Hello. I’ve got an IH 175C s/n 2766. I had pulled the trigger on buying new track chains (in stock) and sprockets (on back order). However, I asked the dealer to check about pad/grouser bolt size because I saw in the quote 3/4” bolts. Mine has 5/8”. The response was the new chains come with 3/4” and they said the chains wouldn’t work on my machine. This is a 7.5” pitch track as I measure 7.75” avg across 5 links which makes since for pins/bushings being worn out. At first I thought I could just drill out the pads to 3/4 but the rep sent a line drawing of the links and the bolt pattern is a trapezoid shape (parallel bolt lines but two bolts spread further on trailing or leading edge of link) not in the box shape like mine. I do see TD15C’s with the box pattern I describe but not new shape. I suppose I could find worn out dozer pads and cut them to 16” and add a bar for 2 bar pads. The machine is used for some tree clearing but also moves dirt and I’d like to be able to pivot with full loads of dirt for loading dump trucks. Any suggestions here? Matching 3 bar grousers are not available from that same supplier and I wouldn’t want to pay the money if they were available. I’ve seen some reference to D6 parts working. Was the bolt pattern of pads pretty standard overall on different machines. Maybe more used options than 175c’s? I’ll add some pictures.
All the D6 pads I have seen are not a square bolt pattern
It seems like I jumped to conclusions because of the angled link in the picture. Actual measurements are the same as my pads except for the bolt being 3/4” and not my current 5/8”. Drilling may be possible. I hesitated to post the company’s line drawing but erased their numbers in the edited picture. I’m gun shy now though. This is a 175C and I’m below the serial number break for a lot of the available parts. Older models has 7.0 pitch tracks. Newer have 7.5”. How do you properly measure pitch? Measure 5 pins and divide by 4 (4 full links)? If I’m doing that correctly I came up with 7.75” as I stated early, which seems inline for stretched tracks. And therefore I have the early serial number’s severe duty undercarriage that later became standard. I only get 35 pads on the left and right. I think I’ve had links removed. But the new ones are 37 link. Does 37 links take 36 pads?
37 links should take 37 pads. Years ago I drilled a few used pads to oversize on a TD9. They were very hard to drill and hard on the bit. You would be doing all the pads plus rhe rails. I would think that would be an extreme amount of work. FWD
The company you are dealing with should be able to measure your tracks, and provide suitable replacements that will fit.
I would be drilling out the pads only as the new rails would already be 3/4”. I should try drilling one hole before I attempt to go that route Do you guys think it’s possible I’ve had 2 links taken out already. I had assumed one was removed, that is why the 35 pads is confusing me. I didn’t think taking two out was really possible. The bushings are worn through in some places; Maybe 25% of them at most. So there is significant wear, but that is a massive amount of chain length removed. I think someone commented on a thread I had a couple years ago that the 7.0 pitch track had a few more than 37 links/pads.
37 links would take 36 pads as long you have the alligator type connection they bolt the tow half links together with one pad
The current tracks are not alligator style. They have a master pin which both show being out previously with weld on both master pins as a keeper.
That looks like that CAT System 1 undercarriage they used on their dozers. The square bolt pattern is Cat only no aftermarket has those style chains or pads. You can buy chains and pads for say a D6 but there are modifications necessary to the track guards. The new chains would be 3/4" hole however and they have a different track pad bolt pattern, two bolts are further apart than the other 2. Notice you can get regular SALT Tracks or System 1 on some machines eg D6N
It's been years since I've even looked at one of those machines. They have been obsolete for years and generally are sitting in fields with black berry briars growing over them. I do remember the tracks are what killed many if not most of them. That square bolt pattern wasn't used by anyone else that I know of. I seem to recall the pitch being 7 inch in those days and no one made that pitch any longer. Somewhere I have an undercarriage slide calculator that give all the dimensions for each mode of IH machine. I'll try to find it and let you know. There is a forum for International called Red Power where you can find more info. Good Luck
It would probably be worthwhile to have a machine shop mill the holes in the pads bigger if that's all that is required. Another option might be to use a mag drill with an annular cutter. Should be able to rent one. I think using a drill bit could be very frustrating and time consuming.
We are leaning towards buying new rails/sprockets. There is a machine in Ohio that looked like it had very good undercarriage but it’s already down to 36 links even though the rails have a lot of meat in them. It was a little over $10k so if it had very good undercarriage it wouldn’t have been a bad deal. I talked to a shop that works on these In British Columbia named Brown IH and they have opened pads and rails up to 3/4 before. He recommended using a carbide tipped reamer to open the holes. I’ll ask more specifically but I assume he was talking about a bridge type reamer that tapers up to the desired size for enlarging with out drilling. Could use a drill bit and conventional reamer. I had taken some pads off recently to work on the hoses for the lift cylinders (very tight quarters in there) and torched bolts off and replaced with new bolts. They were very tight fitting so I assume it’s important to keep holes close fitting to the bolts for no slop in the pads. We’ll need to come up with 4 more pads since the current tracks are 35 link/pads currently.
It seems hard to believe 2 links were removed. There must be a lot of adjustment on the track adjusters to come back that far.
Max measurements of rail wear is generally less than 1/8" per link set, avg by mfr is around .110-.120, so if you have as much as 1/4 or .250" wear detected then add that across 37 links or even 36, could EASILY remove two links at that length as equates to nine to nine and a quarter inches. Track adjuster would be hard compressed to barely extended at that excess length. These do Not "Stretch", they wear, pins to bushings internally. Add to that radius wear of Idlers and rollers then Sprocket Cup wear and could see Two links worth of wear.
I have taken a lot of links out of tracks. Never seen one where two links could be pulled. It's usually tough to make up a track where one link was removed.
So have I john, can see where the previous owner could have sucked out two dependent on extreme wear.
I wonder if the earlier IH 175 machines had only 36 links? Cat and JD both added a link on certain models like the 931 or 350/355 loaders, maybe others too.
There were Long Track frames and Standard Track frames offered on the IH/Dresser machines.
Everything shown is well beyond 100% worn out, damned near to shards left except shoes Going as far as a Full UC replacement may as well go whole 9 yards, gas axe them off and toss.
While I would love to do that, my dad and I don’t have that sort of cash available to do everything. And $10k in parts I believe makes sense on this machine. But at $20k in parts we’d be better off selling it and looking for a Cat 953. The machine will probably be used less than 100 hours a year. We have a Christmas tree farm as well as a grain farm. So the machine will be used for removing old overgrown evergreens and removing trees around field edges. We also have a retired 10 acre gravel pit on the main farm and stock pile torn up concrete for river levee repair (in place of rip raft). So I’ve done some pushing of concrete after unloading with a tandem. The rollers seem more readily available than sprockets and chains. Running with overly worn rollers won’t demolish the chain in 300 hours will it?
Sell it and move on. $10k in half finishing the undercarriage will gain you nothing but heartache and lost money. Biggest problem of yellow iron is stretching a dollar too thin where you end up with a tonnage weight yard ornament taking up space and nobody will haul off.
Heh....... I run a farm 175C much, much worse links, bottom rollers. But the sprocket is much better.
Yes on ours the worst looking wear is the sprockets and pins and bushings. The rails could run a while longer. We did purchase new ITR rails and found some factory sprockets from Brown International in Canada. The 175C is very capable for what we are using it for. I’ve taken out some 30ft tall white pines with it. I’ll ad some pictures of the last time we used it.