Cat D4H Series II S# 8PB04248 I have to quote a full undercarriage job on this machine which is no issue until I run into........ .....22" offset grouser pads? I've done a lot of undercarriage in 30+ years and haven't run across this. I havent seen them all of course which brings me to my question. Was this a thing back in the day? I haven't been able to find any replacements so far and my CAT parts guy is confused LOL!! The short side doesn't look like its been cut off, the edges are too uniform. A part number for these would be nice as everything else I can get.
Have to agree, I look the machine up and it doesn't list the shoes. Wonder if larger pads were used and cut down Maybe Nige has an idea
Looks like a cheap LGP option ,lots of manufactures used this system on small tractors and it worked if not run in rocks or stumps a lot. Bob
Maybe they were cut down from wider pads idk. Just a guess
I agree. Certainly not a standard pad offering from what I can see. Anything up to 18” was as wide as you got until the Series III machine offered 24” shoes. The only way I can see an offset shoe like that is if an aftermarket supplier drilled offset holes in a 22” shoe, or they are in fact 24” shoes cut down on one side. Plasma maybe.? That particular tractor was originally supplied ex-factory with 18”-wide track shoes.
Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one that thought this was weird. I’ll have to quote this with the 18” Nige says is supposed to be on there. I have found no aftermarket that will admit they ever offered those. I’m not sure but can you buy grouser blanks and drill your own holes? That would be the only explanation that’s makes any sense.......or they were wider and cut down maybe. Seems like a waste of time to me.
Dresser tractors were commonly offset. Mine came to me with everything set up for offset shoes, but wider not offset shoes. It had beat up blade angle cylinders. After I had it a while, I lost 1 pivot pin at bottom rear of the C frame. It damaged the angle cylinder tube far more than it had been. Once the blade angle cylinder was replaced, tracks were still uncomfortably close to it. I ended up cutting 1" off inboard of each shoe. presently shoes are 17" 1" wider outboard than in. Factory standard was 16" with a few options in offset shoes.
Are wide pads with half rails used on the outsides (quad rails) generally drilled by the owner or do they get punched?
I think there pecked out by woodpeckers. Bob
Those pads would have to wear the chains and P&B's unevenly.
My thoughts too.
Next time you are around that tractor angle the blade all the way and see if the windrow is outside of the pads? Bob
wire brush the inside of the pads and see if there are torch marks
Actually Cat had offset pads on their TSK tractors that had D-4 D-5 tracks . Later they used a 4 rail wide pad to help from bending pads and a 3 rail offset pad. So I guess you could put them on a dozer. They were on SALT tracks and they lasted as long as wide pads. The blade on a skidder is too narrow to angle doze. If you run offset pads on sealed tracks the pins wear rather fast . If you find offset pads you have to order a right track and a left track group. We used to order offset pads on shovels tracks running the narrow side on the outside so they could be moved without pilot cars or only one car. Bob
I'm not convinced they wear much different from centered tracks. All tractors worked in the woods will be subjected to climbing over stumps & rocks. The sections of track are essentially hinged. As most skid roads are crowned to let water drain, the inboard side gets flexed up much of a time. A tractor worked on flat surface won't be subjected to anything worse than centered tracks. Mine for example on the TD7G are now an inch different outboard VS inboard. Too soon to say if wear is different. Dresser produced a lot of machines offset from factory. I'd guess they would have abolished the practice if it were a big problem.
Exactly what I have on this machine. Im going to quote the 18" pads which is the only way I will do this job. The customer wants to get this done this month to get the expense in this tax year so I dont have the time to screw with fabricating. With this COVID thing going on and the holidays coming up , it could be weeks or months to locate blank pads and get them drilled.
After a bit of digging here are a few factoids that might be relevant, or not .......... The original track groups fitted to 8PB4248 ex-factory were 6Y-9296. This comprised 6Y-5404 Link As, and 3T-0360 18" track shoes. The track links in 6Y-5404 are 6Y-9261 RH & 6Y-9262 LH. Those links appear in a number of track groups installed on anything from D3 to D6R, 939 track loaders and 563H pipelayers. In certain applications such as skidders those same Part Number links can be equipped with shoes up to 30" wide using what I think is known as Quad Link Track. See below. The widest shoe that could be installed would depend on the offset between the machine frame and the track frames. interesting that there is an 8E-9815 Track Group using those same link Part Numbers mentioned above with 20" wide shoes. The shoe Part Number for that track group is 8E-9816. It does not appear for 8PB-prefix but is listed for later D4H models.
OK, quad links come from the factory. I've also seen what I guess would be a tri link with the extra half rail only on the outside. Would probably be a benefit for offset pads.
I got the CAT parts quote late yesterday. Its just under 15K for all the parts and components. They have on here a quantity of (78) PT# 3T0360 grouser pads but I don't know if those are 18" standard or something else. They also have a group number on the idlers of PT# 1901551 at a quantity of 2. I assume that is 2 idlers per quantity of one? I can get clarification once they open up in a couple of hours.
If the track has a master link it may use a different bolt hole pattern. Mine did and CAT didn't quote it so I had to buy them later (still have the unused 2 pads)
78 (39 per side) of 3T-0360 are the 18"-wide track shoes it was originally built with. If they quoted you original then master shoe bolt hole pattern is the same as the track shoes so uses the same Part Number. Idler it needs four (high drive), not two. Below is what SIS says. Your machine falls into the 8PB4000-Up group so needs 2 x 6T-2614 and 2 x 7T-4400. Updated Part Numbers are 190-1551 for 6T-2614 and 190-1534 for 7T-4400.
Track breakdown.........
By the quote I have the Cat parts man left off the 190-1534 idler group. Ill have to add the cost in to be accurate. Cat has 44 hours of labor time on their quote..........is that their flat rate? Just curious
I would imagine it's flat rate, but not 100% certain. How long it takes will depend a lot on how many broken bolts have to be extracted........ 190-1534 showing around $1200 each. "Contact dealer" for availability. That's not good.
Yeah, I'm adding an addendum just for that possibility based at an hourly addition w/supplies. Well, I'm going to add this all up and get this quote in. I told myself when I did a full undercarriage on a Komatsu PC400 about 2 months ago that I was going to quit doing undercarriage work.........I'm getting too old for that crap. I've padded this enough for a field repair/replacement that I kind of hope they decline it LOL. If not, then I better find a young helper here pretty quick! Thanks for your assistance my friend
If they were offered with the half chains by the manufacturer, them the pads would come punched. CAT track skidders and some excavator based woods machines are the only ones I am aware of.
Just FYI, yes offset shoes were a thing from ITR, TREK, Berco, etc. but it was always hit and miss getting them, nobody offered them all and even if they did offer what you were looking for it was often a special order. And yeah, broken links and fast wear on pins and bushings always.