Most suitable farm digger

Might be worth keeping a wee eye on this Cat click
As already said, zero swing are extremely hard to work on, if you intend to do the maintenance yourself.

Some nice machines at Leeds this month.

marcusthehat said:

I understand how the track motor/sprocket at the front, pushing a slack track back underneath, would make it more likely for the digger to "throw" a track.
but how does it cause premature track wear?
Surely keeping the non ground engaged top of the track taut can be no different, wear wise, than keeping the bottom taut, or does it cause undue wear due to being under tension at the return roller?
Or wot!
I always like to know "why"

mth

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IME, ive never thrown, or seen a track thrown, going in reverse, it’s always going forward. If you get the chain hooked half off the bottom rollers, and then your unlucky enough to get a sprocket tooth ontop of the chain....then it’s just going to walk itself off if you continue. If that makes sense. If going in reverse, that can’t happen at the top of the chain, as there is nothing forcing it on to the sprocket at an angle, so it can’t get ontop of a tooth. The chain can obviously present itself the the idler at an angle, at the bottom, going in reverse, but as the idler is smooth, it is more difficult for the chain to get over the idler, there’s no tooth to get hooked on an driven round. Obviously if the chain is very very worn and very very slack, then it will come off either end if given enough opportunity. But generally, with decent tracks, tensioned correctly, they will come off on the sprocket end, going forwards .
Smaller machines often have a toothed idler, so it throws this theory a bit, but anything over 8 tonne, usually has a smooth idler.

The extra track wear has nothing to do with tension on the top or bottom, again, I shall try and explain this as best I can.
The chain essentially consists of four parts to each link, the links, a bush and a pin. The bush and pin are fixed, only by friction, into each link, so when joined the pin turns inside the next adjoining bush, and so on and so on.....
So there will be wear, unavoidably, in the pin and bush.
The other wear is on the outside of the bush, created by contact with the sprocket. Going forwards the chain/bush engages the sprocket and is taken round the sprocket, the next link pivots on its pin and engages with the procket. Going backwards it’s the same, but there is a larger degree of contact on the sprocket tooth, as the link pivots on the sprocket tooth, creating a turning moment as it contacts the tooth. It’s this turning on the tooth that creates accelerated wear on the outside of the bush, as rather than just pivoting on the adjoining pin, it is pivoting on the sprocket tooth. It’s minimal, but over time is significant, and every little helps.

Hope that makes sense.

So just to keep it simple and ensure I have understood this properly - to hopefully avoid a track coming off I am better tracking with the sprocket at the back and the idler at the front of the machine ?

Yes and avoid screwing
Lift her up and slew plus track one side to turn.

Grouse said:

So just to keep it simple and ensure I have understood this properly - to hopefully avoid a track coming off I am better tracking with the sprocket at the back and the idler at the front of the machine ?

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Always the best way, always worth the effort to turn around and make sure your tracking forwards for long distances.

But as I said, it’s more likely that the track will walk off going forwards, rather than going backwards.

You can put track chain guides on by bottom rollers to help keep chains inline.

When you do your digger training NPORS or citb they teach you that which i am sure you all have your tickets for....................

Derky said:

When you do your digger training NPORS or citb they teach you that which i am sure you all have your tickets for....................

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Depends on the price, but sounds good ...........

What dash is it?
EX100-2 (dash two) for example, give the lads an idea of age ...........

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I looked at an EX80 in 2008. It was a very nice machine in every respect. Except it had no blade, so I didn't buy it.
SS

It's a dash 1 Marcus at that age. If it's reasonable money get it bought. Dad has one with about 13k hours on it and it's a delight to drive.
Done a lot on the bog with that size of machine and they're bang on for what you want to do.

Ste