Track rollers freezing overnight?

[digger242j]

A question concerning compact track loaders in general....

On the job, we have a Kubota SVL 95, and in earlier years, had an SVL 90. In frigid weather, the track rollers will freeze, and refuse to turn. If the machine moves at all, it's only with great effort, and it's certainly not happy about it. (And yes, the mud is cleaned off at the end of the day, at least as well as possible.)

The solution has been to rent a 20' shipping container and park the machine inside overnight, with a small electric heater. The job super is annoyed to have an extra container on site. "I've never heard of a machine where the rollers freeze overnight!" Well, neither have we, but they do.

Has anybody else experienced this? If so, is there a better answer?

 

[Tags]

I haven't done it but I have a friend who would carry a piece of flexible tubing that fit over his pick up truck exhaust pipe and in the morning before running his MTL he would lay out the tubing from the truck exhaust to the undercarriage of the MTL while it was warming up to defrost the undercarriage. I really don't think it's that uncommon,especially if it's very muddy, for the rollers to freeze up at night

 

[Hobbytime]

just get a diesel or propane torpedo heater and run it blowing under the track loader, block the opposite side with a piece of ply wood and in short time it will defrost all tracks and warm the engine tranny too, I do this to start my dozer that sits in an enclosed but unheated barn in the coldest of winter when it gets down below 0 to warm the engine and tranny , never had issues with frozen rollers......water must be getting in the rollers or along the sides to cause that issue..

 

[crane operator]

We had a bobcat that would freeze up in iowa. We would load it up with the crane, and back it into the shop on a trailer to thaw. Not a problem if you have a crane around, but not everyone has that. Was worst if pushing snow, and leaving it set outside, would freeze up solid, and not even move.

 

[lumberjack]

I had a CTL that flat spotted some rollers due to mud between the top of the roller and the bottom of the frame.... could you have mud hiding?

 

[walkerv]

Interesting if it ever gets cold enough here this winter i will have to watch for that on the 279D in the fleet , i have an advantage being that if it does freeze up it will probably be thawwed out by noon and we dont use it everyday , if we had to i would probably hit it with hot water from the pressure washer

 

[catman13]

its the mud that is up inside of the frame that is settling down on the rollers and freezing , the container is a great idea . I don't know any way to get the mud out of the frame with out washing it real good.

 

[seville009]

I use an ASV PT-50 with a snowblower in the winter. Stays outside. Never had the track rollers freeze up. Have had the blower freeze solid when I stopped for a minute or teo; keep windshield washer fluid in a spray bottle to melt it enough to get the blower spinning again.

 

[DARO]

Here and there ive run into this.. i have always found mud or debris stuck in the track frame somewhere. Cleaning the frames and offending rollers corrected this. It happens more when it is 15 degrees and warmer.

 

[td25c]

Wonder what would happen if ya used a garden sprayer with 50/50 antifreeze to spray around the roller flanges at the end of the day ?

 

[walkerv]

Wonder what would happen if ya used a garden sprayer with 50/50 antifreeze to spray around the roller flanges at the end of the day ?

you mean non toxic rv antifreeze

 

[KSSS]

Usually if I get the mud off I have never had a machine (CASE) not move when the mud freezes. I usually just make sure the drive sprocket is cleaned off on the outside, the mud on the inside has never stuck the machine. I have not cleaned the mud off at all and had it stuck, in which case I have a radiant diesel heater and a small gen. and thaw it out. I really doubt the rollers themselves are freezing sufficient to prevent the machine from moving. I run my tracked machines in minus 10 degrees and never had one not move due to the rollers freezing.

 

[DIYDAVE]

Was talkin to a fella today, he said they use a sprayer fulla diesel, and spray 'em down, at night...

 

[crane operator]

Was talkin to a fella today, he said they use a sprayer fulla diesel, and spray 'em down, at night...

I went to disassemble a large dragline crawler crane 15 years ago or so, in weather like we're having right now. It was frozen to the ground, and the spraying diesel is exactly what they did, only after spraying the steel tracks down, they lit the diesel on fire, thawed the old bucyrus erie right out.

 

[m_ice]

We have used winter windshield washer fluid before, also use it on frozen salt in the spreaders. As stayed above, we find it's when in the teens to low twenties and mud in the rollers are usually the culprit.

 

[digger242j]

I've seen with my own eyes the rollers not turning. Actually, that's what prompted me to ask the question. We had a cold few days a couple of weeks ago, before the container arrived, and in the morning the machine would move, but only with great difficulty. I watched on one side as the operator moved it back and forth, and only one of the five rollers was turning. We thawed it out that morning with a 175,000 BTU torpedo heater, and it took about half an hour per side.

This past weekend, which was leading up to Christmas, the machine was left outside on Friday, because the container had needed to be relocated and the electrician hadn't finished hooking up the new electric panel. The weather had been decent on Friday, but the day after Christmas was frigid, and it took the better part of two hours to get her thawed out enough to use. That sort of delay every cold day isn't acceptable.

The track area is always cleaned as well as practical. It's not a matter of mud being frozen to the sides of the rollers, but the idea of mud being frozen on top, where it's inaccessible is a valid thought.

We hadn't discussed using any sort of antifreeze. If it's mud on top of the rollers I'm not sure how that'd work anyway. The idea of diesel fuel was discussed, and I raised the concern of how the rubber tracks would feel about that treatment day after day.

I had an old friend that used to strip coal, and he said they'd park their dozers on old tires. If they were frozen in the morning, they'd set the tires on fire. Not that you'd do that with rubber tracks anyway, but I think that might be frowned on these days.

Thanks, everybody, for the feedback.

 

[td25c]

Never did forget what an old contractor told me years ago ....

" Its gonna cost allot more on this job if ya let it go in to winter time "

Cant argue with him on that one . In cold weather dirt don't work rite & neither do the machines compared to warmer seasons .

 

[KSSS]

Are there any other CTL's on the job site? Do they have the same issue? I don't know if Kubota uses a proprietary roller or if they are buying from a third party. My rollers are Berco and I don't have an issue, maybe the Kubota roller uses some kind of thick grease or something inside the roller to make it not want to move in the cold. I would think more people would mention it if that were the case or perhaps most are not aware that the roller is not moving until I suppose the roller heats up from the friction of the track running over it and finally starts turning.

 

[willie59]

Never did forget what an old contractor told me years ago ....

" Its gonna cost allot more on this job if ya let it go in to winter time "

Cant argue with him on that one . In cold weather dirt don't work rite & neither do the machines compared to warmer seasons .

Word!

 

[crewchief888]

typically, at least around here, what i see is mud, now frozen, packed around the sprocket, and sometimes the tracks are sitting in mud, also now frozen. just getting the machine to initially move and break the ice is the biggest challenge. i can eventually get the tracks broke loose without heat.
ive only had one machine that i can recall that i had issues with. customer threw a track partially off, in a muddy/frozen cattle pen, no way to get the track adjuster collapsed to get the track back on due to the frozen cow sh*t/mud inside the track frame.
they initially wanted no part or attempted to help until i told them there was no way for me ALONE to get the track back on. it was getting dark, and the air temps were hovering around 0 F and dropping.
they eventually dragged the machine back to a barn and spent several hours thawing the cow sh*t and got the track back on. it took 3 guys the rest of the night....