Show us your Arb Diggers please.

[doobin]

21 hours ago, Stephen Blair said:

What jobs will you put steels on for?.

I seem to end up doing a lot of clearance work on fairly steep hills. So ideal for that. Great for wetter jobs too. I will also be able to bolt on steel extensions I will make up to give more flotation, save getting the bog mats out. 

[Stephen Blair]

I seem to always be on a hill and sliding around especially when facing downhill digging or pulling timber in up, might get a set, it’s the thought of changing them over.  I threw my first track on the Bobcat yesterday, had it 2 years, forgot what a ball ache it can be to get back on, the grease nipple is a pita to get to being tucked into the side too, then I didn’t have any sockets, or grease gun! 😂luckily strong nephew wrestled it on.  

[doobin]

1 hour ago, Stephen Blair said:

I seem to always be on a hill and sliding around especially when facing downhill digging or pulling timber in up, might get a set, it’s the thought of changing them over.  I threw my first track on the Bobcat yesterday, had it 2 years, forgot what a ball ache it can be to get back on, the grease nipple is a pita to get to being tucked into the side too, then I didn’t have any sockets, or grease gun! 😂luckily strong nephew wrestled it on.  

On my own (on concrete) it took twenty minutes per side to swap them from rubber to steel. Battery grease gun and 90 degree impact wrench for the nut sped it up a lot I suspect. I'm expecting putting rubber back on to take a little longer. If you are on your own with a rubber track I like to jam the track motor on a little with a block of wood and then ease the track over the sprocket with a long bar.

 

I really think the time taken to swap tracks will be time well spent, plus you can block steel track jobs together on one week to save time. The difference in traction on hills is insane.

 

Call Astrak- the E27Z you have has a slightly shorter track frame, so you might even be under £800 per track. At least you know they will fit the rollers and idler now I've taken the plunge.

 

Also- steel tracks are great for tracking in stone, which I would imagine you have a lot of up in Scotland.

[Stephen Blair]

Astrak gave a good service for me before, I think I’ll give them a go.  Will they put extra stress on the motors?

[doobin]

Can’t see that they would

as it’s still just laying a track. Motors have relief valves if things get too hard, you will probably find it just relieves rather than spins the track due to the extra traction. 
 

you want to run them with a fair bit more slack than the rubbers though I’ve found. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by doobin

[Malus]

@doobin that's interesting mate. Don't see many 3 tonners on steel tracks these days. How do they compare weight wise? Still under the towing limit?

 

I spoke to Evans and Reid probably five years ago about getting steels. I think it was for a Kubota kx61-3 back then and I'm pretty sure they said I'd have to replace all of the bottom rollers as they needed to be a different profile. I think I'll look into it again.

 

I wish I had steels on for the job I've been on the last five months.. lots of really sharp rocks in the ground and when you think you've got them all covered one will stick out and put a fresh slice in the tracks. Fairly steep ground too and because I'm building mountain bike trails you can't always dog a nice level bench to sit on. 

 

Had a track snap on a bank a couple of months ago after being damaged on said rocks. No big drama but there was plenty of life left in it and it had to go when I was on a steep bit. As usual photos don't really show how steep it is. Had to roll the track a few hundred metres down the trail to the digger though. 

 

It's well worth keeping a socket set and a 1m 1t strop with the digger. If a track pops off it pretty much always comes off on the idler end first. Let the grease out, blade all the way down, use the strop to pull the track back into place. Every digger should have a grease gun in it!! 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Malus
Spelling

[doobin]

24 minutes ago, Malus said:

@doobin that's interesting mate. Don't see many 3 tonners on steel tracks these days. How do they compare weight wise? Still under the towing limit?

 

I spoke to Evans and Reid probably five years ago about getting steels. I think it was for a Kubota kx61-3 back then and I'm pretty sure they said I'd have to replace all of the bottom rollers as they needed to be a different profile. I think I'll look into it again.

 

I wish I had steels on for the job I've been on the last five months.. lots of really sharp rocks in the ground and when you think you've got them all covered one will stick out and put a fresh slice in the tracks. Fairly steep ground too and because I'm building mountain bike trails you can't always dog a nice level bench to sit on. 

 

Had a track snap on a bank a couple of months ago after being damaged on said rocks. No big drama but there was plenty of life left in it and it had to go when I was on a steep bit. As usual photos don't really show how steep it is. Had to roll the track a few hundred metres down the trail to the digger though. 

 

It's well worth keeping a socket set and a 1m 1t strop with the digger. If a track pops off it pretty much always comes off on the idler end first. Let the grease out, blade all the way down, use the strop to pull the track back into place. Every digger should have a grease gun in it!! 

Based on those pics mate, you should give Astrak a ring first thing Tuesday after the bank holiday! Unbelievable difference so far. I'm off out today to harvest some ash on a steep slope- will get some pics of the steels in action.

 

They add around 170kgs vs rubber tracks. If I wanted to be squeaky clean I'd have to take the grab and rotator off when transporting....

[dumper]

31 minutes ago, doobin said:

Based on those pics mate, you should give Astrak a ring first thing Tuesday after the bank holiday! Unbelievable difference so far. I'm off out today to harvest some ash on a steep slope- will get some pics of the steels in action.

 

They add around 170kgs vs rubber tracks. If I wanted to be squeaky clean I'd have to take the grab and rotator off when transporting....

So better stability or not?

[Stephen Blair]

Malus I was always popping tracks off my Cat and I had it down to a fine art of getting the tracks back on, I’ve owned the Bobcat for 2 years and it’s never come close to coming off so over time the sockets got used somewhere else and never returned, the hand held grease gun was launched in anger and replaced with a battery Makita that lives in the yard 😂. 
 Any more pics of your track building? 

[doobin]

16 minutes ago, dumper said:

So better stability or not?

You don't really notice the extra weight (the E27 is very 'planted' to begin with) but you don't slide around half as much.