JOHN DEERE TRAINING CENTER

03CR06 8000 JERSEY RIDGE ROAD

Page 1 DAVENPORT, IOWA 52807-3299 U.S.A.
23 May 03
PRODUCT AND TRAINING
INFORMATION BULLETIN
CRAWLER DOZERS
ALL MODELS

BULLETIN NO: 03CR06

23 May 2003

r
ATTN: SALES MANAGERS

a c k
v a l T
e r e O
De t a g e s
d v a n
A

Caterpillar continues to try to convince the world high drive is the answer for
undercarriage design. The conventional or oval track design is still the design of
choice for all other crawler manufacturers.
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23 May 03

Oval Track vs.

High Drive Story

Deere Cletrac F (1922)

Caterpillar

Caterpillar uses a high drive undercarriage system. Does anyone else in the market
use this system? NO. All other current crawler manufacturers use the oval track
design. This high track design was taken from a Cletrac High Track design from the
1920’s. There is no existing patent on the high drive. Anyone in the world that
wants to build one can. So why aren’t any other manufacturers using this design?
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23 May 03

Undercarriage
! What’s the low-down
on the high drive?
Created because of
final drive failures

Caterpillar Oval Design

High Drive Cat Design Deere Oval Design

Caterpillar did not always use the high drive. Earlier models used a standard oval undercarriage.
They went to the high drive system because their earlier trackframe mounting design sent the
push beam shocks from the blade directly into a shaft through the final drive.
Their early oval track design had the push beams attached to the track frame. The load from the
blade would travel directly through the track frame into a shaft in the final drive, resulting in
premature final drive failures. By going to the high drive system, the final drive was moved up
above the track frame. And the track frames were mounted to pivot shafts attached to the
mainframe. This isolated the final drives from impact of the push beams.
Deere’s design of the conventional oval type undercarriage never had this problem. The push
beams attach to the track frames that are mounted to pivot shafts attached to the mainframe
ahead of the final drives. So the final drives are isolated. Therefore, blade loads are transferred
to and dissipated throughout the tractor mainframe instead of going into the final drive.
The second reason Caterpillar went to the high drive design was to improve service access to the
transmission. On their oval track design, the engine, torque converter and operator’s station
needed to be removed to gain access to the transmission for repairs. The high drive allowed
them to remove the transmission and steering clutches out the rear without disrupting other
components. Deere has provided easy access to drive train components without sacrifice in all of
its hydrostatic drive dozers since the original 750 in 1976. The conventional oval track
undercarriage has some distinct advantages over the high drive design.
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23 May 03

Undercarriage Wear
Factors
1. Contact
2. Load
3. Motion

Undercarriage wear occurs when three things happen to the chain. These wear
factors are contact, load, and motion. Contact occurs when components touch each
other. This includes pin-to-bushing contact and bushing-to-sprocket contact and
more.

Load is the power transferred from the final drive and sprocket through the track
chain, roller and idlers to the ground. The chain is forced to work under this load to
propel the machine.

Motion occurs between parts and components. Wear occurs anytime these three
factors occur at the same time. In other words, any time the machine is moving.
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23 May 03

Bearing Pressure &

Rotation
180°

Deere

Caterpillar

The track wraps 180° around the sprocket on an oval undercarriage. The load of
driving the machine is distributed over the first three teeth on the sprocket. And the
chain is wrapped around half of the sprocket teeth. The 180° of chain wrapping
means less bending (motion) of the chain joints. This distributes the load better to
reduce bushing-to-sprocket wear.

The chain on the high drive system only wraps around approximately one quarter of
the sprocket. So the tight wrap increases motion - which means increased wear.
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23 May 03

Track Tension

Deere

Caterpillar

The high drive system also causes more of the track chain to be under tension than
on the conventional system. More tension means more load. During forward
motion, the elevated final drive causes the track to be pulled tightly around the rear
idler. This places the track under tension for a much longer distance -
approximately 60% more distance than the track of the oval undercarriage system.
This increased distance under tension also results in increased wear of the high
drive system.
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23 May 03

More Flex Points Mean

More Wear
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Deere Caterpillar

The number of flex points under load contributes to the amount of wear. In forward
motion, the conventional undercarriage system only has one pin-to-bushing flex
point compared to three flex points on the high drive system.

During reverse motion both the high drive and conventional system have three flex
points.
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23 May 03

Pin Loads + Pin

Motion = Wear

1x

27.5°

Deere Caterpillar

The lower number of flex points in the system, the less amount of pin motion that
will occur. A conventional track has a single flex point where pin rotation occurs.
Here, the pin rotates approximately 27.5° relative to the bushing. The high drive
has three flex points and a small diameter rear idler. This causes the pin to rotate a
total of 92.5° relative to the bushing. Greater motion results in increased wear in
the system.
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23 May 03

Track Whip

Deere

Caterpillar

Another disadvantage the high drive system has compared to the conventional
system is more track whip. Track whip results in noise, wear, throwing dirt into the
operators station and hammering on the final drives. Few early Caterpillar dozers
had carrier rollers.

But today, they all do because customers complained about the dirt and final drive
problems. The track still whips more than an oval track and the upward slope still
feeds material into the operator’s station. This is especially a problem on landfill
tractors. Conventional oval track systems do not have this problem.
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23 May 03

Where’s the Carrier Roller?

! Option – about $3200 list
! “FOR USE WITH:
Suspended
undercarriage
! One per side.
! Provides proper track
adjustment with less
recoil adjustment
required.
! Reduces track slap
during directional shifting.
! Helps dislodge material
being carried by the rail.”

To combat the problem Caterpillar offers a carrier roller as an option.

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23 May 03

Direction Changing…
Does the Chain Bunch?

Deere Caterpillar

The high drive system causes track bunching during directional changes from
forward to reverse. When changing direction, the tracks bunch up between between
the sprocket and rear idler. When the operator returns to forward, there will be a
load snap when the track suddenly pulls tight. This load snap also impacts the final
drive.
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23 May 03

Idler Diameter…
Which one is bigger?

Deere Diameter Caterpillar Diameter

The Caterpillar high drive undercarriage has small diameter front and rear idlers.
Caterpillar’s smaller high drive idlers contribute to increased scalloping of the track
rails. Larger idlers, used on all Deere dozers, result in easier rolling and reduce
track link scalloping wear.
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23 May 03

Scalloping Rails

Scalloped Rails

Scalloping is uneven wear along the track rails resulting in indentations worn in the
track rail. Note the rail edge is wavy rather than a straight line.
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23 May 03

You See We Have Less Wear. Does This

Mean Deere Tracks Lasts Longer?

! Remember, we can do more work than the

Caterpillar:
Full power turns,
More power to the tracks:
! 750C: 140 hp x .85 = 119 effective hp
! D6N: 145 hp x .85 x .85 = 105 effective hp
! But, customers can’t usually visualize the work
done

Deere delivers more power to the tracks. This means more productivity and less
fuel consumption, too. Unfortunately, most customers are not monitoring
productivity. But they always know how many hours they get from a set of tracks.
Be sure that you talk about Deere’s productivity advantages. One customer that
builds residential building pads can easily check productivity. He noticed that the
Deere 850C II could do 40% more pads each day compared to the D6R high drive
machine. Now this productivity means that undercarriage will be consumed
accordingly.
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23 May 03

How Does Speed Affect

UC Wear?
! A Caterpillar D6N is limited to 4.0 mph in second gear, the
favored gear for dozing.
! A 750C S-II operator will run between 2.2 and
2.5 speed.
2.0 speed is about 3.8 mph and 3.0 is 6.5 mph
2.2 will be about about 4.3 mph and 2.5 will be about
5.2 mph
These are speeds that a Caterpillar dozer can not
achieve and Deere operators use all day.

Another example of Deere’s productivity is our operating speed. Our hydrostatic

transmission features infinitely variable speeds – with shift-free operation. The
operator can choose the ideal speed for the job. Most operators run at a 2.2 –2.5
transmission speed setting. And Deere’s power management system automatically
adjusts speed to load.

It is impossible for a Caterpillar dozer to work as fast as the Deere. The Cat
operator would have to work entirely in 3rd gear to match our operating speeds.
Faster operating speeds mean that productivity is gained while undercarriage is
consumed.
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23 May 03

Caterpillar Bogie
Suspension
! Designed for ROCK
! “Absorbs impact
loads”
• Load
– Rear idler lifts
– 7 & 8 rollers down
! Non-suspended
undercarriage for dirt
or sand

The Caterpillar bogie suspension system is good in rock conditions but not in dirt or
sand. The system is designed to allow allow the tractor maintain traction over rock
while absorbing impact loads. To maintain traction they try to keep more track in
contract with the ground. The system has each pair of rollers mounted together on a
set of brackets having an oscillation point. This allows one roller to move upwards
while the other is forced down. The system also consists of a linkage that forces the
7th and 8th rollers down onto the ground if the rear idler is lifted up off the ground.