I am aware that in a larger conventional dozer steering under load can wear out your steering clutches and your transmission, does anyone know if the same is true for the smaller dozers with hystatic drives? I'm asking because i do a lot of Ripping with ours and because its on a plantation it has to be as straight as possible, so i have to constantly make slight direction adjustments to ensure that the line is straight. And am concerned that it may eventually wear things out.
If u mean diff steer it won't hurt it just keep ur revs up and don't push to hard on the control. Also dozer size is not important and with clutch steering its not so much riding that does the damage its slingshoting that really hurts em. Also if I've only got 2 picks in are u offsetting ur rips properly if not this could b why ur on the steering so much don't forget the dozer will alwayse follow the load.
If it is truly hydrostatic drive it does not have steering clutches or a "transmission". Hydro stats use hydraulic pumps and motors. You will not hurt it by steering corrections under load. If it has diff steer you won't hurt it either. If it does have steering clutches than steering under load will wear them more.
I re read my own post it didn't read very well ill have anouther go slingshoting is the re engagement of the clutch under load at high idel this is where proper soft pedalling playes a big role. The diff steer system is hyd over shaft controll commonly mistaken 4 hydrostatic it actually controls a set of 3 shafts that in a nut shell controll the axels it never takes drive away from the track it only advances and retards so it is impossible to slingshot the drive but soft pedalling is still a god idea it will help with traction and hyd system wear. If you need any more help just ask.
its a john deere 450j, im fairly sure it is purely hydrostatic. im not sure exactly what you mean by slingshotting? also im just using a single long shank while ripping. and it likes to slowly turn toward the downhill side when going over mounts etc, or if i go over some sticks or something then that track loses some grip and it turns then, also things like stumps in the ground can turn it a bit.
Yair . . . When ripping to contour or straight line pegs and you have to rip to depth and line it is mostly easier on the tractor to do it in two passes. That "slingshotting" as described by Cam85 is deadly on steering clutches. It can happen ripping where you pull a clutch and forward movement stops when the driven track spins . . . disengage master clutch or slip transmission into neutral before releasing steering clutch or at very least "soft pedal" the decel back to idle before you let the clutch engage. This condition can happen quite often when scrub pulling . . . one track can be on a log and pull the bark off and spin on the slippery timber when the other clutch is released. If you allow the clutch to reengage under those conditions you are effectively "dropping the clutch" at full revolutions in (say) second gear on a stationary half clutch pack and final drive. I believe direction changes in general heavy ripping (on a clutch tractor) are best achieved by operating the steering clutch and ripper lift together . . . or lift ripper slightly before pulling the clutch . . . you cut out the high spots on the cross rip. Just my thoughts. I imagine that any of the modern transmission/steering systems would obviate many of the issues and be much easier on the tractor . . . a problem could arise where an operator is not conversant with an old style steering clutch machine. Off topic again but it may be of general interest. (big grin) Cheers.
It is interesting scrub I thought I had better give a bit more information about my exact situation. I work on a farm where we grow Eucalyptus and native flowering shrubs for the cut flower industry, this year we are planning on planting a lot of new plants, and I have approximately 400km of ripping to do, I never cross rip, all we do is rip many single lines parallel to each other, that become the rows. And being that I have a 39 inch shank on a 70 horsepower dozer it takes 2-4 passes to rip to depth. some of the clay I have to rip is so hard you cant push your fingernails in to it. Part of the reason that I have to turn often could also be that it we had to build the ripper assembly up to make it strong enough to hold the larger shank, and there is about 1-2 mm of play between the ripper the box that holds it so it can turn slightly side to side and act like a rudder. I haven't got a permanent solution for it, I was hammering little wedges in there to hold it in place but they eventually work their way out. And I found that it wasn't that bad having to make small steering adjustments, even tho I have to do it quite regularly. It after all is joystick drive and doesn't take much effort. However on the reverse side of that often I have to make larger steering adjustments, and because the way we build the new ripper frame it doesn't have enough lift to actually pull the ripper out of the ground when it is in hard clay, so lifting and changing direction is a pain in the ass to do because i actually have to reverse first, and so I actually engage counter rotation in the tracks while the ripper is in the ground to change direction. This is what I am worried that could be causing damage or wear, although at the same time I can see how it might not do any thing at all seeing as the whole thing is basically driven by oil.
Yair . . . thetabop . I am old school mate and have no firsthand knowledge of hydrostatic drive. In theory though I would think you probably have a pretty good set up for what you are doing. Bigger would be better of course but most of us have to make do with what we have . . . from an operational point of view your present tractor would be much better than "conventional" steering clutch and brake. Cheers.
Your 450J is pretty light for what you are doing but the hydrostatic drive is very forgiving. There isn't really anything to wear out by constantly steering. You are just reducing flow from 1 pump to 1 motor to slow a track down. There are no clutches in the system at all.
Awesom, that's good to know, and you are exactly right tht it is pretty small dozer for the job, but as scrub said its what we have, and we don't have a few hundred grand spare to buy a big one
I don't know anything about John deers but if it is hydrostatic go 4 it mate there is nothing to hurt. Also just a thought would a cutter bar b a worth while investment 4 the 1st run. Also just a thought if it doesn't matter what happens on the left or right could u touch a corner tip slightly and steer with the blade a little.
One more thought. Does it track dead straight when not ripping? It is highly recommended to recalibrate the TCU after a speed sensor is replaced. Not sure if it would help at all.
You might use a reasonable sized digger with a ripper tooth to do some of the hard spots. What is the point like on the ripper, is the ripper winged etc, some ripper points go through the hard dirt/ rocks better than others.
I was using just a bolt on tip, that was actually just a slab of hard facing bolted on to a boot. just yesterday I finally got sick of the bolts sheering off and went and got a D4/ grader tip and a adapder nose and have a new shank in at the engineers getting it all welded together. it does mostly track straight. I haven't done a proper test since replacing the speed sensor, it might be going off a bit to the but not much. Cam85 what exactly is a Cutter bar? also how exactly do i go about recalibrating the TCU?
A cutter bar is um well imagine if u had the 2 outside rippers in and the middle 1 out and then u had a pice of grader blade welded on the bottom of the picks running from left to right they are a proper made thing but that is the only way I can think of to explain it. Scrub would probably b better at explaining it than me. If u drag the bar around behind the tractor with the bar in the ground say 300 deep it destroys root systems of trees and lets the grass grow and the tree doesn't grow back. In your case it might help deal with the old stumps n things and fluff up the top soil healing the ripper get down further on the 1st rip it might also help mark out ur runns.
Ahh yeah I know what you mean, I don't know if our dozer would be able to pull it, in some areas the clay starts like 2 inches from the surface, and is hard as heck
Oh ok have u considered dry hiring a d8 or something similar and get hectic on its ass
Re-calibrating is done through the TCU but I wouldn't attempt it w/o at least a copy of the procedure from the manual. We don't have any small J's in our fleet so I can't help ya with a manual.
Don't worry about steering under load, you're just changing the pump flow to one track or the other. Not wearing the hydrostats any more than if you were ripping straight
We did get a d9 out to do some last year, but in order to get as much as we need done this year it would cost as much as our dozer did. also unfortunately the place hiring the d9 doesn't do dry hire, wheres the fun in that! :beatsme