Steel track issues

Actually I noticed this since new so it isn't wear related, besides my 16 ton digger tracks are nearly due for replacement and no problems with them at all despite it being regularly sideways on hill slopes. I've lost tracks off the dozer even on flat ground and all I could find as a cause was a tree root I had driven over.

What drew my attention to it was the noise coming out of the tracks. They were banging a lot on the sprockets. Adjustment was according to the manual. You could watch the links slipping on the spockets as they tried to seat alternating from slack to tight all the time. I was hoping they might wear in but 380 hours later there is certainly no improvement. Maybe the designer thought they would get more life out of the sprockets by riding them high.

Looking at existing wear on the links I think I will be lucky to get another 300 hours out of them. Very curious about your rubber tracks Bob. I thought they might suit my terrain better because my steels are always losing grip on rocks and tree roots however a dealer in Australia told me they are terrible and fall off all the time. How are yours lasting for wear and have you fitted track guards? 

Yes probably wrong gauge. Could be the tracks and sprockets are made by different factories or just something silly going on in China. Wonder if anyone else has the same issue?

Can't access your link Bob, even asked my wife to try cause she is on facebook all the time, no luck. Can you check it out?  Cheers.

Nope, whatever search I try for yuchaidozer or yuchai guilin comes up “No results found” …..strange.

Dunno. Tried everything, even assigned my wife to the problem. When I click the link just takes me to the facebook login page. I will have to go and seek help from a six year old kid. Feeling very left out and disapointed now! lol.

North eastern Australia. Yes lots more wear than should be for 380 hrs. I will try to get another pic posted tomorrow that better shows the wear pattern.

You would think that someone else with a steel track dozer might have chipped in their two cents worth by now. Really wanted a comparison to find out whether or not my track links and sprockets are standard. Since most of us dozer owners are little more than hobby farmers perhaps a certain “eye for detail” is missing here?

Well I have a theory. Perhaps the Guilin model and Yuchai dozers have different undercarriage components I might have Yuchai track links and Guilin sprockets or vise versa. Counted the teeth; 15 on the drive sprocket and 14 on the idler. Anyone got different?

Thanks for that address Phil. Mine also has the HX embossed on both sprocket and idler so at least those appear to be the right ones.

A few of my customers have been recently experiencing a problem where the link they had on their blog to their Facebook page, no longer shows their page, but the main Facebook Login screen.

So what happened?

I asked this question on one of the clubs I'm a member of and got a great answer!

Check your “permissions” as you have set restrictions on your page.

• Login and click Home.
• On the left, click on your business page.
• Click Edit Page.
• Click Manage Permissions.

• Remove the Country restriction and modify the Age restriction and see if that solves the problem! 😀

That fixed it. Now I can view your FB page from the link. Very interesting to see all the things you are doing with the dozer. Like the root rake and the various mods. Will have to share some pics of mine sometime.

I can see from the close-up of your rubber tracks that the pin spacing matches the sprocket well, nothing like my steel links. Looks good, might have to go that way. From your experience would you kindly provide comment on traction in various situations (crossing tree roots, slopes, concrete, rocky rubble mud, clay, etc).

Good on ya Bob for taking the time to make a video for us all. Seems to me the only negative about switching to rubber would be the weight loss and yes you are right, the poor little dozer needs every little bit she can get. I need to work out something to stop losing tracks on hillsides. It's getting kinda ordinary to say the least.

Yes it took a couple days to complete as I had to push uphill to the top of the ridge then turn around and work down to cut in the road. Kinda hard to appreciate the grade in that photo but if you have to walk up you'll know all about it! Some nice big sticks came down that little track, videos somewhere if I can find them…

Here's another snig track starting on the other side of the hill. Life got easier when I made the tree-spear.

Here's an update on the track/sprocket mismatch issues on my dozer. Browsing the parts website on Circle G this morning I noticed they stock two kinds of steel track links and two kinds of pins. The serial number is the same for both, they just have added ” Style 1″ and “Style 2”. Have sent them an email asking if there is a difference in length between pin centres. If there is I expect it will resolve the issue, however I'm not looking forward to forking out for a new set of tracks….

Ok there is a size difference. According to Circle G, Style 2 is a larger track about 5″ from center to center on the pin holes. Style 1 is about 4 1/4″ and takes a 20mm diameter link pin. Style 2 uses 22mm pins.

Phill, how many teeth on your sprockets front and back? No I haven't emailed Yuchai on this yet. I want to split the track and check some measurements first, make sure I have my facts straight. Going to be another month before I have a chance to look at the dozer anyway.

Does anyone know if the same sprockets are used for steel and rubber tracks? Parts manual indicates they are different.

Until now I have only heard of dozers running 15 and 14 tooth sprockets and we know there are two types of track link. Check out the photo I just found on Gumtree and count the sprocket teeth…. Twelve on the drive and eleven on the idler!!!! Are we all really confused now?

It is reasonable to assume that if you are manufacturing different styles of running gear for a dozer you would mould in a distinguishing feature or at least use separate part numbers to help out the guys on the assembly line and ultimately the parts dealer….

Good news is I have finally got to the bottom of my track and sprocket mismatch. There is  a new brochure that you can find online advertising the Fuda dozer from Midway Sales (Yuchai 30hp rebadged and painted red).

http://www.midwaysales.com.au/fuda-blade-dozer.html#brochure

Glancing through the specs I found;

Number of shoes – 43 (109mm pitch)

My machine has 40 shoes and each is about 15mm longer than the sprocket pitch which measures 109mm from one gullet centre to the other.  So I am confident my track issue will be resolved by changing the tracks to 109mm pitch. Now it’s just a matter of deciding when I will be able to justify the expense.  Great example of the kind of mistakes that can happen in the factory assembly process.

Unusual circumstances Bob. My machine came from a tractor dealer in another state who had brought in a couple dozers to see how they would go. Unfortunately his business was located in a cropping district where farmers had access to bigger better equipment so he couldn’t sell them.  A neighbour and I decided to go halves in one and after some weeks we negotiated the purchase price of AUD $15,000 – sold “as is, where is” as the dealer was wiping his hands of them and didn’t want us chasing him up for parts or warranty which was fair enough.

In those days the Chinese would load 4 dozers sideways into a 20′ shipping container with the blade underneath and the A-frame on top and my enquiries with the factory returned a quoted FOB price of just under $10,000 each (can’t remember if that was AUD or US) so the dealer sold it to us at cost more or less.

There was a guy in a nearby town who had just started a business importing Jinma tractors and Yuchai dozers so we figured parts wouldn’t be a problem although things didn’t turn out well for him and he went bust not long after so now Midway Sales are the only Yuchai dozer people in Australia as far as I know.

The neighbour and I shared the dozer for a few years and then he decided to buy a mini-excavator and offered to sell me his share in the dozer plus a new LW-6 backhoe for total of $5000 which was an extremely generous deal.  Now I own a dozer and backhoe that only cost me $12,500 so even if I have to fork out a bit more for a new set of tracks I still wouldn’t dare to complain.