Wondering how often you guys clean the dirt build up out of the undercarriage. I'm working in some black land thats a little wet and spent 2 hours digging mud out today. I told the guys to start cleaning it out at least once a day so it wouldn't get so packed. I'm new to dozers so just wondering what yall do. Also how long is it safe to run with 1 bad bottom roller? The one next to the back one went out on me. I have another one but would like to wait til a rainy day to replace it if I can.
Two hours on one machine? I have never timed it but I don't think it has ever taken me longer than a half hour on a D6 size machine that was stuffed full. Maybe the dirt you are working with is alot heavier than what I am used to. To answer your question, I like to clean mine everyday but if I am working in bad conditions and/or it's not going to freeze I sometimes only clean around the carrier rollers. As far as the bottom roller is concerned, I have run them a few days before I change one. Obviously, the sooner the better.
Not exactly sure on time might have been less. I had several repairs to make this morning and time got away from me. We've been clearing a locust thicket so all the little branches/vines combined with thick sticky black mud made it a job. Hardest part was around back sprockets. I need to get the roller replaced. It was bad when I bought the machine and we've put 20-30 hrs on it so no telling how long it's been that way. It still turns but the center section is knocked out of it so it's loose.
Yair . . . I have never had to contend with freezing and, it in our conditions, apart from keeping top rollers free cleaning undercarriage is a pointless exercise while on the job . . . top rollers may need cleaning several times a day in some gunk. Cheers,
Our operators were under instructions to clean out the undercarriage of all track type machines (including excavators) at the end of every shift. So in certain cases that could be up to 3 times a day.
Yair . . . What were the reasons Nige ? Cheers.
There are plenty of good reasons to clean the tracks at the end of every shift, and I have been on sites where a 1 ton truck with a water tank and pressure washer would do a routine end of shift cleaning to reduce undercarriage wear and allow identification of required maintenance, but they were working in radioactive sludge. I would think dozers would require it more since they spend more time moving and less time digging,
Scrub, at the start of every shift the oncoming operator was required to do a walk-around inspection of his machine. Part of this inspection on tracked machines was the undercarriage (hot pins, worn rollers, rollers not turning, loose or broken hardware, etc, etc.) if you can't see the undercarriage for goop it's a bit hard to do that, no..?
My old Komatsu can be a bear to clean with that fancy wishbone pivot and LGP. Sticky dirt + roots and debris make it miserable. I've spent close to an hour or more sometimes. I like to at least get the big chunks off every day but sometimes it's just not worth it. Keep the rollers clean and turning. I use a 2" water pump with a 3/4" nozzle to clean them when possible.
I guess it would be up to the owner on how often to clean. IMO a clean machine is a longer lasting machine. As Nige wrote, hard to see if something is wrong if one can't even see the part to began with. I like to at least keep the big clumps and crap out even if it's just a dry cleaning once a day or sometimes more. If possible I'd much rather power wash this keeps sand and smaller pebbles from causing unneeded ware. I have seen guys that never clean there machines, but they're the same ones that don't care about maintenance either.
Thanks for the replys. I told the guys to knock the mud of every day with a shovel. Doesn't need to be spotless but shouldn't be caked up so bad you can't check anything. Maybe we will get it some drier ground before long.
Yair . . . Gotcha Nige . I guessed the reason was the "walk around" thing . . . different operations different methods. (big grin) Even back in my day I had fellers come to us from mines and have a little wander and they would be gently told the "walk around" at the midday shift change had just become a "crawl through underneath and down each side". What they were looking for on oval track crawlers were loose belly guards and covers, bent or broken springs/equalisers/diagonal braces and loose or broken bolts on rock guards or rollers and of course each roller was felt for temperature. Typically no amount of crud built up on track frames would interfere with such an inspection . . . the morning shift operator all covered with dust and mud and crud was required to do the inspection so it was in his best interests not to take the tractor wading through a boggy melon hole in the last half mile or so to the tanker. As others have mentioned there is nothing like a good fire pump for getting rid of crud. Cheers.
One trick that I use when I can is to find a sand pile and load up the undercarriage with sand and whatever mud and residue that tends to stick and make itself difficult to remove will have a layer of sand under it almost like talcum powder and whatever needs to be removed will separate from the undercarriage without much hassle.I takes me a good hour to clean an old D8.Of course you will do that at the beginning of the shift for best results.Ron G
First off, I'm no expert, but as I said earlier I have run a bad bottom roller for a few days but obviously the sooner it is changed out the better. I am curious to know how much damage running a bad bottom roller does though.
I would think if a bottom roller was frozen and not rolling at all it could do some track damage pretty quick. In this case it's still rolling but the center section is gone. It's just kind of floating around. At any rate the sooner it's changed the better. We plan on changing it out in morning. I could be way off though I'm definitely not a dozer expert.
Yair . . . JS300 If it is flogging around it's not so much the damage it's doing to the track but the extra load its putting on adjacent rollers, you need to get another in there ASAP as adjacent rollers will start running hot. If you have rock guards with horizontal tie bolts and spacers between the rollers you may need a couple of new ones as flogged out rollers can rub. Depending on how much the existing rollers are worn the new one may have reduced life as it will be taking extra weight . . . don't be surprised if it runs hot, real hot Cheers.
If the top rollers are turning there clean. Need to spend your time removing the bad roller when it is found. If you don't have a used roller find one cause a new one won't last til the water gets hot. Best to buy a side of rollers or better yet a full set than you will have some used ones for spares.
The replacement roller I have is a used one I got from a friend and is close to the shape mine are in. I did wonder about the effects of adding one brand new roller though. Good point about the other rollers carrying the load of the bad one, I hadn't really thought of that. I'm set up to replace it in the morning if all goes as planned. Looks fairly easy if the bolts aren't froze up.
In regard to cleaning tracks, we clean at the end of the day year round. During freezing temps we pay more attention to the area around the carrier rollers, and still have to warm them up the next morning sometimes to get them rolling, using a weed burner. One glob of wet mud can fall off of the tracks onto a carrier roller and prevent turning the next morning. We also check each others rollers in the morning to make sure that they are rolling. When we have been working in extremely wet mud, and overnight temperatures get below zero, we occasionally have to warm the front idlers as well to get them rolling.
Seems like cleaning out the mud is an obvious ideal goal, but good luck having an operator actually get dirty. In the fleets I have worked on, the operators CRY to the grade supervisors / foremans to have a MECHANIC come clean out the muck. From what I always saw, the operators KNEW it was part of their job from day one, but when it came time to actually do it, they pussed out like little girls!!! Go figure!!
Any operator who went all crybaby about cleaning undercarriage on our operation would be written up in a heartbeat ....... in fact the "there's no track spade" excuse got so well used that the Ops foremen would carry spares round in the pickup. The radio conversation was usually short & sweet. Op: "There's no track spade in my tractor" Foreman: "There's a spare on the back of my pickup. I'll be there in 5 minutes" ........... In fact we got to the stage that operators were required to sign for track spades and anyone who lost one had to pay for the replacement.
We have a small company, and everyone (including me) is responsible for cleaning tracks, greasing, and fueling the equipment that they ran at the end of the day. I provide a variety of track shovels for the task.
Oh, the joys of running tracked equipment in the mud, in the winter. I have two different spades that I like to use, depending on the consistency of the mud. Sticky, heavy, packed-in calls for the first shovel. The pic might not do it justice, it's a miniature shovel, only about 4" wide. Sloppy, wet, messy stuff gets off quick with the second.
Mine always gets the shovel at the end of the day, even when it is relatively clean. Almost every fault I have spotted in the undercarriage has been when the shovel is in hand. I back RonG's tip 100%, if you can run on a little sandy stuff before you hit the mud it will save time at the end of the day. a dusting is all it takes. Another thing that helps a lot when you are in the wet clay or anything sticky for that matter is to lift the nose just enough with the blade to take the slack out of the tracks, it gains you just a couple cm but it will make the first half meter behind the front idler go a lot easier (specifically on a vpat). Winter operations can go easier (particularly in mud and "stabilized"clay, sediment or sea bottom) if you do them once quickly as you get out for lunch and again at the end of the day. Also park on hard or frozen ground for the night....... Shimmy 1 brings up shovels. Spot on. The shovel in your hand can double the time to do the task if it is poor fit, so choose wisely or get yourself an angle grinder and make it a right fit. I carry 2 shovels as well for exactly the reasons he does, though were I live I can't buy a good shovel so they both got a taste of the grinder disc. Maybe "best track shovels" should be its own thread? maybe it has been already.
It seems we used pretty much the same as everyone else for cleaning tracks......
I'm (too) familiar with the black clay the OP is talking about. I've spent over an hour cleaning it out of the undercarriage of my compact track loader at the end of the day. And that's after spending a few times during the day to knock out the really bad areas. The stuff will also rust pinholes through hard lines if you don't keep up on it.
I use a skid with forks .
I love to use a Pulaski . The firefighting tool. They are easy to store ect .
Named of course after Ed Pulaski, the inventor! I like a inexpensive hoe for much of the work.
What the heck is a "Pulaski"?Ron G
Combination tool, Michigan axe combined with an adze, so you cut down trees and dig a fire break with a single tool. I have one for brush clearing and hand trail maintenance. Howard
And here is the WIKI on it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_(tool) As an aside, the Collins Ax company is now part of Stanley tools and the original factory is now an series of antique malls.
Want to make track cleaning easy? The old tried and true method is to "diesel" the tracks at the start of the day. No, this is not real friendly to the environment. I pump diesel all over the track and undercarriage. This prevents dirt/mud buildup, and any that sticks, is easily removed with just a light shoveling. There are a lot of jobs you could not do this on. However, the small amount of diesel you get on the ground is not going to hurt anything, and will help with weed control at that location. Works great on the black sticky soil here in north Texas Again, if you are an environmental nut or tree hugger, well, you probably will not want to use this method.
You can also use a environmentally friendly release agent, like used cooking oil. I lived just downslope of a neighbor in North Texas who was sloppy with his waste oil. Not long, after we moved in, my pond that drained his driveway, started showing a good oil sheen after even moderate rains. I then got a chance to teach him and some other neighbors some "bioremediation" practices to clean up the oil sheen and restore the watershed to health. Since we had free waste oil collection at every auto parts store, WalMart and TSC, there was no need to dump waste oil into the ground. A little knowledge goes a long way. The bioremediation consisted of cutting some of the overgrown vines around the pond to let sunlight in and rerouting the garden runoff to allow the excess nitrates to flow into the pond. And over the years I have been involved in some VERY large scale bioremediation projects, like cleaning up old TNT washout ponds that used to collect the very toxic "redwater" and "pinkwater". I don't mind people fouling their own nest, but leave mine alone... Howard
Mowingman and Howard...you both got me to thinking. We used to spray diesel like water back in my concrete days. It was a great form release and kept concrete from sticking to pretty much anything wood or metal. But that was a long time ago. Wanting to be a good steward and all I did a little search for organic form release and found this https://www.fishertools.com/product/wr-meadows/concrete-and-masonry-materials/chemicals/form-release-agents/duoguard-ii-form-release-agent-5-gallon-18.93l.html . Concrete and North Texas black clay are both high alkali so it just may work. I will see if I can find used cooking oil first. It has to be more wallet friendly.
Used cooking oil is a great idea. Since the biodiesel "fad" has slowed down, I would bet you can find large quantities pretty cheap. I figure that by using a pump-up sprayer to apply the diesel to the undercarriage, very little, ( a light mist), gets on the ground. Unless you just drown the machine with diesel.