Thought i would ask the question before i need to use it. What do i do about frozen tracks on my d5g this winter. Tips and trick. Last winter i managed pretty well using calcium chloride and a big torch keeping my excavator working. The secret was to get the tracks totally clean, and then keep them clean every day. Excavator tracks are easier to clean than dozer tracks though. Ken
Pretty Much the same idea Watglen. Keep the tracks clean even if you have to clean them 3-4 times a day. I know it sounds like a lot to do but look at it like this...would you rather clean up a lil bit every few hours or clean a lot at the end of the day? If you have access to some logs you can drive up on those to park overnight, that'll keep it from freezing to the ground. Anything you can put between the tracks and the ground to keep it from freezing to the earth. When it got real bad we would soak the tracks in diesel fuel and lit a few rags and kept a close eye on things and after about 10-15 minutes it would thaw out enough to start moving.
parking on trees that are cut down helps with over night freeze ups. Keep the mud off the track frames is a must!
Depending on how far from a job site you are, we have ran back out say and hour or so after shut down in the winter fired up and just ran back and forth a bit. That mud had time to freeze a bit, making it more soild without actually freezing rock hard and would fall off nicely. drive SLOWLY in the morning upon fire up, let them loosen back up and the oil in the finals to warm up some. Trbo
Try old tires to drive on in the night so it dosen't freeze to the ground. Now if it's frozen in the morning try a torpedo heater and some cardboard or tarps. This is a little slow but the other option is a bunch of paper or cardbord and some diesel fuel. The fire method works well just remember bigger isn't better. Small constant flame around the sprocket and rollers. I'v thawed out a mud packed and frozen solid set of tracks in about 45 min.
Clean your tracks and either park high and dry on frozen ground, or park in the deep, undisturbed snow. The undisturbed snow will not freeze as hard overnight as the disturbed areas. Our D5C and TD-15's don't have trouble using these techniques.
we use propane torch and a tarp works good for us we have too much mud usually to clean out several times a day
Something I have learned here in Michigan cold weather and mud. When you start your day, head for deep snow before getting your tracks muddy. It helps create a sort of "teflon" coating on the track frames and it makes your tracks 1000 times easier to clean at night.