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Re - tracking in the field

caldonia

Member
OK guys, you are going to love this one. The front tensioning wheel fell off my Nodwell and it now sits in the field in need of care. Seems I failed to tight the lug bolts enough after fall repairs and it came off while driving. Nothing else got tore up but I must now retract in the field. as I look at this situation it seems tha I have two alternatives.

1 Split the track by removing 16 bolts, which I have done in the past and it was less than enjoyable, remount the tensioning wheel and put track back together. I did this all last fall in the comfort of my cat house where it can drive onto an elevated platform and work under the beast on a creeper. Now I am in the snow so am imagining another plan.

2 jack and block the detracted side. remove all four Boggie wheels to give enough slack to replace the tensioning wheel without splitting the track, replace bogies and then retention.

I'm leaning toward alternative 2 unless I hear that this is impossible and splitting the track and all that it involves is the only way.

What do you guys think. I'm sure this is not the first time that this has happened to a cat.

I will be spending Christmas morning under the Nodwell. Any inspiring thought would be greatly appreciated.

I will promise to give a full report when I'm done. Soon than later I hope.

Happy holidays.
 

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Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
merry Christmas If the tensioner is a hydraulic style I would try to compress it with a comealong than stretch the track out with multiple comealongs and try to snake the wheel back in with out breaking the track this method works for snow trac rear wheels maybe it will work for your nodwell.
 

Cletis

New member
Does the wheel have any holes in it where you could pull the track and wheel at the same time instead of trying to just pull the track and work the wheel in? May give a bit more room and maybe a bit easier??
 

caldonia

Member
Thanks for the quick reply. I have released the grease from the tensioning device and certainly gained a bit of room but will most likely need to remove all four tires to get enough slack. Hope to have a happy report tomorrow.

Here's what the Nodwell track looks like when it is all together.
 

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redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I did a field repair similar to this on a Tractor with sure tracs installed last season.

I was being trained and the preflight check over was very throurough. I was questioning everything... the trainer was getting a bit impatient and off we went....(really why are we carrying extra fuel, this this holds alot of fuel, was my dumbest question)

mostly at our farthest out point a guide-bogie-idler call it what you want the rear most wheel on the front right axle/track assembly came of quite violently allowing the front to drop and stop turning...

Stranded. -6F options were:
use the Two way radio, Which dispatches a safety response process not worth explaining or living down....
Walking out. (One pair of snow shoes two people 11 ish miles to nearest road)
What we did:
I dug the wheel out of the drag (15 minutes)
Operator backed up rig to push slack to the back of assembly while turning wheels to keep the track from walking off completely. ( lucky to have been on a firm surface )
Tried to Back the adjuster off was frozen.
Propped the wheel into position with the one ratchet strap we had pulling back and down. Gently placed a 3/8 extension and long #3 phillips through the wheel and into the threaded holes of the hub.....
walked/inched it back wards to force the wheel into its supposed position..
At this point he wheel was on an angle right to left which allowed a bolt to be started in one of the holes we used a 3/8 bolt and washer from the step bracket.
repeat process while inching forward and back and steering.
Once it was on the hub we stole lug studs from the other wheels to get it bolted proper.

We got in at 2am with a failing alternator the day operator was in the machine at 4AM pissed that we did not call him to tell him the alternator was failing.....

So short story. air the tire down. use thread rod to get it started and walk it on.
Air up and get on with life.

Good luck Remember you are building character.
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
rear wheel hub broke on my snow trac . it looked the same. wheel and hub fell off.
with two pullers an loosened everything I put it back on after welding it. 6 mile walk down the mountain.
use that blade downpressure it may help some. Down to much it removes the slack in the tracks and will make it harder.
jim
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
So short story. air the tire down. use thread rod to get it started and walk it on.
Air up and get on with life.

Good luck Remember you are building character.

That seems like a good suggestion (unless the tires are foam filled). :thumb:
 

caldonia

Member
Christmas Day,3 pm. Done, got it back on.

Thanks for the stories and encouragement. We used a little bit of all those suggestions and pulled it back together. Wasn't a life and death situation, just embarrassing to have it stuck right next to the road.

Here's what we did.

Jacked up detracted side. Blocked and stabilized the machine.
Took off all four tires which was pretty easy using ropes and winch straps to hold track up at each tire.

Pulled slack with come along and shoehorned idler wheel in. Using a strap o the wheel was a good suggestion and it helped pull wheel into position.

Stole two lug bolts from the other idler and cranked them in.

Put tires back on.

Re tensioned the track, pulled the blocks and crawled back to camp.

Thanks for all the responses. Wow, who would thunk that a guy could get this much help on Christmas Day

You guys Rock.

Thanks for being there.

I learned some good lessons.
 

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