Snow and ice

General help and support for your Lindeman through 2010 John Deere crawler
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Jim DiDomenico
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Snow and ice

Post by Jim DiDomenico » Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:30 am

Hi,
I am hoping to use my 1010 this winter to move snow around and clear areas for propane deliveries and parking at our home in Vermont. The driveway is very long and being Vermont, steep in places. I am concerned with the pads that are currently on the track being flat (noticed sliding on ledge in areas and can't imagine how much worse it would be on ice). What alternatives do I have?

I notices rounded bolts in the pads and wondered if there was something like a spike that could be used.

Or do I need to replace the pads for winter? Seems like a lot of work and would have to cut many of the bolts off.

Any advice would be welcome.

Jim
Jim

1965 1010 crawler/loader

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Lavoy
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Post by Lavoy » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:15 am

If you have flat pads, by all means NEVER get it on any sort of icy slope, even a gradual one. The only exception would be an odd desire to make the wife a rich widow.
Some of the street pads were drilled for ice picks, but the are obsolete now. One alternative is to put a 5/8" bolt with the threads facing up as a sort of homemade ice pick. Then the problem will be getting them out in the spring.
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Willyr
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Post by Willyr » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:25 am

Ever consider putting flexible heating pipe in the ground? You then could hook it up to a boiler, then after it snows you could dry out your driveway from your home.
former owner of a 1956 420c
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Gil
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Post by Gil » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:51 pm

I assume you have a loader crawler. You could buy a spare set of bulldozer style chains and pads with grousers just for the winter. It would be a whole lot easier changing complete tracks than changing individual shoes. Gil
JD440-ICD loader; JD440-IC bulldozer; JD440-ICD backhoe; JD440-I backhoe; JD440-I tractor; + five recumbent JD440-ICs

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Post by Paulywally » Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:45 pm

I'm not sure how hard a different set of pads are to find but I'd just pick up a cheap set of cutting torches at harbor freight or used local. Any bolt that doesn't come off easily first try torch it off. Doesn't seem like it would be that bad.
My 2 cents.
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Paul Buhler
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Post by Paul Buhler » Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:24 pm

What alternatives do I have?
Hi: There was some one on this board who used grade 8 bolts through the auxiliary holes in their pads successfully, which seems relatively easy and inexpensive. Leave them on all year 'round.

I have snow pads and grousers on my crawler and I've caulked them using grouser bar purchased at Mac steel in Rutland Vt. Since you have a loader, caulks will increase the torque on your undercarriage and may cause problems to your drive train, so only use the minimum size and number to "get the job done".
There are other discussions related to caulks. Search "caulks" for other thoughts. Good luck. I've take a few winter rides to appreciate your needs. Paul
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Post by Scottyb » Sat Sep 08, 2012 3:41 am

I used 5/8 hardened bolts in the pads last year. I bought the hardened ones and used two nuts on each bolt. They worked well for me , I used approx.
20 bolts per side. I will be careful this year not to have the bolts as far in as last year as the end of the bolts rubbed on the rock guards, damaging the threads and and made getting some of them out a chore. I won't use as long of a bolt either. they do not need to stick out as far as the ones in the photo, I will buy shorter ones this year. It was a rough ride on hard surfaces. I was using my crawler for skidding logs and this was a very good fix for my traction needs.
Scott

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Jim DiDomenico
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Post by Jim DiDomenico » Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:56 pm

Hi all,

I appreciate all of the advice. My 1010 has street pads but does have the auxiliary holes. I will have to cut out the old bolts in there - they are warn down and rounded. They guy I bought it from said they used to be snow spikes... I appreciate the picture - seems like it would be worth the effort and relatively easy to accomplish.

I am not sure what Paul meant by "caulked grousers". Being a woodworker and all... I'll do a search and figure it out. I'm not far from Rutland VT so I'll look into Mac Steel too. Grousers would be good for mud season too I imagine.

Thanks again.

Jim
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shinnery
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Post by shinnery » Sun Sep 09, 2012 1:06 am

A grouser is the raised area on a track pad. You can weld on any thing from a bar a couple of inches long to a bar the whole width of the pad to any of the grousers and the bar can be of any height. Just whatever you need to be able to grip the frozen ground. And you can do this in a scattered pattern. Just remember the Loader will be harder to turn with these bars in the ground specially with a load in the bucket.
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Post by jtrichard » Sun Sep 09, 2012 1:21 am

JIM is your 1010 a dozer or a loader if its a dozer get grouser bar stock and weld one on each pad i did that on my 2010 years ago it works great the previous owner had bolted inch and a half angle iron on each pad that worked well till we wore them down to almost flat stock at which time they started to get lose and it sounded like a xylophone......... if its a loader you should not have grousers
2010 with 622 dozer with mod. 35 ripper and a 2010 with 622 dozer bought in 1969 and a 2010 loader with drott and mod. 36 ripper

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Jim DiDomenico
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Post by Jim DiDomenico » Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:01 am

Hi, my 1010 has a loader. I think it is best to use the hardened bolts as this was the original design for the machine. Thanks for helping me with this.
Jim

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Post by Tessiers Farm » Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:16 am

Also remember if you have straight grousers and get sideways on the slope you are now on 30 ice skates, there is only 1 way to learn this. I think the bolt method is quick, easy and relatively cheap, in my experience the bolts will succumb to a smoke wrench eventually anyways.

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Paul Buhler
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Post by Paul Buhler » Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:37 am

Here's a picture of some of my pads from when I had the tracks re pinned and bushed.

The grouser part is the vertical part of the pad and the caulks (corks) are about 2" long. The previous owner used a staggered 2-1-2-1 matching the original snow pad configuration. He used the smallest caulking stock available and they stood proud by about 1" initially; they have since worn down somewhat.
When I re-caulked a 450c, I raised the machine off the ground so the tracks would spin freely. I used 3" caulks cut to length by a local spring shop using a shear - he's no longer in business, but a torch can be used as well. I tacked all the caulks in place using 7018 rod, doing 2 pads at a time working all four corners then spinning the tracks. After all are tacked securely, I laid in a bead full length. When the pad gets to the opposite end, the other side is exposed and the second bead is put on. Go slow and work to get good penetration in the caulk and the grouser so that the caulks will not break off.

Others may do the tacking job differently, but this was the way I was taught, and it took me about a day start to finish to do the 450.

I wouldn't recommend these kinds of caulks be used on a loader as others have already mentioned.

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Last edited by Paul Buhler on Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Paul Buhler
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Gil
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Post by Gil » Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:33 am

You might be able to achieve the same result that Paul explained if you bought a spare set of bulldozer tracks and used a torch to cut out the parts of the grousers in the same pattern as the caulk design. This might be a lot less effort.

It would have the advantage of giving you one set of tracks you could use on your loader in the winter snow and one set for normal ground operation the rest of the year. Changing tracks really takes little effort once you develop a methodology for doing it. Gil
JD440-ICD loader; JD440-IC bulldozer; JD440-ICD backhoe; JD440-I backhoe; JD440-I tractor; + five recumbent JD440-ICs

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Post by Willyr » Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:52 am

Just remember: Putting on the extra height to your grouser tips will lead to premature chain life when used in the rest of the year.

Also using the added teeth will give the tractor a very rough ride!
former owner of a 1956 420c
All help is greatly appreciated.

Proud owner of a project 1952 JD 60

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFehqXVd9z4

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