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How to Inspect Your Machine’s Undercarriage — and Why It

Matters
by Jared Haughton
04/21/2020 5

Regularly inspecting your construction equipment is always worthwhile. This can

prevent future downtime and lengthen the life of your machine. In these uncertain
times right now, it’s more important than ever to keep your equipment running
efficiently and reliably, and your maintenance staff may have a little extra time on
their hands to do inspections.

A machine’s undercarriage is especially important to keep an eye on. The

undercarriage supports the total weight of the machine and is continuously
subjected to rocks and other obstacles when in operation. Many of its parts are
exposed to constant wear and stress. It’s also the most expensive part of an
5 excavator. By keeping the undercarriage in good condition, you can count on
improved safety and efficiency from the machine.

The technicians at Volvo dealers are great resources to perform undercarriage

inspections. But our recommendation is to conduct a visual inspection once a week
or every 40 operating hours, which means your technicians and operators should 
 also be doing these. With that in mind, I want to give you tips for inspecting your
equipment’s undercarriage, along with a downloadable checklist to make it easier.

One quick note: Visual undercarriage inspections should not replace regularly  
scheduled undercarriage management.  Proper undercarriage management entails
measuring undercarriages, tracking wear, replacing worn components, and
swapping component positions to extend the total undercarriage life. You’ll need
conversation charts for each brand of undercarriages to convert them to percent
worn.

Cleaning the machine before an inspection

To do an inspection on the machine, it should be somewhat clean for the sake of

accuracy. Although this may be time-consuming, cleaning the undercarriage
regularly will keep the it in a better condition, make it easier to see issues at an
early stage and lessen the wear on the components.

Track tension

Measure the track tension and document the results. Make adjustments to the
track tension if necessary and document the adjustments as well. You can find the
correct track tension in the operator manual.

Component checks

Undercarriage inspection checklist When

inspecting the machine, go through one
side at a time. Keep in mind that the
sprocket is at the rear of the machine and
the idler is in the front, so the right and
left side are not mixed up in the report.

5
Remember to check:

Track shoes
Links
Pins

 Bushings
Top rollers
Bottom rollers
Idlers
Sprockets

Refer to this checklist for more details on what to look for on each component. A
couple items I want to specifically call out:

Check the components according to the description for that specific component.
Take notes and fill in any useful comments.
Carefully check the links for cracks, spalling, side wear and wear on the pin boss.
You can also count the links to see if one was removed during assembly in an
effort to tighten the undercarriage. If someone has made it too tight, that will spell
trouble in the near future.

For more information and to see what I’m talking about, watch this video on
inspecting excavator undercarriages.

Wear distribution

The last step is to compare the two sides of the undercarriage assembly to each

5
other. Does one side show more wear than the other? Use the wear distribution
graphic at the bottom of the checklist to indicate the overall wear for each side.
Should one side have more wear than the other, show this by marking that side
further from the center, but still relative to the wear on the better side.

  
 Additional undercarriage resources

If you’re unsure exactly what you’re looking at or what might need to be done, your
local dealer can help. You can also read more about the importance of
undercarriage care here.

Buying machines with warranty coverage for undercarriages is another good way
to ensure the components stay in good working order. Volvo recently rolled out a
new extended warranty for undercarriages that covers eligible customer-purchased
replacement and dealer-installed undercarriages for four years or 5,000 hours,
whichever comes first.

Besides inspecting the undercarriages on the equipment in your current fleets, it’s
also important to carefully evaluate the undercarriage — and other components —
of a used machine you’re considering buying. Check out my blog post on how to
inspect used equipment components for further tips.

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5 COMMENTS   Oldest 

Bhaskarudu Peddakotla  2 years ago

Check list posted by you gives only visual data i.,e OK or need attention but no scope for evaluating
wear data or expected life. if you can modify it will be great. Further, regrading MATRIS data, to the
best of my knowledge, this data gives machine crawling hours and percentage of crawling over total
run hours. It does not give any data on wear of individual parts. If the reading are to be fed,same
needs to be educated to customer with demonstration. Hope my suggestion will be taken positively.
Thanks

0 Reply

Volvo CE  2 years ago

 Reply to  Bhaskarudu Peddakotla

Admin
Thank you for you feedback – we will definitely look into providing a demonstration – great point!

0 Reply

Alpha  2 years ago

Good day , we own a Volvo ec300dl

& Volvo a35e equipment, however we don’t have service manuals , how can we access the manuals

0 Reply

Volvo CE  2 years ago

 Reply to  Alpha

Admin
Your local dealer should be able to assist you with service manuals –
https://www.volvoce.com/united-states/en-us/contact-us/dealer-locator/
If you need further assistance, please let us know.

0 Reply

Fluix  5 months ago

Thank you for the checklist. In my opinion, it is one of the main tools in the field of inspection,
because it does not let you forget about the little things that can make a difference. I believe that
5 besides accurate checklists, another necessary thing is software that allows you to work with them.
Adding photos, tags, barcodes or the ability to fill the checklists in online and offline can really make
the work more productive and clear. And a thing like an alert when a non-compliance issue is
detected can prevent many accidents before they happen. Another advantage is… Read more »

0 Reply

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