Hello, I purchased a used JD 120C around 4-5 months ago and I have been using it for land clearing and some pond construction on my property. I do a lot of work on hill sides because my property has about 30 sq ft of flat land. Moreover, the land is not smooth after I've been pulling out stumps and trees. Anyways, my concern is that it feels like one of the tracks is stronger than the other and in general it seems like the tracks are not that strong. I would have expected a machine like this to be able to power through dirt piles (or at least keep the tracks spinning while I don't go anywhere). This is especially noticeable when I only have one track engaged. One or both tracks will stop when it meets some resistance (e.g., a pile of dirt). I can then make it continue forward by engaging both tracks so that I am going straight at full speed. This leads me to do things like interleaving forward movement with both tracks and movement with only one track so that I can get the desired rotation of the tracks. I can continue to work using this technique but it is cumbersome. I also have the feeling that I am doing this trick more with the right track than the left track. I also was recently working in a bunch of mud. I thought that I had power washed most/all of it out but it is possible that there is some junk stuck somewhere behind one of the covers in the tracks. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks, Chris
Older machines will never have the power to the tracks that a newer one will. Does it seem to struggle in low range? How many hours on the machine? Loose tracks affect moving as well. If the pins and bushings are wore the rails tend to get out of alignment with the bottom rollers which takes a lot more power. I do a lot of jump-turning if I have to turn more than a few degrees.
The machine has 6100 hours on it. In regard to struggling at low range, do you mean if the engine is not at max RPM? It seems like turning up the RPM doesn't really help to make the tracks move better. When I am on flat ground I can get the excavator to move quickly (or doing down hill for that matter). when I go up hill or across the "side hill" (I dunno if that is a local term or not), then it seems weak. I guess I want my excavator tracks to be as powerful as bulldozer tracks. Is there a way to check the rail alignment or check for wear? I assume that fixing up the tracks is a major expense. Thanks
I'm not intimately familiar with a Deere 120, but the tracks should have a high and low? No excavator will have as much turning power as a dozer in high, but should be fairly maneuverable in low. According to the brochure, it has two speed tracks. http://www.deere.com/en_US/docs/construction/non_current_products/excavators/DKA120C.pdf
OK, I just keep it in "rabbit" mode all the time. I will give it a shot in "turtle" mode.
Yeah, I do as well. I'm sure someday I'll regret it.
Center joint probably needs resealed with that many hours on it.
I know this is an old topic but the problem never went away. Well I have a repair guy out today to fix some cracks in my boom and I described the problem to him and he said the exact same thing. The thing that made him think that this was the problem was that I mentioned that if I give the other track a little bit of power then the "weak" track starts moving. The repair guy said it's "almost a full day's work" to reseal it; sound about right? Chris
Sounds about right to me, but then it's been at least twenty years since I did one, and never on the model you have.
The entire swivel has to come out of the machine to be able to dismantle it and put new seals in. It's a dirty job but not a real hard one. If the repair guy has a crane on the truck and the right tools it should probably take around 6 hours. If you don't have a boom you will have to struggle with a come along and a hitch on the boom to get it out and back in. That would probably take at least six hours if everything goes right. Does the machine walk straight with both track levers at full on or does it veer off to one side? When you turn the house around does the other track get weak?