Wondering what the average undercarriage life in hours would be on a small-medium size dozer. Say a Cat D4-5, Case 650-850, or Deere 650 size. Would the entire undercarriage be replaced at once or say new rails at 2,500 hrs and then replace pads at 4,000 hrs? What about sprockets and rollers? Seems allot of dozers have new sprockets and rails but not pads or rollers. Pads seem to be pretty wore on most used dozers I've looked at.
All depends on use, sand is more abrasive than say loam, rock is hard on pads, soft clay is easy, plus keeping things well adjusted and clean. 4k would be awfully nice for complete undercarriage life. Howard
Is working in sand harder on the entire undercarriage or just parts like sprockets and chains? I can't see it being to bad on pads, but have no first hand experience.
Your life will vary greatly due to ground conditions and operating practice. For example, I recently replaced UC on my D-5M with 5,000 hours on the original. My other small machine, a D-4C hystat, I got about 3,000, then turned the bushings (wasted money) and it needed replacement of everything at something around 4,000 to 4,200, I don't recall exactly. I do recall I figured out it would have been cheaper per hour to run to destruction rather than pay for the bushing turn.
I have been told the same thing about turning pins and bushings, better to just buy new. I figure this depends on the size of the machine though. What is the grouser hieght when new? Mine are about 1 1/4" tall now. I'm running on black land which I hear is easy on an undercarriage. I have tried to get oem specs on components but haven't had any luck.
How does one know if the new parts are the same metal spec as the original parts? I am asking this because my JD450G "needs something" either: - take the tracks off and have them hauled to a track shop (there aren't many operating these days) for a pin turn with the realization that some pins wont re-establish a good seal just because of wear etc and replace the sprockets, or - remove the pads and replace the rails & the sprockets and reinstall the pads. * The machine is pretty much relegated to finish grading as jobs doing over excavation & recompaction are pretty much relegated to the excavator folks. Hours are almost 3k with original JD parts but the sprockets' teeth are getting pointy and the pins feel like an oval but not quite yet flat spotted.
I got 3700 out of my undercarriage on my 450j. I replaced everything except the pads. I did replace the sprockets before that once they got pointy and rain the chains till all the bushings had cracks in them.