all apart to fix it. I never ran a dozer before this. Front end loader/backhoes, skid steers etc never a dozer. Mastering that blade is a challenge...but im learning. I've only run it about 4-5 hours and picked a waterway that needs reshaping to practice on. Heres a pic of my shoddy dozing. It's not finished. I only work on it late evenings (too damn hot in cen. Tx right now) and when i have time. (Lots of irons in the fire)