I am considering purchasing a new set of track chains for my d6c, and I was wanting some advice on after market under carriage. I have noticed several brands, not sure which brands have held up to heavy use ,all advice would be appreciated, thank you Keith-50
If your going to use it regularly and not a hobbie machine, call your psr at cat dealer and go with cat chains, in one to two thousand hours you will have forgotten the price of OEM, you will be fixing the cheaper ones.
There is nothing wrong with a set of berco chains, they make good quality stuff.
Sorry, I disagree. They're sh1te in my book. I will add a caveat here that I am expressing an opinion about Berco chains on machines larger than a D6.
I won't single out anyone, you won't beat cat chains on you D6 PERIOD.
I think the main criteria that influences the judgement of what any user selects as regards undercarriage components is the type of use to which the machine is put. In my case our tractors run 24/7 and clock up in excess of 6,000 hours per year. That is at completely the opposite end of the spectrum to someone using their tractor almost as a hobby to do work round a farm or similar and clocking up maybe a couple of hundred hours per year maximum. What we judge by is reliability (downtime costs us money) and operating cost per hour. A user at the other end of the scale is more likely to be focused on the purchase price.
Thank you'll for your responce, My d6c is only used on my farm. I may use it 1000 hours a year, I just did not want to buy junk rails that wouldnt last but a short time. thank you keith-50
We have tried them all, and it's just damn hard to beat Cat undercarriage for uptime and durability. I agree though, lots of factors determine the expenditure. Undercarriage is the largest maintenance expense in the life of a dozer, so you want to get the biggest bang for your buck.
I'd always recommend any owner to try his Cat dealer first. Ask to speak to the PSSR (Parts & Service Sales Rep) and find out what offers they have going on genuine Cat undercarriage. For a D6C there may be a "Classic" option for low-hour machines that might make even more sense financially. Once you have an OEM price you could then shop around for other brands on the market and compare them to the OEM price.
Listen to NIGE I've had nothing but trouble with aftermarket undercarriage components spend the extra dosh on genuine cat bits and u will find there actually cheaper because u only have to do them once.
I agree with Nige on Berco. We have been running DCF rails and rollers On D6HXL's with very good results.
We've had pretty good value with ITR undercarriage components at my shop
I totally agree with FIREMANMIKE69 ITR is a great aftermarket dealer!
I agree with Nige and Cam85, I bought a used D6R with a supposed "NEW" ITR undercarriage and within one month or 250hrs had pins that were seizing and a rear idler that lost the bearing. In my opinion there is no other option than CAT undercarriage if you plan on owning the machine for any length of time.
must be the water around here, cat rails haven't been any better than the ones you can get at what used to be grace track service. not quite half price of cat when I got mine from them. they are not even berco.. I think it is called h.e. parts now.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against saving money anytime I can I do, that being said saving money by going with a cheaper product that is going to cause my machines to be down is not only frustrating to me but also my customers. We operate in a very competitive market. ....downtime+Repairs+loss of revenue=out of business. The way I see it do it right the first time and that is one less thing I have to worry about
My experience with aftermarket stuff.... I bought a D6H High track a few years back with a worn undercarriage.The idlers were still serviceable as were the track pads and most of the rollers. This machine was only going see a projected 6-800 hours a year on my property pushing clay on a stockpile. I replaced the chains and sprockets with what is called V-Track from CAT. It was way less expensive then the real Cat chains. I hard-faced my grousers and put the old pads back on. I replaced one front roller on each side with the Chinese imports and left the balance of the original worn Cat rollers go. Last winter was boom year for use of my machine, over 1500 hours since the replacement of these parts. ( I will check my computer service log for specific hours) The Chains and sprockets look really good only needing one minor adjustment along the way. But... the two new front Chinese rollers are almost garbage already. The old Cat rollers are still serviceable but are on there last legs. This has convinced me that there really is a huge difference in the quality of the components. One other note. I did all new Chinese cutting edges on this Semi U blade when I did the tracks...... after this winter they will be worn beyond service as well. R
DCF/Trek is usually about the cheapest to buy and generally considered good undercarriage. Up here Berco was more expensive than Cat. Cat usually quotes a ridiculously high price and then only when you question it, they start talking about discounts because the first quote was retail. At least up here anyway. Why not just give the best price you can the first time??? I can see matching a price or coming close but being way high off the bat, could scare customers away from any further negotiating. As far as the new rollers paired with old rollers, I don't think you can get a fair comparison on life expectancy. There's going to be a lot more wear on the new rollers because they are taking more weight and abuse than the old ones because they are a bigger dia. than the worn rollers. Kind of like putting new sprockets on old chain or vice/versa.
Yair . . . I believe Welder Dave raises a valid point about the rollers . . . not making excuses for the new Chinese ones but they would have been taking a disproportionate amount of load. If you tried mixing roller diameters with the Timken taper bearings in Allis Chalmers rollers they would be smoking hot in half a day and on their way to failure. Cheers.
Cat is good but if I'm looking into aftermarket parts and undercarriage I'm using ITR... They've proven to me time after time great quality and service for almost half the price.
Don't talk about price being "half this" or "twice that", talk about operating cost per hour for undercarriage then maybe someone might just take you seriously.
A lot of undercarriage has the same warranty. I thought ITR was Italian the same as ITM but were bought out by Berco or someone else. JD is another place to check but probably higher price. The JD dealer also sold DCF/Trek as their aftermarket brand if the JD was too expensive or not available for the particular machine. When I was pricing undercarriage for my 931B, a lot of equipment dealers(new and used) sold the DCF/Trek but prices were all over the place on the exact same parts. One place would have cheaper rollers but their rails were higher. I finally went with the place that had the overall lowest price but I went to pick all the undercarriage up directly from Trek. I think this saved me a couple hundred bucks. I paid the extra $200 or so to have them install the new track pads with the torque wrench on their track press. Most of my old pads still had lots of wear left but had come loose and everybody said they'd never stay tight, even with new bolts, so I replaced them. I think the pads were only about $15/piece if I recall. The unfortunate part is I needed 72 of them plus 2 master link pads.
I've got DCF chain from Trek, seem to hold up pretty good for us. Tried some others over the years...hell we cant afford Berco but they are good