Has anyone come up with any simple and effective methods to protect the deck boards from the tips of the 815's compactor feet? Each time we move the machine it really chews up the deck boards. Best idea I've mustered up is to just put down sacrificial boards but even that seems not to work too well or at least not for very long before they too are shot. Just curious if anyone has managed to solve this problem.
Are you able to get any used conveyor belting ? 3/4" is pretty tough stuff.
A bit pricy, but try 4'x8' AlturnaMAT or Turftrak. They're heavy, but real durable. Would be easy to bolt some up with the rough side up. We have ten of them. Works great.
I'd get conveyor belting or old tires.
Like @Tugger2 said, conveyor belting works best. Over the years I have moved hundreds of these and trash compactors and belting is the easiest to handle. I always had (2) 16' belts on the deck, and 2 extras for doubling them up for the trash compactors. Used them for dozers, excavators etc. Out here in the west we ran Murray & Cozads with a 12" x 3" x 20' Apitong board. on each side and 2" rough cut fir in the middle. The apitong or oak can be slick and the belting makes a good friction material. Any rock plant should have lots of old belting and might be happy to get rid of some. 1/2-3/4" thick is best and you can split the stuff down the middle with a razor knife to get the width you want. I can remember way back picking up blown tire treads (road gators) and using them for D-8s. I even had an old set of Cat Challenger 65 rubber tracks to lay on the deck for big trash compactors, but they were 26' long, heavy and I had to load them with my yard crane.
I’ve started to call around to see what’s available here in Atlanta. I have an uncle who’s involved with quarrying and he’s looking around at the facilities he runs to see what’s there. I’ve been in touch with a local belt supplier and he’s trying to help too. Maybe I can get lucky and find some heavy belt and give that a shot. If belts cannot be found then I know we have some old off road truck tires that could be cut down to make up something like the challenger belts you mentioned. Been raining a lot here lately so maybe this could be a good side project to get them men some hours at the shop
I got some belting from a ethanol plant probably not as thick as quarry stuff if you have any of them near you.