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| We've pulled a 13 yard Torque scraper for several years now. We've had it on a CIH9230 4 wheel drive, a 8300 mfd on 18.4 duals in the rear, a Challenger 55 and now it's on an 8430 mfd with ILS and duals front and rear.
The 9230 was more than enough to handle it, but was clumsy in tight situations. Also kind of tall on steep banks, articulated steering could get you into trouble when it wanted to slide down the hill.
The 8300 was just not enough tractor to fill it, didn't do too bad, but couldn't top it off.
The 55 was ok, worked really well at times, was great in close quarters because of the steering, really was nice backing it into corners when needed. Like any tracked machine it was not the most friendly when going over the edge and down into a pond a lot, even if you try to go at an angle on some steep corners it was tough and there were times when you had no choice but to go over an edge straight. I'm glad the steering wheel had a break away if you pushed it forward, but a bigger oh sh** bar would have been very welcome at times.
We never had a problem with the tracks slipping when they got wet, running through water though is not where the Cat should be, it's best when it can float on top. If it's wet and one or both of the tracks starts to spin they will go down in a hurry. If you are in a situation with a scraper where you HAVE to play around water holes a Cat probably isn't for you because if the close track starts to spin it will turn you right into it. If you have the use and can put enough time on it a CIH Quad would be better if you wanted to go to a tracked machine. I never ran one, but I've heard the Cats with the small rear drive wheel could sometimes spin out, the newer ones with the tall rear drive don't seem to have a problem if they get mud or water between the tracks and the drive wheel.
We've got the 8430 mfd on the scraper right now. I've not been on it much in front of the scraper, only when no one else wants to run, most of the time I've been in a truck this spring. Everyone who runs it any length of time says they like it better than anything else we've had on the scraper. It's been on a scraper probably 75% of the time since it was new in March. We have a very sensible retired TWA pilot who runs our combine and anything else when we need him, he's spent a good deal of time on it pulling the scraper this spring and after a couple days his comment was he hopes we never go back to tracks.
I think the reason everyone likes the 8430 so well on the scraper is part ride and part controls. With the ILS it rides really smooth, down over banks into ponds etc is no problem. The controls are nicer on the 8430 than the 55, and yes we're not comparing it to a MT because I've not had that chance, but the short throw shift and smooth control of the Deere along with the short throw and easy setting detent on the Deere hydraulics make it a dream to set up for the scraper. You can change the flow rate on the gate on the go if you need to so you can match what ever speed you are unloading at.
Don't worry about berming on the ends when you are working ground. There seems to be a group of people who hate tracks and use that to justify why you shouldn't have them. The narrow guage machines would do that if you tried to turn too short. The wide guage don't have much of a problem, 18" tracks will be the worst, the wider you go the less you will see any track at all on the ends. The wider the track the more the edge of it will curl up just enough to make it slide over things instead of pushing up a ridge.
I'm sure the newer MT's will be better than our 55, but for us it made more sense to go with a wheeled tractor for what we do. I'm told the MT's have improved their tightner so the belts won't come off, but we lost a belt at least a couple times a year, sometimes more. Never at a time or place where it was easy to work on because you were always on a bank in close quarters where you were moving forward or backward when it would slack up and slip off. Even had to take the track hoe and "build" a flat spot on the side of a dirt pile to have room to get one back on. After putting up with that every year coupled with the other problems our Cats were having we decided enough is enough.
Hope this helps.
Ray | |
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So much good talk about tracks what is the bad.
