Is there a practical way protect an existing concrete shop floor from occasional contact with steel dozer tracks? I have a free source for used conveyor belts that I think will protect the concrete and be more durable than wood. I plan to replace the grass on one side of my shop with dense grade and build a lean-to for the dozer but I'd like to bring it in the shop for service.
Thats what I use. Seems to work just fine. I was using recap tire tread that I bought at an auction years ago. I really liked it at first but after a fair amount of use the cleats would cut through the tread and would end up with a bunch of short pieces.
Thanks!
Lots of people just throw used tires down the same way they move dozers across a road.
I too use old conveyor belting. Seems to work fine as long as you travel in a straight line.
Lengths of old steel plate will work, too, if you can source some. You can also use wooden railroad ties, this has the advantage of raising the tractor up, and make it easier to slide underneath when you have work to do on the underside. The downside then, is it makes it harder to climb up on the tractor! A set of steps is always useful in a shop, anyway, for climbing up and down - they generally save skin from being scraped! When I built my shop in 1975, I installed 6 lengths of rail line, in two sets of 3, about 10" apart in the floor, with the head of the lines just slightly above floor level. That floor endured multiple D7's running in and out on it, for many years, heaps of track rebuilding, tractors screwing back and forth - and the floor is still good today (I sold the property and shop to a friend in the early 1990's, and moved away, but I've been back there occasionally, over the years).
My vote is for the conveyor belting its tough and you can roll it up and store it out of the way when it's not needed.
If it's for the 450C you're discussing in the other thread I wouldn't worry about it too much, as long as the concrete is reasonably old and hard. When I pull my 450c in the shop I don't put anything down on the floor, just throw some blocking down at the edge of the door so it doesn't chip the edge of the slab. Then again, my dozer is a LGP and it's just an old farm shop that I don't care about how the floor looks, so YMMV.
When I wanted to haul a dozer (see my picture) on a steel truck deck I was concerned about loading & unloading. Bought cattle mats from Tractor Supply. I could barely lift one, so I cut them in half.
We use 18mm thick 8x4 plastic mats. Heavy,but we move up to D10 around the place. Also use them for the 836 compactors. Those machines destroy them but save the concrete and they can be reused.