2 cents from a chicken farmer
Well I thought I would add my 2 cent for what it is worth. I absolutely love my 06 T-190 w/ 1720 hrs, only BC I ever owned, even though I had and have a few issues with it (thats what brought me to this site). My ol man and grandfather both have 1840's that I have been running since I was 12-13 and it will out perform them 5 times over. I use mine to clean out my chicken houses. I bought the T-190 b/c it was the largest cab-a/c tracked BC that would still fit under the equipment lines without destroying everything. Still have to be careful though, I have broken 1 feed pan, 2 fogger lines, and 3-4 ceiling straps over the past yr and a half loading inside with my 96" quick dump bucket (dont even think about it unless you are extremely confident or really stupid). And yes I know its not rated for it, and yes it is absolutely all the lil 56 hp wants. I really bought the ginormous bucket to push the material from the far end to the front door (500') which it does fairly well.
When I bought it in early '11 with 14??hrs at an auction, all the filters were engraved that they were changed in '08 @ 13?? hrs, and thought I really got a pretty good buy on it. Got it home and realized it had a remaned engine (tag was on pump side of engine), which kinda concerned me a lil. All seemed fine until I used it long enough to get the operating temp up then the oil press light came on. Wholly f-in shyt what kind of POS have i bought! Long story short, installed a gauge, bout 22 psi @ idle, like 40 psi @ speed, new oil sending unit, all was good to go! Moral of the story is check the actual oil press before letting some moron mechanic convince you to spend $???k on a reman only to have same prob then let it set for 3 yrs and finally decide to auction it! First time I ever lucked out on something like that, did I mention EVER!
Found this site to adjust creep. After reading Willies excellent thread (many thx my good sir), it looks like RH arm is loose on pump shaft. Im bout to find out for sure after i type this. And the LH drive started leaking hyd oil behind the sprocket a couple months ago and is steadily getting worse, not horrible but a bucket of oil is $50! Leaks bout a gal or so every 2-3 hrs. So that will be my 2nd post. How to change the drive mtr seal??? And today I noticed the RH rear idler is starting to wear grooves on the perimeter from the track??? All other idlers look good, RH & LH. Is the track a little too tight? Prob loosen it up a bit in a min just to try it.
Is it loud? Yes, windows rattle and some hyd wine, dont really bother me with headphones on. Does it ride rough? On hard ground, concrete, bare CH floor, yes it will vibrate your eyeballs at 1/2-3/4 speeds! Tends to smooth out some at full speed. Noise levels triple. I try to just take it easy, but I wish it was a spring ride. (anyone know if it can it be retrofitted?) On soft ground like sand, mud, and on top of litter it is smooth as glass and nowhere near as loud. Even on fields / grass it is not unbearable. I suppose it is a lil under powered, lifts a full 60" dirt bucket with no prob at all. Pushes the 96" QD through 6-8" dry in-house chicken poo with lil issues, but it does work the pizz out of it. Does ok loading dry material (not for novices, especially inside!) x6 heaping buckets fills spreader truck in no time flat. Not real wise to use the 96" to load old wet piles that have been sitting in the weather for a couple months. Work it just right and it might lift it, but tipsy doesn't describe it. Can you say "faceplant", I haven't yet but it has tipped over into the truck bed a couple times, definitely not for faint of heart. Just too much for it, I normally use the dirt bucket on the wet stuff. Windrows litter with a Preifert 7' blade just about as fast as you wanna run. I even use the blade on my loading pad / driveways, but it will not cut hard earth at all, but hey its not a D5 cat. All in all, love it! BC's are the only machines I know of with rounded cab edges so it doesn't hang stuff in the chicken house. Actually there is not really any protrusions on the machine (huge issue in a CH). I have yet to find another machine out there that would work any better for what I use my T-190 for.