Where I work we are trying out a new style of idler for our D11 R's. They are 11 sided I believe instead of round. They say it maintains more surface contact with the rails so it improves undercarriage life. Has anybody had a chance to run a dozer with them yet
post some pics. 11s in wyo you must be in the coal business?
Don't have any pics but the operator who ran it last night said it smoothed out the ride alot and was alot quieter.
11-sided idlers Hi, Mntman552. A company running D11R's near where I live in DownUnder had a pair of faceted idlers made up for the rear of one of their D11R's over two years ago. It might have helped that this company also owns their own MAJOR track repair and reconditioning workshop servicing agriculture and the mining and construction industries. I took photos of them but my digital camera of the time chose that time to go on the blink and I lost all of those photos plus more than half the photos that I took at a vintage machinery show about the same time. I did get to run that dozer a couple of times but it was the first D11R that I had run so I had no benchmark for comparison. I haven't seen that dozer since, so I don't know how those idlers are doing.
Re: idlers This dozer has them on both front and back. Another mine north of our has been running them for a while a guess and really likes them. They are making a big push to improve undercarriage life for our dozer push since we are only getting about 5000 hours out of one. Cat thinks its the way we operate but I'm thinking its alot to do with the quality of steel there is now. Not sure if the D11 T's we are getting have them or not. Hopefully we get them delivered in a couple weeks. They are sitting in town at the Cat shop.
we operate our 11r in rock i think its as rough as you make it. but some other guys really complain about how rough the 11 is.:beatsme
Sounds interesting. I've been searching haven't found any pics anyone else have any luck? This is something i may ask the head proffessor at school about.
Rough as you make it. Hi, 637Slayer. I'm with you about rock being as rough as you make it. I often put it another way - the machine will be as rough on you as you are on it.
ive never just sat and production dozed til i started working here, when i finaly had enough seniority to bid on the 11 and got it i was pretty excited. after my first week my back and the rest of my body ached i thought i made a big mistake. after that i just started figuring out how to do it, then it became more pleasurable to operate.
Figuring it out. Hi, 637Slayer. Maybe I'm smarter than you but I had already figured that out before I ever got any dozer into any rock. LOL. If the machines breaks, you just weld it up or replace the broken part(s)(s)(s). Human bodies don't respond to welding so well and the dealers carry almost nil spare parts, so it pays handsomely to look after the body you have 'cos it may have to last you a lifetime.
rocks At our operation one pit we will have potatoe dirt and the next will have rocks so big that our 2500 hitachi hoes cant handle them and it takes two 11's to push then to the v. Our carrydozers handle the rock pretty good but most of our 11's have 70 yard rec blades on them and there not as good in the rock. The hoes with esco buckets work alot better in the hard stuff than the ones with the cat buckets. But after sitting on a 5130 last night digging the hard stuff and being up for goin on thirty hours I think its about time for me to hit the sack.