One of those necessary things that parts have to be paid for eventually. However when I got out of old "Krusty" I seen these on the area in front of me: Turns out they are new and two guys from the Morton parts distrubution facility use these to build displays of some kind. I don't know any more than that but was told there is something defective about them/it? Besides it obviously having a pair of links destroyed by a cutting torch, they look new to me?
8E7406 link makes them D6H/D6R/D6T track chains. Makes you wonder where they came from, and why they cut them up. Certainly don't appear to have been used at all. If there are any defects, they're certainly not visible ones. Would Cat manufacturing processes allow for defective track chains to be assembled? I wouldn't have thought so.
Also 325, 324 and 322 excavators and 527 tracked skidders. Appears they chopped a few links out of the middle.
I don't know. Morton is the parts distribution outlet for OEM parts. Parts your Cat dealer orders run through, or originate there for filling. These could have had a defect not easily shown, or possibly damaged in handling. I've seen a lot of new parts scrapped that the inexperienced eye would not find flaws in.
Improper heat treatment or other non visible defect(s)?
Out of pure, dumb, curiosity, what would one do with a non-complete track chain?
Weld them into letters to be a sign in front of the shop.
That's one heck of a sign!
I wonder if it was a special application and they had to use a full chain and part of another due to availability? We had to do that on the drill rigs. Often couldn’t get required number of links etc. So we’d buy three chains, make the two we needed and have some spare parts.
Maybe used on something that takes longer track? The feller buncher my buddy has is an "extended" D7 undercarriage, uses roughly 1.5x links vs a D7