Dragline Crawler Build

[Jared]

That's great, Jim! But I don't think that driver was very happy with the way you treated his truck It walks just like the Link Belt LS-52 I've been around a little. Tracks snap, pop and squeak just like it. Rollers will make it smooth as long as they stick down lower than the tumblers/idlers. You don't want the bottoms of the tumblers and idlers at the same height as the bottoms of the rollers or it will still hop. When the pad transitions from flat on the ground to the tumbler, the leading edge goes up but the trailing edge has to go down since it cannot conform to the radius of the tumbler. If you see any steel tracked machine that is hopping along, it means the undercarriage or at least the bottom rollers are worn out. Sucks when you are trying to hold a grade with a dozer or walk it any distance on hard ground.

Did you have to do much monkeying with those drive chains to get the proper amount of slack? Where'd ya get 'em at? Looks like the direction I might want to go.

I see one more item to add to the list: a fairlead to keep the drag cable away from the tracks.