Hey guys, My situation is this. We are building A vineyard in Napa county Ca and its hill side work to the extreme. Space is very tight so we have bought A 120C deere. What we wanna know is/has anyone ever put A larger UC under on A machine to make more stable???? Any and all feedback greatly appreciated. We are mainly de rocking and ripping roots act so its really getting the screws put to it. Guidance and feedback PLEASE
Most excavators come with the widest pads that will fit from the factory. You could probably retrofit wider pads but they'd have to be offset to the outside and would require redrilling every bolt hole.
Find out what size you have on it and see if it's the largest for it. Our dealer recomended using the narrowest pad possible for the terrain to increase longevity. So not all come with wide tracks.
Would one of those spyder machines be of any value for 'hillside work in the extreme'? My limited experience with hillside work is the amazing reduction in available digging power in the slope work condition as well as the dilemmas it creates with the tracks.
Why? Buy the widest possible pad you can fit and trim the excess of the inside under the house. Trim the inside of the pad to same length as the original pads and have all the extra pad hanging to the outside
Agreed there was a guy who did this in another topic on his 951 track loader. Buy the widest that will bolt to your rails and have half of them sheared off on the left and half sheared off on the right but in rocky conditions i would think a narrower pad would be best. Isnt that why they dont use lgp's for ripping rock with dozers. i would want as high of ground pressure as possible to keep the tracks planted but on another note is this a lc machine meaning does it have the longest possible h frame
To bad you did not get one with a blade. Works good to stabilize and help level the machine. Cat makes the 311 and 312 available with blades.
Good day Jdigger Some time ago I recall an outfit from the Netherlands seeking additional counterweight installation approval which was rejected, those guys changed tack and asked for approval for an additional fuel tank which was approved. The fuel tank was then installed in front of the existing counterweight increasing stability and yes it worked, maybe you have not considered this solution. I have some pictures some where if you need these drop a line to [email protected] Kind regards Uffex
Is there any chance you could cut benches in the slopes ?
I wonder if you could find single grouser pads for that machine like we use on fellerbunchers
You guys are great! ALL VERY HELPFUL! We wanted A blade machine but they are hard to come by in our price point/cond! I found A 312 in Oregon but it was 80 grand and A Komatsu 138 in Wa in it was sold out from under us over the wknd! to respond to terrace ?, The deal is we are building this vineyard "old timey" w no terracing or wires. Very specific fella. The job can only facilitate smaller gear due to access so we have to use the small machinery. This is my first outing in any hill work so I researched forest machines n yeah… SINGLE bar grousers and seemingly longer tracks. All of which adds up to more $$$$$! I will hopefully figure out how to put pics up asap as this place is really amazing! Thanks again guys
just weld one regrouser bar on each track pad that would do close to the same as a single bar grouser pads and then when you get done with the job just cut them off with a torch
Sounds like a job where an old Drott with the leveling swing table would come in handy. www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=9732405
GENIUS!!!!!! I will pass that on to the chief!
There was a thread going a while back that showed some bolt-on grousers that were turned 90 degrees to keep the machine from sliding sideways.
Makes sense initially... however, I would suspect you'd eventually get uneven wear on the sprocket and idler bearings, and maybe even the surfaces, from uneven loading (side loading from different ground pressure due to the pad contact area being unequal)? If this theory does make sense, the problem would be exacerbated by 'extreme' slopes... ~ Mark