What do you do when your pads get down? Regrouser them, or buy new pads? We've regrousered pads for customers that have D-9, D-10, & D11's. My company is located in Western PA, Traval Contractors Supply, and would like some input what most people are doing today.
We re-grouser D9 & D10 track shoes. For us it works out economic. New shoes have 3 lives, original plus re-grousering twice, before the base of the shoe gets too thin and they're only fit for scrap. We use Dura-Tuff grouser bar, it's the only bar I've found to be half-way decent. www.dura-tuff.com/
Thanks for the reply Nige. We have an automatic grouser machine that cuts the old bar off, and welds the new bars on for us. It uses hydraulics to ensure the bar is completely against the pad, and a dual wire feeder for maximum penetration when welding. You can see our regrousering machine on our website at: http://travalcontractors.com/services/217-track-regrousering . People seem to hold off just a little bit too much today though, and their shoes become scrap.
I have 1 D10 dozer that I use in my quarry. My biggest problem is my material is aggressively abrasive. It only takes around 600 hrs average to smoke a set of pads. But when re-grousering comes into the question the rest of the pad is too thin as you mentioned. Plus I got quoted both a time or two and a new set of extreme service pads is only a couple grand more both times. And on top of that, even after getting quotes from Berco and black cat blades, etc, etc, caterpillar still had them beat on price. Who da thunk it?
If your material is extremely abrasive try Super Extreme Service (SES) track shoes. The grousers have more wear material than Extreme Service. I'd be amazed if you're wearing out a set of grousers in 600 hours that the base of the shoe wouldn't be good enough to re-grouser at least once. Try Dura-Tuff, they have an abrasion-coated bar available. The material looks at bit like Cat ARM. While you're at it ask your Cat dealer PSSR about ARM-coated track shoes for your D10.
Nige, I guess I made a typo up there somewhere. I have been running this pit for 12 hours a day and six days a week for the last six years. I get to change those track pads every 80 days. I have tried everything. I have had a set re grousered before, with someone's awesomest stuff, the cost versus the hours was more expensive. The pads were too thin also, they bent in the middle on some of them and the grouser bar broke off. And the carbide inlays and such do me no good bc this material shatters it or wears the body around it out and the carbide falls out. We have tried everything, cheapest thing to do is buy the ses ( this is where I messed up earlier, sorry) and change them every 80 working days. The money I get back from scrap well cover the cost differential from regrousering. Plus we are really good at it. I can put a man in the seat moving the tracks, two guys with torches on each side, and three guys installing the new ones on each side and we are done in about three hours. So it's not too bad, we are also really good with cone liners and jaw liners, as we get to do these often too. On another not my drill bits go bad quick too. The carbides are still just as sharp as can be, the body around them just wears out and the carbides fall out, maybe 80 feet.
Please don't think I'm trying to teach my granny how to suck eggs, just thinking about your situation and the comment that shoes bend in the middle when they're worn. You say you're in a quarry, so I assume you have no issues with soft ground causing the tractor to sink, correct..? What width of track shoe are you using and what series is your D10, N, R, T...?
Nige All those grouser jobs you do, do you have one of these? http://www.mattsontech.com/grmaster.htm You make me feel fortunate. Just shy of 9,000 hrs on my D-8T with the original pads, and no grouser job, though they could have used one. Wore the back pair of bolts right off of most of the pads.
Jerry, we don't but the welding contractor who does our regrousering does ....... On the really abrasive stuff here we can wipe out a set of Super Extreme Service grousers in 1000 hours or less. I've seen shovels lose a set of tooth points in less than 24 hours ........
Well, Thats almost as good. It sounds like you keep him plenty busy. I have worked some mines that were abrasive like that, but it is not very often. On one site in particular, ripper teeth lasted less than a shift, the loader feeding the primary crusher got new teeth daily, and the haul road grader used a set of edges daily.