I am looking at the background...China? What part of China?
Hmmm this must be in California. Thats the only place I always see guys digging over their drives.
lol..that is so true, whats up with those people..well you can always tell who the rookies are..
I had a company owner tell me I was trenching wrong because I was digging over the idlers. He also said he prefered digging over the drives because when he finished the cut all he had to do was push the pedals forward. I told him all the things we all know about digging that way. He informed me everyone else in the world was an idiot and i needed to do things his way. After finishing that night shift i spent the next day finding a new company to work for and never returned to work for that idiot.
Hi Guys....As a uk operator i was always taught to dig over the drives and not the idlers because the idlers have adjust rams and any dig pressure put on them MAY blow the seals but it's different strokes for different folks....
Well then whoever taught you needs a lesson on whats cheaper to replace... seals in idlers... or hydrostatic 2spd motors and segments. I know so much of operating is subjective to how you were taught but this is one of those things we ALL know. The undercarriage is longer to the front (idlers) than the rear, the drive motors weigh more which means they hold the back end down. You may blow the seals? Thats like saying I ate a steak sandwich for lunch today so I need 11 ice cubes in my coke instead of 9. You could relate it to blowing seals, but if your hitting the idlers that much, turn it around and replace a motor or two. I hear the people at the cathouse like selling parts like that.
One of the main reasons behind digging over the idlers is that in heavy digging the load is transfered from the pads to the links/rails then directly to the idlers which have support on both ends of them, where as over the sprockets the load is on the bushing and then to the sprocket, the rails take no load at all, if the bushes are getting thin they will end up cracking/breaking etc as they are not as strong as the rails are, plus the sprocket has no outer support as the idler does. There are probably other reasons as well but that is one that comes to mind. Cheers RDG.
You most certinally want the drives behind you when clearing! If a tree or large limb decides to come through the front glass and into the cab with you, when it pushes the travel levers back you simply go backwards. But if the drives are in front of you and this happens it can get ugly real quick!
Ok now thats a cool additional point to make! Wow I could only imagine if a tree fell on my pedals and then pushed them forward squishing me... that would be terrible. I never would have thought of that point! Nice observation, except the only problem would be if you're operating a hoe where there are no hand levers attached to the foot pedals... then it would still push you into the tree.
This argument has been done before, if not on this site, then on others. From the manufacturer's standpoints that I have communicated with and from plenty of time fixing these things, you can work over any end of the machine you want to. Final drives today are incredibly strong and will take anything the machine can produce. The seals on track adjusters almost always fail from age or being packed with nasty material. Recoil springs limit the amount of pressure placed against idlers. On most of today's machines there are plenty of other points that have problems to worry about more than which end of the undercarriage you work over. The big Komatsu is a nice looking machine. Thanks for the photos.
thanks for your comments, the machine is in China now.