345C counterweight removal

I wouldn't know!!!!


Actually, we usually have to have them pressure washed to get all dirt that could contain weed seed off before entering Forest Service land. On one of our jobs last year we had to take each piece of equipment to the Forest Service office in town and have them inspected prior to taking on the Forest.

That and we have to get aquatic organism inspections prior to entering some states if we are going to be in the water.

We also try to have everything clean between jobs just for the first impression the customer sees, but sometimes that doesn't work out.

 

Update:
It takes 3 of us to gauge the tracks in about 2 hours, and we removed the counterweight. Everything was easy with the cw removal.........except, the blocks that you turn after removing the bolts and raising the center likely have never been turned. One guy hanging on a cheater bar, a couple cans of panther piss, and a bunch of swings (up) with an 8 pound sledge and we won the battle.

 

Yes. It gets it down to 11'8" with them slid in.

 

When they shipped it too us originally from North Dakota they were slid in, and appeared to have been that way for some time, but they had anti-seize on them and were in good shape. I bought a torque multiplier to help with breaking them loose and re-torqueing them. It is a little cumbersome getting to some of them with the track rail kind of in the way but we managed.

I probably wouldn't have narrowed them up again for most hauls, but about ten miles of the highway (75) that we need to haul it out on is between a rock wall and the river and very narrow. Getting it under 12' makes it easier as it can be hauled under the standard annual permit and we don't have to go through the special permit process. We are still required to have two pilot cars for that short section but none after that for where we are going next, which is Boulder WY.

 

We lifted the tracks off the ground with the bucket which put the slack on the bottom, and then we barely had enough room to fit the multiplier in. We had to keep swapping things around going from bolt to bolt in order to have a good surface to jam the multiplier bar against. It was kind of a PIA, but doable at least. Thank goodness for anti-seize!

 

For 100,000 cubic yards to move it is certainly worth the cost/effort, but I have had to adjust my mobilization price considerably to account for the time.

I don't think I want anything to do with what you have to go through removing sticks, track frames, etc.