I'm looking at a volvo 290 and a liebherr 934. The guy told me the grease around the lower rollers was from it being pressed into place and not a leaking seal. Who makes their tracks? I was told its Berco and that they make the tracks for almost all dozers and excavators. Any help is appreciated.
tracks Im not familiar with these machines, but I have heard many times that Volvo and Lieberr are very costly machines (parts and services) Berco is one of the best aftermarket track providers and a bunch cheaper than OEM, they do make some OEM tracks. They do cost more than buying directly, from Berco. My thoughts on the signs of grease are: Is this a new set of rollers? Is there just grease around the flange area, or is there grease/oil leaking on the tracks. If there is oil on the tracks, more than likey the roller is leaking. If its a new set of rollers its possible that it could be excess assembly grease. I would say its poor workmanship, if the mechanic that rebuilt it, didnt clean off the grease. The grease gets dirt in it and then it wears on the seals and components HUMMMM
most rollers are filled w/ oil, if the seals are leaking the rollers will have an oily residue around the sealing area. The rollers on the volvo are the same bottom rollers as a pc300lc-1,2,3. I am not sure who is the o.e.m. manufacturer of the undercarriage on a volvo. I am almost positive that volvo does not come with Berco undercarriage from the factory. There are many aftermarket undercarriage brands that make undercarriage to fit the volvo, you can take your pick, Itm, Berco, etc...You could even put genuine komatsu rollers and chains on it if you want, they would fit. All of the Volvo excavators that have came into my shop have not had any markings on the links. Sorry, I didn't have a listing on the liebherr 934 in front of me.
:usaHmm...sounds like QuickTrax knows ther stuff......got a #?:usa:drinkup
:usaQuickTrax.... have you had any exp.. with the series 1 cat rails? what is the purpose of the design?:drinkup
Mr.Komatsu, I appreciate it. 832-335-6156--We have got some D6R's in our shop for undercarriage work with System One undercarriage on it. The first machine we got in had quite a few dry joints in the chains. The machine only had 1900 hours on it. The System One is rated for around 6000 to 8000 hours so they say. We sent that machine to the cat dealer for warranty. We also had a field job to open up one track on a D6R so the customer could get the final drive off of his machine for repair. We got to the machine and realized it was system one and that our portable press would not work. We came back to our shop and made some tooling for our press that would work and drove back and removed the track. Our customer told us the dealer price for opening up the tracks was still higher than what we charged him. Once word got out that we had a portable press to open the system one tracks, we have received quite a few call outs. I had another set of System One chains come in with around 3800 hrs on them and they had cut the links to get the tracks off of the machine. To repair the chains we had to replace what cat calls a link box (LH link, RH link, 2 Bushings, 2 Pins) they were over 700 dollars each and they needed two of them. Cat does make a clamp style master link for System One. I have not seen any master links on any of the machines we have worked on. You would think that if they make a masterlink for these chains, why the h*ll do they not put them on from the factory. I think the reason for this is for them to have field calls to open up the tracks. After I picked up the two link boxes to repair the cut links, I had a call from my parts guy and he told me that his boss told him to call me and tell me that they were not suppose to sell me the repair parts. Why??? I think cat doesn't want anyone else to have any knowledge about working this undercarriage. TOO BAD, I KNOW HOW!!! Comparing the two (standard undercarriage and system one undercarriage). If it can ever get to what cats expectations are, I would have to say it would be worth it. If it doesn't ever hold up to the expectations, I think you are paying double the price for just about the same amount of hours as you can get out of the standard undercarriage which is half the price.
:usaWell QuickTRax looks like you got a jump on the service end of these new rails.. The Komatsu engineers came up with a new rail system called Komatsu Plus. They are making changes so it is harder for the undercarrage guys to do the work...They say yeah you can get 6000-8000 hrs. on undercarraige yeah right..down here in Tx. maybe 2500-3000 hrs. if you catch the turn in time......well it is sure nice to typing with someone that actually knows what the heck they are talking about....keep the peace dude and stay thirsty...:drinkup
I have not had any dealings with the Komatsu Plus undercarriage. I have seen pictures of what it is going to look like and it looks about the same as the system one from cat. Ya, we usually turn at around 1200 to 1500 hours depending what you have been running in. I see different brands of chains everyday (Cat, Komatsu, Berco, Itm, Korean) and I can tell you that when we turn pins and bushings, majority of the machines have around the same amount of hours on the chains. I have seen dry joints in everybrand of chains so I hate to say one is better than the other. I do know their are a few specific brands that I will NOT sell any of my customers due to the quality. I have to be able to warranty every new part I sell. I am thinking that the aftermarket suppliers are going to come up with replacement parts for the system one undercarriage before too long. Thanks: Stay thirsty my friend!
Just got info on komatsus plus system the bushing turnes they have it for 51-61and d65s it has a split master. we were wondering how they would be able to keep joints from getting dry when cat came out dry joints in tracks are not uncommon now they are critical and expencive to service. I dont know about some of this stuff some times modern machines are getting so complicated 30years ago when i started working on eguipment took an hour to run an overhaed now it takes half a day to get down to the valve covers of cource overheads are not as neccecery as the once were either.
Bigsteve, cats system one chains have a rotating bushing also. I have seen some standard cat chains w/ the rotating (w/ oil seals) bushings on some of the D5G's and that was the only machine. Case has been putting a rotating bushing chain on the 650K, 750K, and 850K machines and we have been converting them back to the standard undercarriage. All you have to do is put a standard chains and a standard sprocket but the Cat System One is going to be too costly to switch back to the standard undercarriage. You will have to change pads, sprockets, idlers, and even the yokes that hold the front idlers on. I need to swing by my komatsu dealer and scope out the new machines to see what the new plus chains and the components look like.
Dang i love the smell of Equipment repair in the morning..............
I know on dozers, especially working in sugar sand how important it is to turn the pins. I have had deere excavators that have been walked for 6000 plus hours on the original tracks. Is anyone seeing the volvo or another brand needing to be changed earlier?
I've been doing business with all the dealers in my area for years and have never had anyone deny any part for a machine that was meant to be sold in the United States. If anyone one knows of any franchised dealer that refuses to sell parts to anyone they should post the name of that dealer here. I'm quite sure the issue would not come up again. I really like the idea that someone has built their own tooling. Perhaps a photo could give us some ideas for making our own tooling. As for the system one track I personnally have not seen any dry links so far. I have seen issues with idlers and track adjusters which require breaking the tracks to repair. I am told that a split master is available and that there may be a different kind of master available that makes it easier to break tracks but have not seen either yet. One of my sources says the dealer can order new machines with the split links but most don't. I have heard that it is very expensive to install them after the fact. The other difference with the system one tracks is that the front idler step rides directly on the bushings and not on the rails. I believe this was to eliminate the belly wear on the links that occurs from riding over two idlers. I haven't seen how long system one lasts yet but I am curious as are most others in my area. I had not heard about the Komatsu system so will be looking forward to seeing them.
I will be lookin also...going to cartersville soon....factory stuff....also 960E training comming soon....QuickTrax give me a holla......
Them1677, Many excavators have a lot of idle time. I just put new chains on one that had the original undercarriage on it. It had 13000 hrs on it. It sits in a sand pit all day and loads trucks. Excavator pins and bushings get more internal wear than external wear. We get very few excavators in for a pin and bushing turn. They usually come in for new p&b or new chains. Excavators that are walked a lot for clearing or whatever usually get less than 6000 hrs. On dozers, I would turn the p&b's especially if they are lubricated chains. If you wear through the bushing, you would be looking at double the cost for new p&b and install labor. A lot of our customers will run dry p&b until the chains fall off. This is because dry p&b's have become so cheap that its not worth the down time and with a dry turn the chains will still be snakey and have alot of internal wear on the pin and bushing. I have seen just about the same life in all of the excavator chains. Of course every machine does different jobs and are in different types of soil.
:drinkup:drinkup:drinkup:drinkup:drinkup::salute
John C., The next time we press a system one chain apart I will take pictures of our set up. The only bad thing about cat tooling or the tooling I made is it is different for every machine due to the pitch of the chain. I guess I will make different size tooling when I come across different size machines.
Cool, I'm looking forward to it. I hadn't thought about the pitch issue. I have seen the Cat style press used on D6Ts but it hadn't connected that it would take a different press for every pitch. Thanks!
nt nthere
If u take pics. of your set up then your secrets will be revealed....:Banghead:drinkup:drinkup
Maybe I will private message JohnC.