Hello all. I am about to change out the undercarriage on a px61-23 and looking for opinions on which system to go for. Currently machine is on the plus undercarriage but link shoulders are failing at 4000hrs. Conventional is about 1/3 cheaper up front but will I regret it? Machine mostly does grading with a laser setup
That is a common problem here with that type of undercarriage. It also take special tooling that is expensive as hell. I have replaced several with the standard undercarriage with no further issues.
Was there any downside you’ve noticed? Life span of the system, noise or blade bounce?
None what so ever.....but that is my own personal opinion. The customers have been happy with the results which is what counts.
Here in the UK,many of these class tractors have been replaced with conventional non oem undercarriages
I decided not to replace with the PLUS system and bought a Komatsu HD AR system which uses conventional SALT chains with hardened links. The biggest downside is the pads won’t enter change between the systems but I’ll change everything out and it will be good for a long time to come again hopefully. Thanks for the help.
Got a customer with a PX39 he has had to replace 4 links he said it cost him $2500.00- $3000.00 each time they come out I told him to go with old style he already paid that much in changing links
Sounds like the "plus" is just more money for Komatsu selling new links.
The frustrating thing is the rest of the system shows very little wear. It’s like the external link isn’t heavy enough to handle the horsepower on the widepad?
Yes my customers rollers look new so do the links they need to do some redesigning on them
You are just seeing the field engineering data showing up. I would suspect that the width of the pads will be the deciding factor in the future on which type of chains are used. The thing about the Komatsu system is that the idlers and rollers haven't changed, unlike the Caterpillar system.
Components arrived this week.
Did you just use the impact to tighten the bolts? Torque turn method is the best for track bolts.
I just ran everything together with the 1/2” gun and squeezed them up then.
Good to see you removed the paint from the mating surfaces. Always nice working with new parts.
You should check the torque on a bolt using the torque turn method and then see if the torque from the impact is close. Here's some info below. Your supplier should have the initial torque and turn specs. BOLT TORQUE SPECS – BIG PARTS LLC
Here in the UK we have been converting both cat and Komatsu dozers over to SALT chains, done a few Komatsu this year and not one had done over 4500 hours
Sounds about right. Some of the larger machines might go a little longer with extreme HD undercarriage.