I've been clearing trees with a Deere 200D LC. I've been careful to work over the idlers, as there is a lot of full stall hydraulic work, and dragging the machine with the boom because I'm setting on disturbed soil. Other than the counterweight from the heavier drive motors, is there any reason to worry about lifting over the motors? It would save turning the body around sometime.
I just saw a thread the other day like this seem to remember also that there are many many reasons to never work with the motors in front of you.... of course there are just as many reasons that it doesn't matter.
Good day A rule from the early days when operating a front shovel excavator it was preferred to excavate over the idlers avoiding compression of the recoil spring with the back hoe it was the reverse as you hit the forward motion you would drive away from the excavation. It was just an observation from the past. kind regards Uffex
It is also a safety issue. If one of those trees somehow gets away from you and crashes through your window it most likely will push travel levers back. If you are working over the motors that will track you into the branches and risk skewering you!
Dave beat me to it. It's just good practice during clearing to keep the drive motors to the rear.
And that has happened. The old Hitachi manuals stated to dig over the sprockets, that way the chain remains loose from the sprocket to the idler so less wear and also takes out alot of the jerking as it's not pulling against the tensioner spring.