Damn track always comes off at the wrong time !

[Muz]

Done a few in my time but not as heavy as this lot

[AndrewMawson]

And I thought that changing the tracks on my JCB 803 was a pain on a nice solid clean concrete surface ! Mind I did the drive sprockets and idlers at the same time :)

[245dlc]

That's an armoured recovery vehicle basically an armoured tow truck for Main battle tanks in that case it's built for the M1A1 Abrams tank used by the American Army and Marine Corps. They weigh something like 70tons combat loaded, so you know if they throw a track it's going to be a rough day. lol Pretty neat the system they had set up to get it back in action. I threw a track on an aging Cat 245 when I had just finished for the day and had to walk it up a slope in a gravel pit to park it. Damn tension thing broke and puked out all the grease in the cylinder and it walked right off I thought it was just a rock that broke between the rollers because I heard a big 'bang' but it was much worse. I wasn't there the following day to fix it but the superintendent that I worked for said it was hell to get it back on.

[Muz]

well .. anything above a 2 tonner .. and i'll only go to site equipped with another digger to help put it back on. even if its just a micro .. 3/4 tonner .. its enough for anything up to 8 tonne

If you watch the vid .. you'll see a stage as they are just levering the track back on the sprocket, where a squaddie is working with a pinch bar as someone rotates the drive sprocket ... that bit of footage gives me the creeps because its only a baw hair away from breaking an arm or wrist .. dont ask me how I know

[AndrewMawson]

well .. anything above a 2 tonner .. and i'll only go to site equipped with another digger to help put it back on. even if its just a micro .. 3/4 tonner .. its enough for anything up to 8 tonne

If you watch the vid .. you'll see a stage as they are just levering the track back on the sprocket, where a squaddie is working with a pinch bar as someone rotates the drive sprocket ... that bit of footage gives me the creeps because its only a baw hair away from breaking an arm or wrist .. dont ask me how I know

When I did my tracks earlier in the week I put the machine where I could get at the tracks with my Forklift - amazingly heavy things, rubber tracks !

[245dlc]

well .. anything above a 2 tonner .. and i'll only go to site equipped with another digger to help put it back on. even if its just a micro .. 3/4 tonner .. its enough for anything up to 8 tonne

If you watch the vid .. you'll see a stage as they are just levering the track back on the sprocket, where a squaddie is working with a pinch bar as someone rotates the drive sprocket ... that bit of footage gives me the creeps because its only a baw hair away from breaking an arm or wrist .. dont ask me how I know

Yeah I was thinking the same thing Muz, I wonder if they could of just put a chain or cable to that end of the track and use another vehicle or a winch to pull it on.....perhaps I have to watch the video again but there must be a safer way.

[Wee Jim]

Christ the amount of times I have put the tracks back on 5 tonners myself whilst on a steep hillside I couldn't tell you but it's heaps! And I am only a little lad! At one point I lost both tracks on a 5 tonners because of where I was ( that one cast the tracks 4/5 times one day so it got sent back to Hewden) I always seem to manage somehow!

[Mick-the-fitter]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing Muz, I wonder if they could of just put a chain or cable to that end of the track and use another vehicle or a winch to pull it on.....perhaps I have to watch the video again but there must be a safer way.

Hi chaps,

if your dab hand with the off set, track lever, blade and a ditching bucket you can use the machine in most cases to get the track on or off, nearly every machine upto and including 8 ton, for some reason the 308E CAT won't touch its idler or tracks by design. I have had no problems with any others that I've fitted tracks to.

One of my least favourites would be tracked dumpers!

Mick

[Muz]

Hi chaps,

if your dab hand with the off set, track lever, blade and a ditching bucket you can use the machine in most cases to get the track on or off, nearly every machine upto and including 8 ton, for some reason the 308E CAT won't touch its idler or tracks by design. I have had no problems with any others that I've fitted tracks to.

One of my least favourites would be tracked dumpers!

Mick

Offset is fine if its just popped off the front idler,.. but mostly I get to a site and the punter has managed to completely shed the damn thing ... and tracked dumpers ? dont get me started ...they only ever throw a track off,... in the deepest muddiest shit hole on the site

[245dlc]

Offset is fine if its just popped off the front idler,.. but mostly I get to a site and the punter has managed to completely shed the damn thing ... and tracked dumpers ? dont get me started ...they only ever throw a track off,... in the deepest muddiest shit hole on the site

Too many muppets operating them Muz?

[Mick-the-fitter]

Offset is fine if its just popped off the front idler,.. but mostly I get to a site and the punter has managed to completely shed the damn thing ... and tracked dumpers ? dont get me started ...they only ever throw a track off,... in the deepest muddiest shit hole on the site

With the use of a ditch bucket, and offset its normally straight forward to get a track back on, weather right off or half off, but no matter how many ratchet straps, chain winches, blocks of wood pry bars, sheets of ply you have, it is an unforgiving task getting a track back on a tracked dumper!

Mick