Tontosgold

Yes I guess it will be trial and error to determine the orifice size. Also my backhoe hydraulics are plumbed to the main pump on the dozer so it’s performance will be different to the standard PTO pump that most people are using. My intentions are to insert a thin steel washer into the conection between hose and cylinder to slow the flow. If it leaks I will have to fit a teflon washer between the flat face and steel washer. How did you do yours?

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.

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.

Thanks Bob, David. Yes it doesn’t look so shiny now, the paint is actually excavator enamel and it’s pretty tough. The sun came out this afternoon so I went and broke another tyne. Anyway, the paddock is cleaning up nicely. There’s about 10 acres to clear and part of that is some steep hillside so it’s going to take a while, just doing what I can a bit at a time.

I guess you heard  we recently had big bushfires in the south and west? One wiped out a whole town. Meanwhile central Queensland was getting flooded out. I’m lucky to live in the tropical north where it rains for nine months of the year and then the wet season sets in for three. About every five years a cyclone blows through which gives me an excuse to pull some more logs out of the jungle and life is good!