We are thinking about the procurement of a CTL & I have heard some stories about they can be somewhat touchy in the colder climates after working in some wet/muddy areas, the morning after to get things moving. We are in the north where there is often wet conditions by times in the winter, followed by an over night freeze up, when the previous days activities involved working in muddy conditions. I realizes the tracks must be cleaned after use, but are there particular problems with "getting going" on a cold morning, following a "mud event" when these machines are parked outside, which will be the case with us?
You have to get the mud behind the sprockets so it will roll in the morning sometimes its nice to get it full of snow first before you get to the mud
I've had mud freeze on mine a few times. I gently try to move back & forth until the rollers break free. I've found keeping the sprockets clear is most important, as Jonas302 stated. That can make for a miserable start to a day.
Maybe parking overnight on some wood planks may help with breaking things free too, when the tracks are muddied up?
Clean the sprockets for sure if you can. I may or may not have been lazy a few times and just chucked an insulated tarp over each track...As long as it's not getting ridiculously cold, it actually works pretty decent.
A miserably way to start the day is an understatement. That said it has get pretty cold to lock a machine from moving. I have heard of guys parking on wood planks, I have never done that but I am sure that would help as of course cleaning the track system does. One time in 15 years of owning a CTL I had it locked up in the morning. I was working in mud one day and the temps went well below zero that night (I didn't clean it). Took me half a day with a Landa type diesel radiant heater to get it moving. I wouldn't let that stop you from buying one if that is what you think you need, it is pretty much a preventable event.
Oh boy does it suck when a machine is frozen. It's not so bad when the tracks freeze to the ground, it's the mud around the sprocket and idlers which really gets you stuck.
Took me a few hours one morning to thaw the mud from around the bottom and top rollers so we wouldn't flat spot them on the cx60c as we had left it on a job over the weekend before the weather changed to freezing every day.
If buying a used compact track loader for use in a cold weather you will need to go through an check the usual cold weather requirements. Sump warmer, using a low temp hydraulic oil, battery condition, check machine earthing, alternator charging amps (has not eaten too much summer dust) etc . Is it not possible to take the CTL home each day to overnight in a warm shed?
All we run are CTLs at work. They’re left overnight on bigger jobs. Constantly in the mud all winter from moving spoils from 8-30’ holes. You couldn’t get anymore mud in the tracks. We just shovel the mud out at the end of the day. Plug in block heater over night if temperatures are below zero. I generally run the glow plugs a couple times before starting as well.