I'll be needing an undercarriage soon and am wondering what the most cost effective option would be for a track group. Which brands and/or distributors are good? Which ones to stay away from? How big of a project is it to change out the group yourself? Is it worth doing it yourself?
Your local Equipment suppliers will have alternative lower cost undercarriage suppliers, best to check with them as to what they can acquire and what they have seen last or not as per your hours usage. If you have access to heavy tooling it would be grueling work but an individual can swap out undercarriage. The main needs are 3/4 and 1" impact wrenches, a torch for heating and cutting, a compressor that will adequately operate the air tools. Subsequent grinders, drills, come a longs(multiples) a forklift or associative machine to handle unloading the materials then blocking and jacks to solidly situate the machine safe enough to work on without falling on the mechanic as well pinch bars and leverage tools. Being inside is not a necessity but a solid flat and level surface is.
A 450 is not that big of a machine. I put new undercarriage on my Cat 931B and other than having a welder to weld nuts on broken roller bolts did everything with normal hand tools. I did rent a 3/4" drive electric impact wrench to run off my generator for the track frame bolts but still had to use a snipe on a couple. I paid a couple hundred bucks extra to have the new pads bolted on in the track press. Pads were good wear wise but most were loose. The shop can torque them to the proper torque much more accurately and way faster than I could. No sense throwing away money on new track pads that come loose. I had an advantage because I could pick the whole machine up with the loader and backhoe. I took the track frames off and used my skid steer to pull them out and flip them over. Skid steer was also good for pulling the tracks out and the new ones back under but a truck could do the same thing. Some 3/4" or 1" drive sockets and snipe is all you'll need for the track frame bolts. Trek/DCH had the best price for undercarriage on my machine. Berco was more expensive than Cat and doesn't last any longer than other brands.
Good evening Ben, I run Huckleberry Supply. We sell new aftermarket undercarriage to the end user at wholesale price. Let me know if you would like us to quote you out.