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Tap Experts When Selecting Your Cat® Undercarriage
A Cat® mining undercarriage is one of the most sophisticated pieces of engineering in the heavy equipment world. One size doesn’t fit all in the high-impact, heavy-load mining world. Selecting the right undercarriage for your fleet is essential to your future success on the mine site.
Estimated read time: 4 minutes
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Caterpillar produces multiple undercarriage options, offers extensive after-sales support and employs experts to help you choose the best undercarriage technology. Your Cat® dealer provides expertise and customizable service programs to help you select the undercarriage that will ensure you meet budgets and production schedules. To learn more about the undercarriage support your Cat dealer can offer in the purchasing process, keep reading and check out this video.
MULTIPLE CHALLENGES
Your first task is selecting the right undercarriage for jobsite conditions. When consulting with your dealer, come prepared to discuss the following:
Operational considerations: How far and how fast do you need your equipment to go? Will you complete long, light-duty pushes or short, heavy ones? Will you be using a ripper, cutting slot trenches or working side slopes?
Maintenance scheduling: What maintenance does your schedule allow? Downtime is a dirty word in mining. Avoid production disruptions by selecting an undercarriage that will wear at predictable rates.
Total cost of ownership: What’s your budget for undercarriage total cost of ownership? Don’t overspend on a heavy-duty undercarriage for easy conditions or for a machine you won’t keep very long. Selecting the right undercarriage for your application means you’ll reap your full lifecycle value.
When spec’ing your undercarriage, Caterpillar offers a range of options — General Duty, Heavy Duty and Heavy Duty Extended Life — to meet any of these scenarios.
GENERAL DUTY
The Cat General Duty undercarriage is available for D9-D11 dozers. This undercarriage is recommended for low-to-moderate impact applications where the performance of a Cat Heavy Duty undercarriage is not needed. While General Duty track is built to different specifications than Heavy Duty, Caterpillar designs it so General Duty and Heavy Duty components are interchangeable. This eliminates retrofits and keeps downtime to a minimum.
HEAVY DUTY
Heavy Duty undercarriage is available for D9-D11 dozers and 6015-6090 hydraulic mining shovels. This undercarriage is specifically engineered for hard rock applications where impact levels range from moderate to high. With a Heavy Duty, you’ll benefit from up to 20% extended undercarriage life compared to Cat General Duty. Built for jobs that need a wear life of 5,000 hours or more, Cat Heavy Duty undercarriage stands up to handle harsh impact applications and powers through abrasive conditions.
HEAVY DUTY EXTENDED LIFE (HDXL)
Available for D9-D11 dozers, the Cat Heavy Duty Extended Life (HDXL) undercarriage with DuraLink is engineered for the longest possible life in the harshest conditions. HDXL delivers 40% more undercarriage life than a Heavy Duty undercarriage. Multiple upgraded components are available, including:
DuraLink: This crowned link design reduces the rate of scalloping by 50%, placing additional steel where it’s needed to extend life.
HDXL roller and idler: These upsized components give you more wear material to match the wear rates of other undercarriage components and extend the hours between service intervals.
Cat Super Extreme Service Track Shoes (SES): With more steel wear material and beefier construction, SES have a wider and taller grouser. SES feature a thicker track pad, a protective trailing edge and proprietary heat treatment for strength and wear resistance.
Sleeve bearing track design: Available for the D9 to D11, this component improves joint performance as well as increasing track reseal points to 8,000 hours on the HDXL undercarriage. This means you can operate at higher speeds and greater loads while reducing maintenance costs and unscheduled downtime, especially in critical high impact conditions.
OPTIONS FOR YOUR NEEDS
This complex matrix of options may seem like information overload. But for good fleet managers, understanding the complexity and variability of available undercarriage options is key to purchasing what their fleet needs. A mistake in undercarriage spec’ing can be expensive and disruptive to production schedules.
That’s why Cat dealers offer the knowledge to help you select an undercarriage to match your needs. Your dealer can educate you on what to expect in terms of warranties, service offerings and inspections after the machine rolls off the delivery trailer. These services help you get the best value out of your undercarriage with scheduled maintenance options, warranty programs and certified Cat replacement parts.
In any heavy equipment operation, uptime is money and downtime can cause your operation to bleed into the red. Make sure your biggest machines keep rolling by selecting an undercarriage that is right for the job. Request a consultation with your Cat dealer to get the most from your mining operation.
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