Hello, I am a little new with excavators. I bought a 99 hitachi ex200lc5 back in the summer. It is a overall good machine I think. My question is I left the machine out on a farm where I was doing some clearing. The ground is frozen now and I am wanting to bring it home. The tracks were cleaned out before I left but I am worried I might tear something up if I move it while it is so cold outside and the tracks iced up. Not above 30 for the pst week with a week of rain before that. Do I need to wait till for a warmer day so the tracks thaw a little or just lift them up and run them for a second or two. Also the seal on the turntable gear, will it be ok in this cold. This my be acouple of dumb questions just don't want to tear anything up. Thanks
Let the engine warm up for 10-15 min at medium idle , then slowly work the hydraulics,then the tracks. Southern Indiana isn't all that cold.
Thanks just not wanting to tear anything up. Never had one before. Thanks
Make sure all your rollers turn freely before you track very far. Sometimes you can't get all of the mud from around the rollers, and if one is seized up you can flat spot it easily.
On my -3 machine there is a button on the control panel that looks like a thermometer which is used for warming up the machine. Not sure if a -5 has this or not. After starting the engine you push this button. It will idle up the engine after the hydraulic oil reaches a certain temp and will reduce the swash plate angle of the pumps until the machine is completely warmed up, which it will than idle the machine back down to normal idle speed. When starting the machine turn the ignition key backwards and that will engage the intake heaters. There should be a light on the monitor panel that looks like a little heating element symbol that will light up when you turn the key back. Hold the key back for maybe 20 seconds and then start the machine. This will make the engine start a lot easier in cold weather.
you should be fine doing the prosses you described. make sure to let it warm up for 10-15 as stated above. I used to work for the hitachi dealer up here we would start them and move them around at temps much colder than that all the time with no issues
I bet the tracks are frozen to the ground!!
By no means a excavator expert as we just got ours too but what I would do is, fire it up and let it idle at around 1/3 throttle for 10-15 minutes. Then work the hydraulics a bit to loosen everything up. Then swing over the side and lift up one track at a time and run that track for a bit. If you're only talking of temps from 20-30F I wouldn't worry to much about hurthing anything. Just take it slow and easy to make sure nothing is indeed froze up solid. They'll work at much colder temps providing everything is in order. Ryan
We have 350D and 270D deere and they idle up when its cold seems to be preset in computer I dont know what that temp would be but they rev up to guessn maybe 1250 rpms for a while maybe till the hyd oil gets so warm I dont know just guessn! There has only been one time where I have not been able to load an excavator when it wuz really cold and that wuz because a coworker went and loaded some logs for firewood and got the tracks all muddy and it would not move but didnt experience any mechanical failure! Jerry
warm it up for 10 min at idle , go to 1/3 power and work the boom and dipper with no load to warm up the juices . then pick one side of the machine off the ground with the boom and run the track around with out any weight on the the track the do the other side. Just a word of caution that the post above is correct you should check the roller if your going and distance they all need to roll free! I the fall I park every thing on some scrap wood or trees that are like 4" around down the entire track so the shoes dont freeze to the ground.
These guys above are all correct , I hope you did not leave it in 2 feet of mud . However if you are going to run it up on a trailer that is where it could get interesting . No ice on the deck or ramps if you have them . Make sure things are level and flat . It is amazing how worthless those tracks are when things get slick .