Hello...I just bought a Dresser 125G? and want to weld the grouser bars on. Is there a way to get the track off the ground to rotate it while welding? I like to start with dumb questions first... Thanks -Lance
jack the machine up and block it
Make sure you use grouser bar material or you will be doing a lot of welding foe nothing
Congratulations on the New Machine! When you can post some pictures! Best of Luck with Her!
I'm not sure on this one. If you have some blocking, maybe stout fire wood like oak. Pickup the machine as far as you can with the bucket put wood under what ever looks very solid under machine as far back as you can. Then lower till almost level. The rear tracks hopefully are now off the ground. Put blocks under front and set down. How bad are the pads? Do you just want more traction?
move the machine back a forth and weld at the ends where the track starts too curve, you should be able too a least 3 grousers at each corner before moving again, say about 3 o'clock on right front ,about 9 o'clock left front ,and so one so forth toward rear
For good quality grouser bar look up Dura-Tuff on the web. https://www.duratuff.com/
that is what I'm hoping to do. I just wasn't sure if it was ok to block underneath.
Here is a picture of it if I posted it right
The ground here is very wet/soft and I'm afraid to get it stuck. The biggest thing I have is a JD 6400 and I'm pretty sure that won't help getting unstuck. I don't think there is more than a 1/4" of tread left on those tracks. I've never operated anything like this so I don't know how easy it is to get into trouble.
The welding is a lot of work and the pads don't look that bad. If you do weld one grouser in the front or middle would be good I'm not sure how tall, maybe 1 1/2"-2". When you turn with tall grousers it puts a lot of load on the under carriage and it will rip up the ground. Is it wet all the time? Is it all like low lands? A few things to keep in mind as you get used to running the machine. Don't take any big chances if you're heading down hill in soft ground. Sliding is really bad. Especially sideways! Keep your speed down. Don't let the tracks dig out the ground under you while you're standing still so the machine is resting on its belly. If things don't feel right get off the machine and check things out and make a plan. Dump the load rather than get stuck. If you're trying to back out of a soft spot all that weight out front isn't helping. Park it and come back after it dries out, don’t bury it. You can feed boards under the tracks to float the machine out. Do it sooner rather than later. The best time to push things is going uphill with a full bucket, backing out of trouble would be no trouble then. Give yourself time to learn the limits. Sweet looking machine! Best of Luck
Most here put two bars on, Lead and trail on each shoe much as newer loader rails are designed. And a Caution have not read yet, going Dozer Style single TALL grousers is a BAD Idea on older machines, no give or less apt to slip under pressure and POOF there goes a final or turning with loaded bucket very often and lower rollers suffer.
DMiller is on the right track with 2 grouser bars. I think the height for the bar should be more like 1" to 1 1/2" which would be more like a double grouser that you could probably buy at most suppliers. The grouser you can buy would have thicker bars that wouldn't chew up the ground so much, easier on the machine and last a super long time. If you can make due with the pads you have your driveway, grass, ect. won't get as marred up.
Ok, I'll see what happens with what is there now. Thank you. I was also hoping you could get away with one bar per to save welding but when I do I'll make sure its 2. On a side note, is there a spring or something that is supposed to push the decel pedal back up?
Before you set your mind on grouser bar I suggest that you first investigate the cost of shoes, if they are available. By the time you cost the grouser bar + welding it in position in time and materials you may find that it is not necessarily the cheapest option for you.
I don’t have decelerators on my machines. I’ll bet the pedal should rise on it’s own. I would work it up and down with your hand. Feel for the spring. Also it may just be the joints need lubrication. One of my machines has welded on grousers. They are ½” thick at the top (too narrow in my opinion) and the whole grouser sticks up 1 ½ “ from the bottom of the plate. If I was you I'd buy new pads with the double grousers, but if you have more time than money try welding on something like every fourth plate weld one on the front of the pad. Buy the prepared grouser bars like 1” x 1” x two thirds of the full width of the width of the currant pads. Get them with weld bevel cut in. My pads are too aggressive you can possibly add (if you need to) a little extra grip and see what happens. Like dipping your toe in the water before you dive in. Best of Luck
First price out aftermarket pads. They may or may not be available with double grousers for your machine. It was several years ago but 3 bar (street) pads for my 931B were in the $15-$17 range as I recall. You can't weld new grouser bar on for anywhere near that price. If you get new pads they need to be sanded completely smooth without paint as do the rails on the machine. You'll need new nuts and bolts and the torque is very important. The supplier should have an initial torque setting and usually they are turned an additional 1/3 of turn after that. (torque/ turn method) To get the tracks off the ground, first get it on some solid ground. If the ground is soft and you can move the machine to firmer ground will save you a ton of grief. My machine is a similar size but I'm lucky because I have backhoe and can lift the whole machine up and block it. Without a backhoe or ripper, stack large enough wood blocks under the back of the machine on both sides and get as high as possible to belly pan or final drive cases. Then tilt the bucket down and lift the front end. The back of the machine will also come off the ground. You could also get a 12-20 ton hyd. jack to jack the back end up more, one side at a time. Make sure the loader bucket is off the ground. (I got a 20 ton jack for about $60 on sale) Make sure to also block the front when it's lifted up and don't rely on the machine hyd's. to hold it up. Use a shovel or long bar to push the blocks under the front behind the bucket. DON'T crawl in there thinking it will only take 30 seconds.
125 IH/Dresser rails and shoes are NLA for the most part. Allis HD5/6 and TD8/125/150 Dresser used same rails/shoes. 6.5" pitch, no one else used that pitch.
Re-drilling pads with a mag drill still might be a better and less expensive option than welding new grouser bar on.
When it comes to cost are you figuring in someone being paid to weld or the grouser bars are that expensive? I would be welding them on. I'll hold off and see how it does. I'll add a 20 ton jack to my list of new tools. I doubt I'll be using an 8 or 10MM socket too often.
Not necessarily. Just commenting that the cost equation shoes vs welding grouser bar is not just the cost of the material, you would need to factor in the welding consumables and fuel for the welding machine plus any labour cost if there was one. Also don’t underestimate how long the welding will take. It’s a slow process.
Stoody used to make automatic machines for welding new grouser bar on. Don't think it's been used since maybe the early 80's. Same with rebuilding roller shells. The consumables and labour aren't cost effective. There's the odd place rebuilding idlers on large machines but small stuff is cheaper to just replace. Pin and bushing turns are pretty rare nowadays too.
I wanted to share a story about my two 977K's. One with like new triple grouser's. Drove it out to tow a truck out of a low wet land trail. No trouble at all getting there. Hooked up and pulled, didn't move it at all. Drove that one back. Went to the one with the tall grousers walked it out going backwards uphill acted like it wasn't even hooked up. It also left notches on the nice straight hard packed driveway. Unlike the first one. I was reading last night and thought you might want to hear some folks back in 2008 talking tracks. Be sure to expand the quote box. 977 K Vs 973
You have a loader. Loaders don't have grousers because: A, they turn so much, they'd wear a hole in the ground turning to load trucks. B, they'd wear out the final drive if they had grousers. C, they'd break something pushing into a hill to get a bucket. In the day IH built your tractor, they took a finished TD 7, or is it 8? They removed the blade, C frame & tracks. They added bucket, lift frame, three bar shoes, and a counter weight. If you have your heart set on grousers, don't get carried away. Use 1 per shoe, and stay at 1-1/4" tall. Consider "corking" (caulking). Add two short pieces one shoe, One in center next.
Mine is TD7G. My service manual covers TD7 & 8 G, and 100 &125 loaders. Only a little changes. My rails will likely last as long as I do. Shoes, I bet are original to the tractor, could be freshened
Must have missed the bottom line when copying the link. Click to expand above has a reply.
It was a big truck not running. I wanted to get it back to the house to work on it. Should of brought the 977K dozer loader on the first trip. Jerked it with the plain 977K couldn't keep it moving without spinning the tracks, the nice and fresh square corned tracks. It was all up hill to the driveway and I didn't want to mess up the trail with spinning tracks.
I don't know what kind of work you will be doing but if you are mostly clearing one bar per pad will work nicely from my experience.
In its place I have found it very handy. I'm a little spoiled to have a choice or two. Out of all the many Vices I guess, Old Iron isn't so Bad!
A few things to think about before you do this. The groupers aren’t badly worn, and if you’re going to use it on any hard ground get ready for a hard ride, as you’ll not get them all the same height without cutting the originals to the same exact height first. Also, if you do this, make sure you have a good supplier of final drive and running getter parts as you’ll shorten the life of all these components. IH knew what they were doing with small tracked loaders and as stated, triples were designed to slip to save strain on the driveline. Unless you’re planning on working in a swamp, I’d stick with what’s on there. In 45 years I’ve never wanted anything other than standard shoes on any tracked machine, there’s always a way round things. However, Your machine and money, your call.
I know you asked for ideas for jacking and blocking the machine to weld on the pads. But, you got a lot of advice besides that. Which is a good thing. After reading all this I'm curious as to how much higher you want to extend the ones on it ? I don't think they look all that bad. IMHO !
Wise words and gives you something to think about.
This 977L is up in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada for sale on IronPlanet. Has a winch on it. Must work in the woods but doesn't have a log grapple though. Doesn't look like a quick tach either. About 1700 miles from me. If it was close and cheap and had 8" pitch tracks I'd buy this one and the one with a busted track could be my parts machine. The one with the busted rails has like new triple grousers go figure that the guy put new segments on it too that quickly busted up the bushing. I was running on the pins for quite awhile. Some of the Big Dozers on the Gold Rush show have 2 little tabs on top of their grousers. I was puzzling why?
Ice lugs.?
That would make some sense. Better penetration.
"Some of the Big Dozers on the Gold Rush show have 2 little tabs on top of their grousers. I was puzzling why?" A big scale logger nearby used to have a large fleet. Most of his tracts were Federal land. The feds specified the bulldozers he was allowed to use. Specifications were word for word taken from John Deere 350. Larry once bought 10 of them at once. SOP was new crawlers got "corked" (caulked) before they went up the mountain. They used a 1-1/4" tall piece of grouser stock. On top of a new grouser, a piece of stock 1/4 as long as the track width. One got two pieces outboard with a gap between. Next shoe got one piece in center. All of this was welded with 7018. A few machines went to log jobs without being caulked. The crew had a running joke, you need a seat belt & new pants. They were going to have battery acid & **** after rolling one cartwheeling down a mountain on ice.
The tabs are for operating on ice it keeps them from sliding sideways
LOL! LOL! LOL!!! Reminds me of my First Winter Here with a track loader with trippel grousers a heavy deep wet snow on frozen ground. Plowing up a side hill I had cleared the trees and bush off that summer. I get that 8' bucket nice and full so I pick it up and turn to the downhill side to dump it, instant Bobsled. I'm like frozen in place, don't even think to drop the bucket and turn the teeth to the ground! 70 fast yards to a Blessed Fresh Pile of Snow! Didn't have time to **** myself but I was scared as Hell.!!!!! One of the 977K's got here with 1 1/2" grouser stock welded to the front bar of like new triple grousers. That baby runs great in the woody hills when things get snowy. Good in loose rock if you're not planning to turn much! I was thinking maybe just a single 1/4 to 1/3 of track width added to the front tab of a triple grouser. Might give a good boost of traction and not make it much harder to steer.
A lot of people refer to welding the ice lugs on as corking. It's done on excavators too so they stay in place and you don't go tobogganing sideways on even a slight icy slope. They also help hold the machine in place when digging. Not much different that having regular pads packed with snow loading on a steel trailer.