You wanna play, your going to pay.

[BargeMonkey]

 

 

Got her out of the woods before it threw a track. Time for a new idler and a couple rollers... be back together thurs morning.

[sawguy21]

Breakage is always fun.  :D

[Brleclaire]

Undercarriage work is never fun. I did enough of it to know. Hopefully I won't have to do any for awhile my boss ordered a brand new Komatsu xt 430 l2. What year is your timbco.

[Gary_C]

Undercarriage and track work is the number one reason why I have a rubber tired harvester.

[Brleclaire]

We looked at rubber tired buncher but didn't think it could handle the terrain. We work a lot of steep ground. So we're stuck with tracks.

[BargeMonkey]

Undercarriage work is never fun. I did enough of it to know. Hopefully I won't have to do any for awhile my boss ordered a brand new Komatsu xt 430 l2. What year is your timbco.

98' 425C  had to be right before the D's came out. This one came from Lakeshore in MI, was a guys spare machine and he was selling out. Has 4575 hours on it right now, if we put 50 hours a month on its alot. I looked at buying a rubber tired harvester, I cut way to much hardwood, and get on alot of steep ground. Plus im not a huge fan of CTL in the woods, a forwarder works good on maybe 50% of woodlots out here. There is a 445B outback right now down over the bank in the state woods with a track laid off it, been there 3 months, dont wanna be those guys.

[Brleclaire]

We had a '01 425d and a '04 425 exl. I ran the newer one and my dad ran the older one. He retired in march so the boss decided to get one new machine to replace them.

[BargeMonkey]

 CTL ? Buncher ? Im not to sold on Komatsu, when I do it again it will be a 725 leveling Timberpro. Mechanical crews are rare around here, still alot of cable skidders and chain saws.

[Brleclaire]

Bunchers, we run two tree length crews. The old ones had bar saw heads and the new one has  a hot saw. Should cut enough with one machine to keep both crews busy. We looked at both and some others. They came up with best deal and other than the undercarriage it's basically the same machine we used to working on.

[Ken]

Undercarriage work is both expensive and heavy.  I am selling my old harvester later this spring and it needs a complete undercarriage.  I'm debating whether to put the new UC on before selling or let the buyer deal with it.

Undercarriage and track work is the number one reason why I have a rubber tired harvester.

When I was shopping for a new harvester this spring I looked at rubber tired machines and watched many working.   With the really deep snows we had this winter even the 8 wheeled machines all tracked up had trouble with the snow.  They would chatter and spin like a skidder without enough traction.  I was scared that would eventually lead to extremely costly driveline and bogey issues.

[Brleclaire]

Ken why go thru the expense of a new undercarriage on a machine you're going to sell. You can charge more with a new U/C but wil somebody pay more. Unless you have someone buying the machine that will specifically says I will give you more money for a new U/C let her go as is.

[loggah]

Pounding track pins in and out with a sledge hammer is so much fun !!!! ;D One time i had 2 broken track pins on a D8K in one week working on ledge,needless to say i wasn't  a happy camper!!! at least your still young ,when your over 60 those hammers get heavy !! ;D ;D

[Gary_C]

When I was shopping for a new harvester this spring I looked at rubber tired machines and watched many working.   With the really deep snows we had this winter even the 8 wheeled machines all tracked up had trouble with the snow.  They would chatter and spin like a skidder without enough traction.  I was scared that would eventually lead to extremely costly driveline and bogey issues.

Ken, I've never had any big problems even in deep snow with my six wheeled machines. I do run tracks on the bogies and sometimes have to chain up the big tires for steering control on the forwarder when the trails get slick with hard packed snow. Most of the time, the tracks will just roll over the snow and pack it down. It's only in rare conditions that the machine starts to waddle thru crusted snow that is very deep. But I also have the wider tires, I think they are called 700's and not the narrower size.

The only problem I have is side slip when working on side slopes and hard packed snow. With any articulated machine, you can get into a lot of trouble on slippery side slopes. Turning uphill is problematic at best. But tracks also have problems with side slip.

And I've never had any drive line problems.

[OntarioAl]

From personal experience nothing puckers your but quicker than suddenly sliding sideways on a D8K while opening a snow covered bush road. All forward motion stops while sideways acceleration commences until in this case the motion was arrested by stumps in the cutover.
Al

[BargeMonkey]

 When I was in highschool I had a summer job running a D9G pushing off for the local stone quarry, within 20 ft of a 200ft + drop off, that hit the pucker factor for me. Have a new idler and rollers in the morning, not that bad in price but I know someday im going to have to throw down for a complete undercarriage. 

[Ken]

Ken why go thru the expense of a new undercarriage on a machine you're going to sell. You can charge more with a new U/C but wil somebody pay more. Unless you have someone buying the machine that will specifically says I will give you more money for a new U/C let her go as is.

My undercarriage is in really poor shape and will need to be done before it can work another season.   My thoughts are to have 2 prices.  One if I do the work and 1 if someone else replaces it. 

Ken, I've never had any big problems even in deep snow with my six wheeled machines. I do run tracks on the bogies and sometimes have to chain up the big tires for steering control on the forwarder when the trails get slick with hard packed snow. Most of the time, the tracks will just roll over the snow and pack it down. It's only in rare conditions that the machine starts to waddle thru crusted snow that is very deep. But I also have the wider tires, I think they are called 700's and not the narrower size.

I suspect this winter may have been a bit extraordinary in terms of snow depth and associated traction.  We did not get the warm weather that would help pack the snow which created traction issues.  Watching an 8 wheeled harvester chatter certainly scared me and helped me decide on a new tracked harvester. 

Cheers
Ken

[MUDDY]

We just threw new rails, sprockets, and some rollers on the link belt a couple weeks ago. The second side went much faster than the first.

[Brleclaire]

When I was in highschool I had a summer job running a D9G pushing off for the local stone quarry, within 20 ft of a 200ft + drop off, that hit the pucker factor for me. Have a new idler and rollers in the morning, not that bad in price but I know someday im going to have to throw down for a complete undercarriage.

when you do pull the trigger on a new undercarriage go with the cat stuff if u can. It will cost more but will last a lot longer.

[Maine logger88]

Repairs always suck but at least its not out in the woods. Looks like you have a nice service truck too that must come in handy!

[barbender]

The only snow problems I have had are when it gets warm, the snow starts to pack inside the OTT tracks. If we had a tracked harvester, all it would accomplish is maybe cutting wood up steeper slopes than a forwarder could access in snow. I haven't seen a matching tracked forwarder yet ;)

[BargeMonkey]

 14k for a new undercarriage, thats me putting it on. Got a price from dealer today when I picked the parts up.

[huskyxp]

[/quote]

I suspect this winter may have been a bit extraordinary in terms of snow depth and associated traction.  We did not get the warm weather that would help pack the snow which created traction issues.  Watching an 8 wheeled harvester chatter certainly scared me and helped me decide on a new tracked harvester. 

Cheers
Ken
[/quote] so what tracked machine are you going with ken? Landrich looks nice!

[Ken]

[
[/quote] so what tracked machine are you going with ken? Landrich looks nice!
[/quote]

The Landrich does look to be a very nice machine but also quite big and expensive.  I ordered a John Deere 703jh with a Waratah 480 head.