Rollers frozen!

[watglen]

My top rollers are frozen with packed mud and ice, on the 240.

The mud is frozen hard so removing it impossible. I could wait for a thaw, but it could be a while.

Suggestions?

 

[Wardiker]

My old tractor has a hydraulic tank that freezes (Bout the size of a bread box) I wrap a tarp or garbage bag around it and put a heater underneath. Or some times I put a propane heater pointed at the case. Be very carefully of fire and/or melting the tarp, thats why I prefer the electric heater method.

 

[JimBruce42]

blowtorch or steam pressure washer and a digging bar. Or wait till spring... The best method, dig it out before it freezes... if possible.

 

[tootalltimmy]

When I was in northern Alberta we used a tarp and a blowtorch in a piece of stove pipe to heat up a frozen truck to start it. I remember a fellow that left his small dozer to warm up and it caught on fire because of grass etc that was still in the tracks from a warmer time.

This will help to remind you to clean your tracks out at quitting time.

 

[andoman]

Our tracked pavers and rollers freeze to the ground in the winter if you don't put everything up on plywood. If we're doing some dirt work in the winter we bring some wood with us because the roller can peel off a small sliver of plywood with no problem and go about working. It's a cheap way to save yourself headaches in the future. When we've had our pavers freeze up we've just salted around them and they free up in a day or two.

 

[heavylift]

hammer drill... heaters & blankets..
and shoot the tracks every night... if possible as much as practical during the day...
a dead hoe makes no money

 

[tonka]

yup... clean them everynight and use a little blow torch to warm them up in the morning...

 

[ngwindustrial]

Been there done that! torpedo heater works great with the tarp, but go slow let it heat slowly so you don't damage the seals (learned this the hard way..) you can also use a spud bar to break it up to..then you can appriciate just how light a track spade really is! LOL good luck

 

[245dlc]

tiger torch to free up the rollers, Herman Nelson under a tarp or parachute to thaw it out completely then chop, chop, dig, dig. If your working in runny mud all the time park it at night after having cleaned the tracks on some old railroad ties. But if you can during the day pack the tracks with snow which will help keep them from packing up with mud. But always keep a propane tiger torch around and a Herman Nelson heater and an old tarp or parachute.... oh and a couple Mexican draglines.

 

[tootalltimmy]

I meant tiger torch not blow torch.

 

[watglen]

Ok, so i guess there is no better ideas than the one i had.

Here is a quick pic, the tarp is a good idea, will have to find one for tomorrow.

Thanks a lot guys.

btw, to add insult to injury, the drive in the pic dumped its oil while i was waiting on the torch. I was expecting it, it likes to do that this time of year. I have learned that the mud/water gets into the seal area, and prevents the floating seal from floating. Move the track even a little (thats what i did) and the contents dump out on the ground quickly. This isn't the first time, so i know i can just top it up, run it to warm it up, and it'll be good, till next time.

The only thing is, can i trust my operator to notice it???!!!!

 

[245dlc]

I know in my area Princess Auto has had a sale on canvas tarps which are more resilient to cuts and tears and might not burn as fast as the plastic ones. As for those final drive seals constantly having mud freezing, thawing, and packing takes quite the toll on those seals. I use to work for a company where two of our operators (father and son.lol) conveniently forgot how to use a track shovel so when the snow they supposedly packed into they're tracks thawed they would pack up with mud and eventually cause the seal to leak. They figured if the rollers were still rolling nothing was wrong. Well to make a long drawn out story short Toromont made a killing cleaning tracks (I think about $500) and replacing the final drive seals on those machines. So if your operator is anything like that I wouldn't count on having oil to long in those final drives.

 

[Auctioneerhere]

When I was in the Army we used to throw a used parachute over the scrapers / loaders / dozers...

Then we pumped the Herman Nelson pipe under it it would inflate the parachute & make it about 70 degrees when is was 20+ below out side.

47th Engineers in Fairbanks...

 

[rino1494]

This is what we use. We keep a 20lb tank in the truck.

 

[watglen]

Am i supposed to be preheating the drives to warm the seals in the this weather? I didn't read anything like that in the manual.

:beatsme

 

[QuickTrax]

I guess all of us southerners are at an advantage when it comes to rollers freezing. I bet you guys end up with a lot of flat spots on your rollers.

 

[tootalltimmy]

I think that the seals would be warmed by exercising the hydraulics after engine warmup. I was told to start with the bucket function and progress to the stick and boom. Finally, lift each track and spin each way. If the machine walks a little ways before digging everything should be nice and warm.
How cold is your day out in Ontario?

 

[245dlc]

Lol, no I've never heard of anything like that, but you should be trying to keep mud from packing into the tracks when it gets cold. Sometimes up start up it's not a bad idea to lift up one side and let the tracks spin in the air to circulate the oil in the final drive and in the hydraulics to help it warm up. How cold has it been where you live? Here it's been pretty mild as of late.

 

[watglen]

Its been just below freezing here, -2 or -3 in the afternoons, -6 -10 at night. Not cold enough to drive frost into the ground, but cold enough so that the little bits of mud and snow that do get on the undercarriage are nearly froze by the end of the day. So it tends to accumulate over a couple days.

 

[245dlc]

So is this a constant thing that your blowing final drive seals? The company I was working for had 320c's and one of the co-workers had a theory that when the other guys would use the straight travel pedal along with one of the other travel pedals it was sending jolts through the travel circuits and would rupture the seal or cone seal. But I think it was also coming down to the guys not cleaning the mud out of the undercarriage and letting it freeze. Usually what I would do after the machine sat in the shop (we had a heated floor) overnight I would clean whatever mud I could out of the tracks and if I had time even powerwash the drives. That may of been overkill but I never had any problems after doing that....well other than getting covered in nice sloppy mud. lol