Hey so I'm pretty new to dozers. Looking to do some work on a D3C in a shop. do you guys use a floor covering when driving across the shop on concrete?
I was using tamarack 1X6 boards which last a long time but then start to fall apart and get messy but was wondering about those rubber tracks from Cat Challenger or other rubber tracked farm tractors that when worn out are thrown away. How heavy are they and would they be good for shop floors or to drive a tracked machine across pavement?
We use some old lengths of conveyor belting. they tend to lie flat better than old rubber tracks and usually your local friendly aggregates plant will have loads of it in their bone yard. If you want to work on dozers all the time consider installing some lengths of scrap railroad rail into the concrete (it needs to be tied into the reinforcing mat in the floor BTW) leaving about 1/2" proud of the surface of the concrete. That protects the floor from "attack by grouser".
Nige has it nailed. It's not the tractor weight you have to worry about, its the "chewing" effect of the grouser as it comes around the idler or sprocket. Heavy duty, discarded, worn conveyor belting is the simplest and best floor protection.
This is the avenue I would go...
If you plan on working underneath a small dozer like you have got, the best thing is to drive it up on a pair of timber railway sleepers. This will give you a bit more space to get underneath and protect the floor at the same time.
Plant Fitter - They're called "railroad crossties" in U.S. parlance - just to help the U.S. guys understand what you're talking about. Local terminology can create confusion on international forums.
The best sleep I ever got was in the sleeper car from Nairobi to Mombasa.. Not that far of a ride but the sound of the wheels clicking the rails and the absence of sleep from the preceding month also had something to do with it.:tong What I use in my shop is old 3/4" plywood cut into strips. Lay it down and roll the machine in. The plywood holds up pretty well and keeps the grousers from mucking up the concrete.
I use a couple strips of plywood, but the belting is a great idea.
I use old tires, place I used to work, we walked D9gs in on old truck tires.
Used car tires are a very acceptable and easily obtained item to utilise, and they have the advantage of being able to be relocated quickly and easily, particularly if you need a change of direction when moving the tractor. We utilise used, small car tires on the decks of the transport trailers, to aid in reducing slippage of the bigger tracked machines, and to offer cushioning to the deck, thus preventing deck damage. Plant Fitter's advice about selecting something that raises the tractor up is good advice. Many smaller tractors have very little room under them, to get in and out, when you need to get underneath them.
the best shop i worked in accually had lengths of railway set into the concrete floor (sticking up around 5-10mm [5/16"] on each bay (some at differant widths) for tracked gear to run on worked really well smaller gear like D6/D7 or 20/30t diggers should worry a decent floor though
we run them in and out of the shop on old plastic gas main or high pressure gas pipe. cut into about 10 ft lengths. 4 or 6 inch high pressure is verry strong even a 125,000 lb 9L wont make a mark in the floor or chew threw them. pros of that is light weight and long enough you arent moving alot of stuff around to move a machine. we have used tires but they are a pain in the butt. and it is usually something we dig up on road jobs so we have a good supply of old pipe.
There are plastic products available here in Australia which are quite durable and lightweight. One I have used is calles "Trakmats" made from 100% High Density Polyethylene with a unique non-slip traction surface. They come in an 8 x 4ft sheet and to make them easier to handle, I had them cut into 8 x 2 strips. When laid on concrete, they can carry the weight of a Cat D11 quite well and also used them successfully under the tracks of a Cat 5230 excavator in the workshop. Being only about ¾" thick, they do not creat a trip hazard around the machine. By using several Trakmat strips laid out on the floor, the dozer is driven into the shop then the mats which are not under the tracks can be placed to one side, keeping the floor tidy. Conveyor belting can be hard to handle and often becomes wavey, creating trip hazards around the tractor. Searching "Trakmats" on Google will find more info on these.