Options for replacement undercarriage chains?

skyking1 said:

That 400 komatsu I was running, The crazy lowboy operator came out drove it on there and took it for about a six-block ride with no chains.

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I'm sure Farmerlund will agree with me, only time I throw chains is if I have to go on the highway, and sometimes not even then (we have little-used county highways around here). I do put the binders on this time of year. Ice cold steel and frozen wood planks don't have a lot of friction.

And I don't know about you but I tend to paddle them up out of the hole with the good track and the bucket and work on the dry ground.

skyking1 said:

Oh and you're killing me smalls with 120 is a lot smaller and lighter comment. I've run every size of iron that didn't have to come apart to go on two low boys, and some that did. Come on man!
That 400 komatsu I was running, The crazy lowboy operator came out drove it on there and took it for about a six-block ride with no chains. I told him about the track links and he seemed to not care. Picture a couple of links cracked far enough apart to slip some business cards in the gap.

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Man, I wasn't trying to offend! My apology! I was just saying the heavier they are, the more friction they will have against the soil when trying to turn. Or maybe I always look at excavator links and think they are pretty anemic for the forces they have to handle. I think John mentioned they tend to size up smaller UCs than really needed on these.

Dave, why do you say you can't keep the pad bolts tight? I certainly studied the design of these years back and realize those pads are absolutely KEY for chain life! They are a structural element and I have lost count of how many machines I see with loose pads. that will let the links move.

If you're going to reuse your pads, be sure to remove any paint from the new rails. That paint will disintegrate and loosen those pads up. You want bare metal to bare metal.

I'm just pulling your chain OP.
Bad dad jokes and only the worst.

Shimmy1 said:

I'm sure Farmerlund will agree with me, only time I throw chains is if I have to go on the highway, and sometimes not even then (we have little-used county highways around here). I do put the binders on this time of year. Ice cold steel and frozen wood planks don't have a lot of friction.

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I am no lowboy operator that's for sure. I have the required licenses and that's about as far as that goes.
They have a really tough law here in Washington State about secured loads, so you chained down everything every time.

mitch504 said:

You don't have to have a track press down in that pond. people have been doing them for years with a bar and a sledge hammer. I have a piece of tubing with piece of plate welded on to clamp to the pad so I don't have to have a helper hold the bar. If I was going to do them all the time, I would buy a press, but for once a year or so, my hammer works fine.

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Tell me more about that.... I have not yet taken a sledge to a track chain so not sure how bad that is. It might move easier than I am imagining. But I think the right way is pressing them apart? Not driving the pin all the way through? I realize field repair may be different.

Nothing to tell, it's a pin with an interference fit on both ends. You can press the pin in and out, or drive it, like any other pin. The press is less work, but sometimes the hammer is faster, sometimes it isn't. If you are going to split the track, look for the pin with the dimple in the end. It is the master pin, and the bushing is shorter and doesn't extend into the outer link. This is important whether you use a press or not. If you get a link that won't hold a pin, weld it in.

I'm not going to tell you about taking a link out if your chains won't tighten up, that would probably blow your mind!

Guys. I carry a chunk of a master pin from a 345 in my belly. Standing on the track, behind the idler, driving with a 16 pounder. A chunk of the pin spalled and shot up. From where it went in to where it rests is about 5 inches. Didn't penetrate the gut so Doc left it. It's about the size of a 22 LR. He should have taken it, now I can't have an MRI scan, they are afraid it will move. I was lucky, could have been eye to brain or throat to jugular. Yeah, I will not drive another, now or ever. But, I had my safety glasses on... I told my wife my rock hard abs saved my life. She said I was going to have to use a bigger hammer to get thru my fat belly

Dang!

Itr salt rails from empire tractor parts , very good and easy to deal with .

I think you can go two ways on undercarriage if the machines working production replace with new as needed.Id never think of replacing links in chain unless it was new chain broken under some kind of extreme circumstance. If its part time use do what you have to ,but dont spend a nickel ,which generally leads to welding. Ive welded broken rails cracked pads and loose pads . My 303.5 rails are pretty stretched now,not much adjustment left. I baby it along always walk with idlers forward ,use the bucket to turn. once in a while ill throw a track if im careless in the bush but for the most part they work. Things slow down at christmas i might build the idlers up and try and sqeeze some more time out of them.

I go the "only fix what's broken" route too. I only ordered the two front lower rollers that were obviously hammered out, but one other didn't feel good to me so I replaced it too.

sled dog said:

Guys. I carry a chunk of a master pin from a 345 in my belly. Standing on the track, behind the idler, driving with a 16 pounder. A chunk of the pin spalled and shot up. From where it went in to where it rests is about 5 inches. Didn't penetrate the gut so Doc left it. It's about the size of a 22 LR. He should have taken it, now I can't have an MRI scan, they are afraid it will move. I was lucky, could have been eye to brain or throat to jugular. Yeah, I will not drive another, now or ever. But, I had my safety glasses on... I told my wife my rock hard abs saved my life. She said I was going to have to use a bigger hammer to get thru my fat belly

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I know a fellow that was holding a bar so somebody could drive out a cylinder pin on a log loader. A piece of that pin came off and went through his calf muscle and out the other side. I guess it is a hazard anytime you are driving a pin. It can also happen with the mushroomed top on a chisel. I always try to make sure I am using a drift that is softer than the pin I am driving, and keep the ends of the drift trimmed off clean.

Shimmy1 said:

Don, I'm working on deciding undercarriage for my little Case dozer. Old stock OEM from a vintage dealer is $500 a chain cheaper than ITR SALT chains direct from HeavyQuip. Tones said in another thread that SALT chains don't like twisting and other abuse that mine are likely to see since it's an LGP machine that sees all conditions. He claims that the links will lose the oil, and will basically self-destruct. What do you think?

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Kinda depends on the terrain you typically run in and how many hours a year you expect to put on her. If you're always in the soft, SALT may have some benefit, if you run on bumpy ground sometimes yeah, you will probably lose the seals, they don't have much room for error and the metal thrust rings tend to disintegrate easily.

So, yes, I typically recommend dry tracks for an LGP dozer, try to remember to spin it at the end of your push, don't back it up any more than you have to, and if it starts to lengthen out and wear the sprockets badly consider a pin and bushing turn. Sometimes it makes more sense to run them to destruction and go new again, YMMV.

fastline said:

A 120 is quite a bit smaller/lighter. The prev owner already dumped big bucks in having some track links replaced. My concern is even one "service visit" to press some track bits after breakage on a job will probably **** me off royally. That is probably a grand towards new chains.

What I am studying at the moment is if I can build up a quick track press so at least if I pop one, I can deal with it. You know it would only happen in the bottom of a pond with rain coming.....lol.

Or I guess if I build up a press, I might be smarter to just buy a few links and fix the few bad ones. That might give me more confidence. I really feel like that machine needs to earn it's keep first.

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Emergency field repair as told by a small boy raised in the coast range of Southern Oregon by a pack of wild loggers. These maniacs are almost as elusive as the wild Rainier, though to be extinct:
Buy a couple sets of spare links and master bushings, and if you can get them separately about four sets of the spacers for the master link. Press the links onto the master bushings (or have a friendly shop do it) so they match the bolt pattern on the pads. You now have some emergency repair links. You can buy spare track pins and grind them a bit, or just some lengths of good quality shaft that will slip fairly tight through the link ears.

Emergency field repair is torch the bolt heads off, remove pad if not already separated from the broken link(s), torch the link ears off the pin on the open end, torch through the bushing and pin on the bushing end just inside the link on both sides, remove the link remnants, cut the pins back as close to the good links as possible, if the pin stubs are still tight, pierce through the center of each one with the torch and open the hole up a bit. Allow to cool, if you're in a hurry you can use water after the bits are not glowing any more. Pin stubs should pop out easily once they shrink. You may need to grind the ends of the old bushing you're reusing flush with the link surface to allow the spacers to fit in. Slap you repair link in aligning one end up with the metal spacers in the link ears, push your pin in, do the same on the other end also installing the spacers here. If you don't have the spacers, carry on like you cared and weld the pins in place. Bolt the pad on, tighten track and go until she breaks again. Seen lots of loose pads welded into place too, never liked it, but they can be cut loose and ground flat again if'n they don't crack out where the weld is.

Not trying to talk down to anybody, this is just stream of consciousness how I would do it as if I was explaining it to somebody that had never seen one before.

You can always replace just one side, then you got a whole string of repair links for the other!