My aging ASV MD2810 skid-steer track loader has always tended to chew up the drive-cogs on its rubber tracks. I use it only rarely, and always on my small steep property, often having to turn on slopes. I'm guessing this tends to exacerbate the tendency for tracks to shift sideways and add to this problem. The set that was on it when I bought it was pretty chewed up and I assumed it was just time to replace them, but the replacement set started showing damage pretty quickly. Maybe this is just "how it is?" Right side seems a lot worse; rounding out a turn going downhill I can almost always feel it 'jump a notch', which is sometimes unnerving, depending on my load at the time. Alignment and tension: obvious concerns, but it's not so clear from documentation whether there's such a thing as 'too much tension.' Anyone? These don't have the convenience of a built-in track-tensioner, so one has to rig up some means of forcing the drive cage/motor backwards, while aligning bolt-hole options, in order to tension tracks. I've always made sure to use the same inboard/outboard bolt-holes. But recently it's occurred to me that this assumes there's no 'other' alignment discrepancy that might suggest I go by some other measure. And while inspecting yesterday, I noticed that there's clearly dark-rubber 'scrubbing' marks on the inboard faces of the drive cage, and much much less of this on the outboard. I plan to release tension and check to be sure I don't have some kind of bent-drive problem (can this happen?) that would result in the track-drive equivalent of a bent axle, but I suspect they're pretty robustly-built to resist such problems. If this is all 'to be expected' for this 90's drive technology, is there a standard of excellence in skid-steer loader track-drive systems these days that overcame these problems?
Check the bogies and idlers, not so much the rubber wheels themselves, but the bearings and shafts they ride on.
I helped a friend remove the last bogie set of his ASV. It was broken loose at the mount and tearing off track lugs. You'll have to jack up the machine to check the bogies and mounts. Here's my thread on it HeavyEquipmentForums
Ah, so you're thinking simply drag from BBBB (bad/bent bogey bearings)? It's worth a check - guess I gotta figure on de-tracking soon, then. I swear, if hot-dip galvanizing weren't so damned expensive here, I'd take the whole undercarriage apart and get it done...
Thanks hosspuller - I went through that thread but didn't track that the bogey had been loose as you mentioned...thought the basic problem you were grappling with in that thread was not being able to get the thing loose enough to remove it, actually. I'm curious about the very first shot in that thread, though - foreground looks like it reveals what's inside the bogey-to-track-frame (?) connection, right below the gloves, looking like where you maybe blew off an end-cover-plate while trying to get things apart. I can't understand the 'suspension' that this is apparently intended to provide. Looks like those fat cross-bars (#1 & #2 in the last of your exploded views) are somehow providing some suspension travel, but I haven't seen it explained anywhere. Does it work like a giant sway-bar? That doesn't seem to make sense, because I'd think we'd want our tracks to be independent, not trying to keep the machine level, as in the automotive case.
Torsion bar suspension? I had it on a Nissan 4x4 truck back in '89.
It's a rubber torsion bar suspension. While my thread was about getting it apart, the repair was caused by the boggie wheel mount breaking. This allowed the track to move sideways relative to the drive sprocket, which tore off the lugs. I surmise your boggie wheels are not guiding the track properly so the sides of the lugs are wearing. Notice the square bar at the end of the mount... it's held in place by four rubber rods...in a larger square tube As it is twisted, the rubber rods compress and absorb shock. The ASV suspension is four torsion bars at each end (front & rear) of the track. (eight on each side, 16 on the machine) Two torsion bars absorbs vertical movement, while the other damps the frame. Then the boggie wheel carrier which has the last torsion bar. (our problem was separating the boggie wheel carrier assembly from the mount. The bolts were frozen in the holes of the mount) Google Dexter Torflex trailer axles to see a cut away diagram and operation of a rubber damped torsion suspension.