just wondering if any body has any pics of tooling they built or bought for holding up bottom rollers to fasten in place? last time I was over at the track shop they had some kind of fork holding deal
Back saver I devised this tool to hold the roller, attach to my small forklift and provide plenty of room to install the bolts.
Here's a photo of one in use on a D6H. The Cat Part Number is FT1311. FT stands for Fabricated Tool so the idea is that you make it rather than buy it. Any Cat dealer ought to be able to get you the measurements. I would guess that the measurements of the fork will differ depending on the size of tractor you're working on at the time.
That's forking beautiful....
Yair . . . . I used a small hydraulic jack. It was just a matter of getting the roller in position, bar the outer end up until the outer end of the shaft/retainer contacts the track frame and then position the jack as close to the roller as possible and start pumping . . . the end of the shaft acts as a fulcrum and the jack has enough grunt to lift the whole roller into place from one side. I then put suitable blocks under the roller to make it safe started the bolts and then lifted into place with the jack again and up it with the ratchet . . . did hundreds over the years. It all sounds very counter intuitive I know but it works like magic. Cheers.
Hate to admit that in over 40 years working on off-road equipment I never had the pleasure of replacing a bottom roller, did do an upper roller on a D6 my last year at the quarry. The fork tool does look good, but I was wondering if a scissors jack out of car would work. Maybe weld on an adapter to hold the roller from slipping. They work great for lifting up the front or rear of my motorcycles or wife's scooter while on the work table, closest I get to heavy equipment work these days!
I never had to do any in the field, they always lasted until it was rail time, then you pop the track frame off, flip it upside down and use the hoist, after chasing all the threads and welding up any cracks/worn areas. Lucky I guess
Yair . . . When you have half a dozen tractors trying to run two shifts in a 4mph gear, seldom in reverse and bouncing over logs with Timken bearings in the rollers you can be assured you will learn a bit about changing out rollers . . . the jack does work. Cheers.
Thank Gawd I never did! :tong
I use one hand to hold it up and the other to put the bolts in. Easy peasy.... But I haven't worked on equipment bigger than D8s, Cat 345s. so cant say about the big stuff.
We did lots of broken rollers trying to run out the set. It's the rock guards that make changing rollers a pain. A hour of cutting out the welds on the bolt heads, unthreading the cross rod, unbolting the rock guard bolts, cutting down each side of the guard and pulling out the pieces. The roller was the simple part. Once that is back in, put the rock guard pieces back up, bolt them in solid and weld the cuts and the bolt heads again. After all that I've never put rock guards on anything again except logging shovels.
Just remember, first liar ain't got a chance! :tong
Yea... what lantraxo said.
D8 rollers with one hand..? Are you Desperate Dan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Dan - or what ....?
Ha, more of a Canadian Paul Bunyan logger type! just kidding. All my work is in the field, in the bush logging, construction sites. Actually I just raise and lower the machine lift it up with its own blade or bucket, ripper. lots of room to slide out the old cowbell roller. Put new one in place, and slowly lower the machine back down. I just use a 18/24 inch pry bar to lift it up a couple inches to get a bolt in. then suck it up with air ratchet and torque to spec. Im sure its the same way most people do it. Very simple.
OK I'm with you now. IMO your method's fine if one roller is being replaced in isolation but it's a a total PITA if you are changing a full set. You'd need a trampoline to keep bouncing up and down into the cab.
i have made also a balancer for the bottomrollers, just like NIGE posted the picture. works good. and you can adjust the counterweight a bit for the different sizes off rollers. but with the dozers i usely use the same methode as SEABASS it takes a bit longer, cause i need to go in the cab and out but atleast it helps my back. or the tracks needs to be replaced completely then it's easier to just use the balancer thing. either way the rollers can be a pain in the ass sometimes..
Yair . . . Of course I should have mentioned the "jack on one side" method was developed for use on cable blade machines where positioning the machine across a couple of logs with the slack of the track in just the right position was a bit of an art in itself. Hydraulics front and back makes it all a breeze, we're all spoilt these days . . . even three piece rock guards by golly, now there's a fine invention. (wry grin) Cheers.
I've been fortunate enough to only have to do rollers in the shop or on concrete. I've used a piece of angle iron welded to an automotive floor jack, works pretty well and it's easy to guide the roller with your hands while raising the jack with your feet.