[Stonehenge]

I came across these last week - anyone care to guess what they are?

Once I get a correct guess, I'll tell the tale of how I came across them, and an important lesson for everyone.

[Pelican]

I know what they are, this should be an interesting story. From the color I'd guess they're from your skid steer, the number of them you have is not good! An occasional wrenching helps to prevent them!

[PSUscaper]

I know too.........but can't say I've seen that many at once. And if I did..................somebody/some people may be getting a 'nice' little lecture.

[Bamboo]

Ill take a shot,? They look like little protective covers for zerks mabye??????

[dan deutekom]

I hope that they didn't all do that at once and only on one doughnut. That would really would ruin your day. Somebody wasn't checking tightness on a regular basis. That certainly looks like Gehl yellow .

[Bill Schwab]

Jeff:

Ours had a habbit of doing that for some reason. So, in regular PM, I would just retorque them. The good news is they are not hard to replace.

[Stonehenge]

Lol, Dan, you're on the money - the paint is Gehl yellow.

And Pelican, the number you see there is bad (it's also short by a few - I think I sent some into outer space in frustration).

A few weeks ago I bought tracks for our Gehl 6635 to give us the ability to run down into and out of a large pond we were building. Without the tracks we routinely got stuck in the mud at the bottom of this hole.

To allow the tracks to turn freely we had to put spacers on to take the wheels 2" further from the body. This is where the problems began.

I think the first mistake may have been not being present to supervise the removal of each wheel and the mounting of each spacer. For those without aftermarket tracks on their skidders, the spacer is essentially a big thick ring of iron with holes in it and wheel studs (aka lug bolts) to mount a wheel. You remove the existing wheel, put on the spacer, and tighten down all the lugnuts onto the spacer, then mount the tire on the new wheel studs that are on the spacer. Then you can install the tracks on the machine.

I was a little nervous after using the machine with tracks installed when I noticed a few lug nuts were loose - all of the lug nuts holding the spacer on were now completely covered by the wheel. We tightened those few down we could see, thinking we'd be done with the tracks in a week or two and would remove all the extra hardware and not suffer any consequences.

Last week I was doing some grading for a seeding project when I heard a boom and the right back corner of the machine sat down - sure enough, all 8 wheel studs had snapped clean off. What happened was (for those who don't already know - I didn't at the time) the lug nuts inside the spacers had gotten loose and the spacer had started to separate from the wheel, putting a huge amount of stress on those eight bolts. One by one they snapped until the whole thing just gave way.

Problem was, I'd never replaced them before, so it took quite a few tries, and trips to the shop for different tools before I discovered (and here's one of the lessons to take away from this) that a very short piece of 1/2" rebar, held over the snapped stud with a vice grips (not your hand), and slowly beat on with a 2# hammer or 8-10# sledge will get them out better than a hammer drill or anything else you might have nearby. Took me 3 hours to figure that out.

Getting the new studs in place was also no picnic - is there a way to do that other than to tighten a nut on it to pull the bolt through?

Once the tire was back on I decided to remove the tracks and spacers on the other wheels to address any other mines waiting to explode. One wheel had 5 snapped studs/bolts, another had 2. Thankfully one was completely intact. But there were quite a few nuts that were loose.

All told this seeding, which should have been completed by 1pm was barely done by 5pm.

So when we put these tracks on the next time, there are a few things we're going to do differently:

1) I'm going to be there to supervise installation of the spacers and wheels.

2) We're going to use loctite on the lugnuts hidden in the spacers to help prevent this.

3) We might even get an air ratchet to help us get the hardware on nice and tight.

4) We'll re-tighten the outer lugnuts after a few hours of use with the tracks, just for an added measure of safety.

I think if we follow those simple steps, we'll avoid this 4-5 hours of crew downtime we had. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake here.

[Stonehenge]

Here's a shot of both ends of one of the bolts/studs:

[nebbe]

Jeff,
I have the same problem when I put tracks on my 4625. Snap the bolts right in half like yours. We know just check that the lugs are tight everyday that the tracks are on the skid steer.

[jwholden]

Those type of days drive me nuts!

Congrats on putting together a solution, I'm sure you won't let the situation get that bad again.

[Bill Schwab]

Ask whoever you bought the tracks from the proper torque specs for your lugs. Torque them, and check them at days end. I'm betting near 90 ft lbs is the correct amount, but check that.

[Stonehenge]

The hard part is checking the nuts that hold the spacer on - I can't check those without first removing the tracks then the wheels - each wheel completely covers and hides that first set of lugs.

I think one solution to this is to only run the tracks during the wet seasons, and to add a surcharge for projects that require track usage. Hopefully this will pay for mounting and dismounting time, not to mention the price of a few bolts....

[Bill Schwab]

and to add a surcharge for projects that require track usage. Hopefully this will pay for mounting and dismounting time, not to mention the price of a few bolts....

You nailed it. Tracks cost more than rubber wheeled loaders and by all rights you should charge more for them.

[Stonehenge]

Chatted with a local competitor the other day who'd read this thread (which BTW was kind of cool ), and he mentioned something I hadn't thought of.

How many of you just remove your wheels and put them on "inside-out", giving you that same added room that a spacer gives? I'm wondering if it's made anything better or worse than using the spacers.

[Bill Schwab]

Are the inside of the wheels tapered to fit the lug nut? If not, I don't see that working. I think the ultimate thing to do would be to have some wheels made with the center offset at the spot you need to accomodate the tracks. Wheels are cheap, under $60.00 a piece and the machine would be more stable when you needed it.