I am about ready to bite the bullet for a new undercarriage for my 550 dozer, was wanting some advice on going with all John Deere parts or parts from Heavyquip that are aftermarket parts. The Deere parts will cost around 3 times as much as the aftermarket parts but will they last as long? Just wanting to know what everybody thinks about cost vs how long will they last. Most parts I have bought from John Deere that you can't get anywhere else cost about double the price and sometimes more.
Bandit44, Berco has been making all of the Undercarriage for Duratrax which is what John Deere has been putting on their machines for a long time. Recently ITR has started making all of the undercarriage for the 450 and the 550 machines for John Deere. If it was my machine I would go with ITR undercarriage but I wouldn't go through Deere because their is a big price difference. On a smaller machine like the 550, we don't see a difference in the different brands. We have two track presses and see all brands of chains and we havn't seen any difference in the amount of hours they last on the smaller Deere machine. We have sold a ton of ITR and V-track and havn't had any complaints. Thats my .02 cents. Good Luck, QuickTrax
Thanks for the information QuickTrax, you never know sometimes saving a few bucks costs you a lot more in the end. I am glad to know that I can go with the other undercarriage. I would hate to have to pay for the Deere name.
Oh, maybe you can try Rvton if you need change your undercarriage parts floating seals, www.sealgroupsupplier.com , OEM quality but factory price.
I have been working on my FIL's 550 JD. I got aftermarket rollers from an aftermarket supplier and I can tell you that they are NOT rebuild-able. The factory JD rollers would come apart and we replaced the seals in the roller and it was as good as new. I was lucky enough to have one that needed rebuilding only. The gaskets and seals were all of $40 IIRC. For the price difference of $115 vs $270, I really didn't mind putting in aftermarket rollers that I will just pitch when they wear out.
You can also try VemaTRACK an upcoming brand from europe