Testing a TracK changing tool on the cat skid steer

all right guys so here's the plan for today it's been uh just been raining pretty decent for a couple hours here and the temperature just started to really drop so that means that rain is transitioning into ice which is always super fun we're supposed to get two to three inches of snow later this evening and in preparation for that we need to swap the tracks on the kitty cat we have designated snow tracks for that so those have got to go on uh we have a we got a brand new tool that's supposed to really really help get those tracks swapped on and off so we're gonna give that a try see how that works out yeah that's that's all i got it's kind of funny it always seems like we're doing stuff like this when it's really nasty weather that just kind of seems to be the way that it goes but oh well no big deal it's like they say when it's wet you're gonna be wet when it's cold you're gonna be cold no big deal we'll get her taken care of so let's just get into the day [Music] i don't actually know who says that besides sam so what you're actually seeing guys is the fact that tim and i plan things out so that when it's too wet to work on a job site or too cold to work on a job site we still have consistent work that way the guys aren't married to the weather for their paycheck they know that when every week comes and goes they'll have a pretty decent paycheck no matter what happens it just so happens on today's project it's too wet to work out in the dirt but we got asphalt i don't think that's what it's really called i think pretty [ __ ] heavy duty and that was alex that's a freaking that's the best that's the persuader that is the persuader right they call it the dominator oh get bigger one it's a big old bar all right but there's more to it all right sam [Music] i wasn't doing it right tim had to take over wow like it's christmas man having enough presents all right what is this that okay so now we gotta watch the video before using go to www.trackhandler.com and review instructions tab i'm gonna lift the front off the ground i think right now and put some blocks under that we want to get the bucket up in the air to take get the weight higher up [Music] [Applause] look at the tracks on the cap totally the mud is froze all right so here's the plan tim's going to lift the bucket all the way up on the cat to get the get the weight higher up change the center of gravity alex is going to lift the back of that sucker up we're going to get some blocks underneath it and get these tracks off [Applause] [Music] so this is obviously our first time ever trying to use this track handler tool and i think that's what the name of it is so if you guys want your own just google track handler it's a three-part system and it's actually really well built really well put together but we got to get the back the bathroom back into this are we going to get the back end of this we want to try to get the entire skid loader off the ground and just do both tracks at the same time and we're on asphalt we got the equipment so let's do it a little different the guy that i got this track kit from sent me a video of him changing tracks out in the mud in like three minutes by himself these are osha approved logs look at the mud kicked on my tracks and that's froze in there that's one of the worst parts about working in minnesota in like november because the dirt just goes from wet to solid to frozen to wet you never know what you're gonna get and if you don't clean the tracks all right i forgot to tell the boys that i don't have the grease gun with me so we gotta run back up to stands and grab that real quick so that's kind of my bad luckily it's not too far away or just up the road sam you better not let us miss this track what's in the box what's in the box even i don't know what's in the box i don't know what's in that box i do now because i opened it in the video shot and everything but at that point i did not know sam should just name that and take it so much stuff no because then i'd have to get another one for everybody else god he loves that grease gun it is nice dewalt's got a good one too this ratchet got pitched so of course it did what it's like overlapped itself so now it's twisted up you can't loosen it sometimes that happens with that ratchet look at that all right you guys will see it i promise you because when i first seen this i'm like son of a duck i wanted to see the whole thing you get to see the whole thing go grab that grease gun so this grease gun what he's sam's doing with the is that's how he tightens the track back up and you'll see that on the next uh go around but as that's filling up it's pushing the sprocket out or whatever you call the first real thing i think sprockets the top part that thing just saved me like a half an hour of pumping that thing by hand normally that's a snow track this side is a dirt track and the reason we're changing it is oddly enough that dirt track does not work on asphalt with just a tiny bit of snow on it you just don't all right look at this thing look at that is that sick or what that just god that's what we missed the first go-round but they were figuring it out anyway right i mean you know you just watch guys figuring it out well here you go now this is the second go round so they kind of got the the tough stuff figured out [Music] those sams wearing keen philadelphia boots best boot for winter work period if you got wide feet and you like squishy boots soft squishy boots philadelphia by keen love those boots love them and the their summer version is the chicago they're not paying me to say this just literally my feet thank me every time i put those boots on but i hear ariat makes good boots i've never really tried them so i don't know what what do you guys like [Music] that's that triple see that sprocket in the front right there you can see that now so most of them only have just one in the middle right and this one's got two grooves so the extra grooves is what really keeps these tracks stable them and asv are the only ones that do that that i know of asv actually this is i've said this before but they will actually the first three years or like 3 000 hours you own an asb if you roll out of your tracks they will come to where your machine is and put them on for you that's crazy that's crazy but they that's like the asv the cat controls are amazingly smooth the asv is kind of like a spider sticking to a hill but look at the tracks on the asv in comparison to the tracks i'm putting on very similar they've got a lot of extra grooves in it and that's what allows these things they literally dominate the snow a good skid loader with snow tracks is it's it's better than tires it's better than tires because you get a smoother ride right and then as you're turning you just you have enough traction and enough grip but also enough release okay when you put actual snow tires on a skid loader it's really herky jerky especially when you're scraping right down to the to the bee's knees to the bare bones right it gets really herky jerky um dirt tires so i would say in order of preference i said this once before but it's snow tracks then it would be snow tires then it would be dirt tires so dirt tires only problem with dirt tires is man there's a lot of extra give on them so as you go into a turn you can go too far too fast and then last and least they're dirt tracks that's why we're pulling these off the reason we swap them is i don't want to wear out my good snow tracks in demolition work because we do a ton of demo right and it's not just the wearing it out it's the occasional tear you literally sometimes get a scar going all the way across your tracks and then it's boom sam here is really cleaning that up i remember the my first lesson with frozen dirt i was 13 and i had to air chisel out underneath the john deere 450 tract excavator and it took me i think it was seven or eight hours to clean the tracks because it froze solid and the machine was froze solid and we will clean that dirt up just this time of the year makes normal work just so much more difficult like chipping out frozen dirt i mean you got to do it we got a video coming up where we uh have to take a torch and thaw all the retaining wall blocks out i've had to use a torpedo heater on sod assad was literally frozen into the tootsie roll actually it's that sod is at least here it goes dormant and cold sod is the best sod delay because my customers don't have to maintain it if i did i did an entire school ground once for uh independent school district 197 one of their like soccer football slash fields whatever it was it was snowing while i was sodding and that was their preference oh he's gonna push that right off right off the blocks it's going too far it's going too far that is kind of cool looking though isn't it watch it in 4k on a big screen and then there's a hook on the ratchet strap you hook somewhere on the machine ratchet it down to pull the tracks over he's got to get the nubs and they should just rollers in between there not on the outside but in between really i just gotta wait hold on now once you get to the top side here so it's got to go over remember those two grooves in that front sprocket those nubs got to go in there so it's got to go over just enough and as he rolls it so he's pulling the track over using the ratchet but now as he rolls forward slightly you can get them nubbins right into them crevices for good there's just no way all right they must have did it okay so now sam look look how much grease this takes so you can see how much that's good so he's got to get that track not all the way tight when it's in the air he's gotta use a very scientific measurement to make sure that he gets it precise i'll show you what that is there it is it's the two nose pickers there you go gets both sides about the same and if they're not right when he lets it down it's better to have it too loose when you let it down than too tight to be very serious because if you're too tight when you let it down you can blow this grease past the seals and you can have issues if you're too loose when you let it down you can just all right bingo bango we're done and the cat has new shoes so it's a little looser we were all pretty uh apprehensive about how well that tool was gonna work and let me tell you what we got those done in about half the time super simple very ingenious idea yeah i think worked really well like i said it probably took about half the time to swap these tracks out all right guys and that's our video for today i want to thank you for going along for the ride we got a lot of cool stuff coming down the pipeline um i don't know where you're watching this in order but we do have the uh the brand new asv that max series cab working in wet heavy clay and it wasn't a good day it was just one of those just let's just say it didn't go like just i anyway we got a full night of snow plowing um where we were expecting this snowstorm and we got didn't that didn't come to fruition but then we went right back to work out on our job sites and then out of nowhere another snowstorm came and then we're like scrambling at the last anyway that one's a good one and that's what we got for you today god bless go get him you guys hopefully we'll see on another one catch you later