Hi guys, I'm pretty new here, but have been looking around for awhile. I'm a equipment mechanic with a county service. We have a 1980 JD 450c forestry dozer with approx 1400hrs. During the last service I noticed some significant wear in the track bushings and the sprocket. Now days is it cheaper to replace the track chain, or still send out and rotate the pins and bushings. This machine only gets about 50hrs of use per year, still in great shape. What do you fellas think. Thanks for your advice in advance.
There are a lot of variables to consider in your situation. In my opinion your best bet is to talk to which ever dealer you normally use about this. Most dealers offer some form of a track inspection program, and several of them will do the inspection for free. Most of them will send a guy out that will measure every aspect of your undercarriage. Once he is done he will give you a breakdown on the remaining life left on all components that make up your undercarriage. Once you have this it will be a lot easier for you to set down and figure out the best direction to go on your machine. One of the main things to consider is what type of tracks you are currently running and what kind you plan on replacing the old ones with. Stuff like that will be the deciding factors when you start comparing replacement verses bushing turn. When it comes to track chains there is so many different brands and different styles of each brand to choose from, that when you start digging into it this stuff can be almost overwhelming. As a rule of thumb a bushing turn if done right is almost always cheaper then replacement no matter how cheap of chains you buy. But one of the ways I explain it to some of my customers is this. Think of your track chains as boots with worn out laces. If you have the el cheap o $30.00 boots then you may want to think real hard about replacing the $10.00 set of laces. But if you have the $200.00 boots then you will be a fool to not fix them. I hope my info helps. If you do want to get more in depth into undercarriage info let me know. I may not know much but I do know a little on this subject.
I think you also need to consider how long you plan on keeping the machine. If you plan on turning this machine over fairly soon, it doesnt make much sense to spend a lot on a uc. My current employer has taken that path with a few machines. Both C series, both lgp, d3 and d4 cats. Some of it was ignorance of the new operations manager, some of it was the machines were about to the end of their product life for our company. The ucs were hodge podge patched together, and another season and a half was gotten out of both machines. That being said, dont expect much in resale value. Probably the biggest problem was the last half season. Both machines were not very productive, and suffered a lot of down time. Some of that was also due to other mechanical issues.
if it is structurally sound, rotate
On the small stuff a lot places won't be bothered with turning pins and bushings with less expensive aftermarket undercarriage available. Labor costs don't save you too much over buying new.
Like Dave says, On machines that small it is usually not worth the labor it takes to service the tracks.... cheaper to replace, do both the chains and sprockets. Unless you know a guy with a production track press that owes you ....
By the time labor and downtime while the tracks are in the shop getting turned, is figured in, most companies run them to destruction and then install new.