Hello, I am new here and have read this forum for awhile. Lots of good information. I have just bought a 1999 hitachi ex200-5lc, the undercarriage is pretty well shot. I knew this when I bought the machine. Everything else is pretty good shape For 7000hrs. I have researched new undercarriage parts and have settled on two different suppliers of track chain. I will either get ITR or Berco. I would like to reuse my pads they seem ok still. The bottom rollers and sprockets will get replaced as well. Which of these manufactures has the better chain. I will be using this excavator for mainly farm work. Ditch cleaning and clearing. Thanks for any advice.
Mate i would go with ITR over Berco i have been hearing some bad reports from some of my customers and mates about the Berco stuff at the moment.
slightly off topic, but i was only talking about this with an old workmate today we used to get more life from our Hitachi tracks by making up plates and fitting them under the top track roller mounts (with longer bolts) to space up the rollers higher which gives you more adjustment on the chains (as Hitachi have minimal grease adjuster travel compared with a Komatsu or CAT) if your chains and rollers are shot then this will give you abit more life before you have to shell out for a whole undercarrage rebuild
Can't say I'm a big fan of the ITR plasticine rollers we are getting roughly 1500hrs out of a set on a TD20 dozer. We fitted two Berco rollers at the same time because we didn't have a full set of ITR rollers. Those two Berco rollers still look like new, we just replaced two ITR rollers today, with another 4 to be replaced when they come next week ITR is cheap for a reason