We have an old Davleco 6t 72 inch towed padfoot running a Cat 3304, to help us clean up access tracks / roads on our property. It runs a large swivel tow ring. We have either a D6C73A / 76A (using the ripper frame as the mount) or a ** 120hp wheel tractor (using the draw bar as the mount) as the tow vehicle, but even in soft fills the unit is transferring a lot of vibration through to the tow vehicle. Has any of the old hands who used these types of machines got any tips / set ups on ways of reducing the transfer of vibration? Whilst the drum rubbers look OK, would replacing them with new units potentially reduce the energy transfer? I am afraid that we are going to damage the tow vehicles if we cant improve the dampening
Hi Ben - The answer is yes, particularly if the rubber pads appear hardened, or the rubber is showing signs of cracking. I don't recall vibration transfer being a problem from the Davleco vibrating rollers I used in the Australian Army. We usually towed them with a Cat 966B loader. There is the option of modifying the hitch to include a couple of large rubber isolator pads, if the problem isn't solved by replacing the rubber isolator pads on the roller.
It can be a problem with the vibration frequency being out of sync with the harmonics of the roller. Try experimenting with adjusting the engine RPM up or down slightly.