Have a SALT D7h undercarriage run in muddy conditions a couple days ago. Majority of mud removed at end of that day. Freezing temps now with residual mud being froze. Had to heat and chip mud from backside of two top rollers to turn yesterday morn, no big deal. Mud really on pads and inside rails some. Ran fine and moved forward, back, loaded on trailer and moved to another jobsite. After unloading, heavy oil from end of a few pins was visible. Did I screw up seals on the SALT pins? Fix? How to prevent? Should I wash and/or be washing out at end of day with a pressure washer setup? Pretty common for us to run in conditions like this.
If you see oil leaking out of those pins I would say you cooked your seals, first thing I would is Mark those pins some how...notch pad edge with grinder or something so you know which one's are leaking when the oils gone. You'll have to have someone with a portable track press repair that out in the field or take machine or track itself to a in house track press to replace seals. As far as what to do for the mud.....where I'm at we just clean out with a shovel the best you can that night and have always been ok or not a big enough problem the machine couldn't move.
We have been dealing with the same problem. We get snow, then it thaws and warms up, everything turns to poop. Try like hell to get the mud all out but it is near impossible. Then had a really cold spell from Friday to Monday, everything was froze up. Had a couple idlers start to leak pretty bad. Seems washing it out would be the best solution, but then it would still probably freeze if it sits in the cold for a day or so. Sometimes its just easier to stay home, I feel.
That's for sure. I haven't seen anything like that on my system1....yet. I wonder if the same thing is possible there? Ken
How worn is your undercarriage. If it is less then 50% I would just run it. As for the mud, you just got to do the best you can with a shovel. I don't think the time invested in using a pressure washer would be worth it. Figure 30-45 min. getting the machine warm 6 hours of actually moving dirt then 3 hours with a shovel and pressure washer cleaning.
And washing it is not the answer anyway. Its not the mud that is the problem. Its the water. Washing it will just drive more water into the links and such. I washed my ex one day and it got really cold that night. The next day I walked past it an notice a large pool of oil around one track drive. It hadn't been moved or anything. It was just the water got into the seal, swelled, and all the oil ran out. Its a pita. Now that you got me thinking about tracks, that's even worse! Ken
Yair . . . Once upon a time tracks were bullet proof and you could fix or bodgie them up up with a gas axe and a hammer. Now it seems we have to be careful not to get them too hot when stoking fires or too cold in the winter. If things go wrong we need a technician with special puller gear or we take it to a shop . . . technology is getting in the way of common sense. Cheers.
I have long held the machines today are too technified for the good of the industry, cost too much to fix, too long to troubleshoot and do little more than a good cat skinner did without all the extra crap. Rails on my old machine are wore slick but I need not worry of link oil leakage. The machines push material, they do not mix minute amounts of materials for high quality results and there fore need not be so 'perfect'.