Track work

[DukeofDeere]

Are there places around that do the track pins and bushings??


Duke

[JimAnderson]

Around where?JimAnderson

[DukeofDeere]

I'm in Michigan.
Wondering if there is demand for this type of service for these smaller crawlers.

[Lavoy]

I do them.
Lavoy

[DukeofDeere]

Just wondering if there is a demand for this service.
Found a track press and was thinking if it could help the hobby I'd set it up.
Put it to work and hope to make something in the process.

Duke

[jtrichard]

I personally have had 2 sets of tracks done for 2010s i own... In calif.there are quite a lot of track shops that turn pins and as parts get more scarce for the older machines more people will only have 2 choices turn the pins and bushings or run them to death.. You will get much more life out of the chains and sprockets if you turn them before they eat the sprockets to much

[DukeofDeere]

I will know tons more here in the next several days on parts.
Hope to be able to make the pins and bushings much more affordable than Deere.
Just wish I knew what the demand is for these.
Was thinking to make this a portable operation and cover a few states....
Just dreaming.

Duke

[JimAnderson]

I bought a Owatonna track press from a closed JD dealer in Binghamton
NY a few years ago.It has the tooling for 40 through 350 track sets.The
last sets of 420 P&Bs I got were from Korea and I've had issues with the
bushing diameters.I would like a source for P&Bs other than Deere,as
Berco sets are no longer available to me.I'm thinking that eventually
useable rails will be the issue.Luck,JimAnderson

[DukeofDeere]

I will post what my findings are.
Found a press with several sets of tooling.
Any idea what it is worth?
Works but has some leaks.

Duke

[JimAnderson]

What a press is worth is like what a used crawler is worth.It depends on
condition,what it needs in repair parts to do what you need and lastly
how bad you want it.I never really wanted the track press that much
but i have several machines of my own that needed track work.At the time my local Deere dealer could get Berco pins and bushings at a
reasonable price but had discarded the tooling for the smaller crawlers.
If you restore crawlers for customers who will pay you a fair price for
the track work you might make enough to offset the cost of the press.
Horsing these heavy dirty things around and having the customers
bitch about the price might give you pause.P&B sets are not cheap
and can be a nightmare to get.Like a lot of folks I toyed with the
idea of having someone make up PB sets but for small batches that I
would need even Deere would be cheaper.Luck,JimAnderson

[DukeofDeere]

I hope to be able to make sets of p&b.
May be just what this hobby needs.

Duke

[RacinJason]

Lavoy has some good insight on this subject, and has the experience and equipment. Unfortunately he is quite a ways from my area (MA). I have found someone in Maine who does P&B's on early Deeres, especially MC's and 40C's. The previous post says it all, if you are intending to do it as a business.

[Tigerhaze]

We had a discussion about making P&Bs before- I think the issue that really increases the costs was P&B hardening:

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... kwell+pins

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... s&start=15

[DukeofDeere]

Thanks for the response.
Will know more soon.

Duke