My Dresser TD7G is not caulked, I run it a number of times in winter to keep the batteries up & everything lubricated. This weekend I had a load of crushed stone to spread at the other end of the driveway 1/2 mile away. From the town road, the driveway climbs with southern exposure part way, then downhill shaded by large pine trees, facing north the rest. Driving down with my van I was a bit nervous of sliding on ice, but all went well. Climbing back up with the dozer, halfway up, it slid sideways, off the road & down over the steep slope. I about soiled myself! When it came to rest, I barely worked up courage to move it at all! I was sure 1 more degree of tilt, it'd roll over. Just a cautionary tale. I sure wish I had caulked it up. Conventional grousered tracks are NOT good sideways on ice.
What exactly is caulked?
Small gauge grouser stock is cut in short lengths. 15" wide tracks will get two 4" pieces placed 1/2" from the end of the grouser. Next shoe gets 1 4" piece in middle. Prevents sliding sideways on ice, but is a handicap in summer.
that does not prevent sliding on a really hard surface like a road. You would still slide off if it is slick enough as those "caulks" don't touch, only the grouser tops. What it does is you catch at the shoulder when things get rough. Much preferable for sure
I hauled some gravel last week for a company installing underground tanks at a new pump and puff ( They sell gas and weed ). They are an out of province crowd. I was dumping, and they were loading their slinger with a 320 hoe. I was driving through the ditch, but it was wide and had only a slight grade, but pure ice. The guy (young) on the 320 had fueled up and was walking the machine along the top of the bank. I was holding up traffic waiting for him to get away from the ditch. One of the workers ran out and yelled what are you waiting for, and I yelled back THAT and pointed to the machine making that sideways trip into the area I would have been sitting off the road if I hadn't known what was going to happen.
I bet the operator was grateful for your common sense and experience!
The caulks sit on top of the grousers, when at top of the tracks. The biggest problem is they are hard on sod, road, & especially trailers.
Okay now I'm picturing it. I thought you were talking about a crossbar
Makes for a interesting few seconds for sure. Glad you came away unscathed. Our excavators is fully corked but you can still slide it around on the ice if you want. Have slid my D7 around a bit but never anything to crazy.
Wow! That's some serious work there! I hope your final drives are up to the task. I'm thinking half that height for grouser & half that height for caulks.
That's just an internet picture for an example. I did see that you can buy those corks already made to weld on. I have seen machines with them, but none of our machines have them. I don't think the deck of the float would like them.
That's kinda/sorta what I did on a pair of Komatsu D-21P pyramid tracks but used mild steel as the tractor was always going to be in dirt. They worked well but I never got any long term feedback as he passed less than a year later. The dozer was sold by greedy hawks circling the corpse for morsels.
When running caulked machines onto a trailer we used old light-truck tires to avoid chewing up the wood decking as much as possible. Also used old tires laid under the tracks when going across concrete and into the shop. And also when crossing asphalt roads. A d8 even without caulks will leave marks on hard asphalt and who ever owns the road will get VERY excited and track you down and they will not be happy
The paper mill here had a dump site, it was 3 different lined cells, and the liquid in the final cell was hauled away in a tanker and "treated". They had a D6 for spreading what was dumped, and it was stored in a building when not in use. They had hardwood planks built into the cement floor, that could be swapped out as needed.
For a different reason, I use cattle mats from Tractor Supply. My old trailer ramps were wrong! I sometimes carry the dozer directly on the truck (see picture at left) Flat steel bed, I don't want things sliding around.
I had a local sawmill cut some 2" thick white oak planks to cover my ramps on the trailer for climbing up with the dozer. The trailer has ramp storage pockets already for getting to the upper deck, but I've never had those ramps; nor needed them.