Does anyone care to share their experiences with Advansys ground engaging tools? I am particularly interested in how they perform compared to Cat's "J" style and "K" style teeth. By "perform" I mean how well they are retained to the bucket (do they fall off easily/frequently), ease of removal and installation, wear life, and, of course, penetration, etc. (which I doubt will be much different between types within a MFR). My application would be on an excavator so experiences conveyed from that application would provide an even greater benefit to this conversation.
Got about 1200 hrs on next gen excavator I change between straight and wide teeth never had any come off need to clean dirt out were the lock turns but it not bad. K- style the retainer needed to be replaced all the time j style the pins sometimes rusted in or work out
349 & 365 excavators. K-Series always falling off. J-Series not much better. Both types we always 100% replaced pins & locks when changing teeth. Advansys - pretty much install then forget until the teeth wear out. There is a plastic plug to fit in the square hole for the breaker bar which somewhat helps to prevent having to dig dirt out before the old teeth can be removed.
We've been running J and K series for years with no issues to speak of. Running J series on both our 279's and 953C. Running K series on a 321 and 325FL. The J series are a PITA to change however the K series are easy peasy. Just my $.04 adjusted for inflation..
Thanks for replying guys! My experience has been with J and K style on my larger machines. They seem to hold on fairly well. I've dropped a few J style teeth but it seems to happen most if I'm working in a river (odd!). Maybe it the combination of water to reduce retainer friction and the impacts of digging through cobble? I do have a 24" bucket (for the 315) that employs the K style teeth and I also installed K style shanks on my old crusher bucket. I thought this system was better as it didn't require specialty tool (like the PinMaster required for the J style teeth) but we did loose one tooth on the crusher bucket. Maybe from the continuous vibration while crushing? One thing you don't want to do is to send a bucket tooth through the crusher!! I was asking because I became aware of the Advansys teeth while looking at purchasing new 325 next gen. I have decided to go ahead and install them on my new crusher bucket so we'll see how the do. I'm hoping that my experience will be as Nige has suggested....Install them and forget about them until I'm ready to replace them. They are noticeably wider at the base due to the cam-over retention mechanism.