G'day So in the wetter months here I do actually work in some mud. Now the stuff round here generally drys over night and falls off the next day. My question is, what damage and how quick does prolonged use in mud cause? I've never really seen anyone shovelling out tracks each day hear on a job. I've really only seen them get shovelled out when the machine needs to be floated away. Cheers
Last job every shift for a dozer or any other tracked machine operator hould be to clean out the undercarriage IMHO. Doubly so if the machine is working in muddy conditions.
Finding your tracks jammed full of frozen mud in the morning just once will convince anyone of the benefit of cleaning them at the end of the shift each day.
I don't think freezing is gonna be a problem in NSW. Personally, I don't clean them unless it's going to freeze, or it's so packed I can't climb up on the machine, or I'm going to work on it.
Yair . . . Pane The only real issue are the support rollers, some types of mud can lock them up real quick and it doesn't take long to wear a flat spot . . . I mostly like to have a nice track deep puddle handy so I can waddle through and give everything a bogie now and then. Around here the main reason they are cleaned when floating is because of noxious weed seeds . . . and I suppose picky truckies if you have to hire them in. I can never see the point in spending time shovelling out crud tonight when I'm gonna dive right back in tomorrow. Cheers.
I run Case 450,1150 and Cat 941 traxcavators in Melbourne years ago. Winter time in sticky clay was no fun.We cleaned the tracks every night but in wet clay we needed to do it a number of times through the day.Especially with the 450 and 941 it would pack in so tight it really dragged the machine back.
Or that chunk of mud or a rock that falls off and lands on the Merc's windshield.:cool2
You mean the lawyer's wife's Merc?
With my luck it would be the DA's wife..
G'day Thanks fellers. No chance of the mud freezing where I am. Interesting about the top rollers and flat spots, I'd never considered that! Cheers
I am lazy and really don,t clean my tracks on my hoe hardly at all.In the winter if I feel there might be a problem I lift each side up and run tracks backward and forward several times to clean them off.In the mourning I do the same thing but very carefully and slowly until they run smooth. I know it,s not the right way but it,s my way.
I clean my tracks on the hoe and cat at the end of every day. If it's real bad I'll take a 2" water pump and hose and flush everything out that I can. Makes life a little easier. It's a pain shovelling out that real heavy wet clay but it's a pain in my pocket replacing parts too. Ryan
I clean my tracks on the hoe and cat at the end of every day. If it's real bad I'll take a 2" water pump and hose and flush everything out that I can.(in the summer anyways) Makes life a little easier. It's a pain shovelling out that real heavy wet clay but it's a pain in my pocket replacing parts too. Ryan
I'll second what scrub stated, packed dirt in track frame can cause carrier rollers to jam. I've got a Komatsu CD60 crawler dump in the shop right now that came off of a rental. The rental customer didn't keep track frame clean, has one carrier roller that turns free, but has at least one quarter of the roller worn in a flat spot because dirt build up jammed the roller from turning.
This year the muds so bad, we've given up cleaning out tracks, only enough to keep the top roller turning is all we do, yesterday we were in mud deep enough with the trencher you couldn't see the tracks at all, they were submerged in mud, along with the excavator and the dozer backfilling we had to clean the top roller out every couple hours to keep that turning like it should, only when its freezing conditions do we do a good job every day of keeping the tracks clean and then drive the machine up on rubber tires to keep it from freezing down to the ground, so in the morning you might be able to get the tracks moving again, even after a good job of cleaning the night before.
Willie, would the renter be charged additionally for the roller replacement that on top of the rental invoice, being as the failure was not due to fair "wear & tear" ..?