Cletrac.org

Hello all from the snowy Northeast..........We've had so much snow in the last week....52".... that I had to bring out the dozer to help out my Ford Explorer plow.   These little dozers are perfect for pushing back the banks or breaking a path thru the deep snow.  With the aux transmission and built-up grousers,  it's almost unstoppable!
       One question I have is....has anyone else used a mixture of gear oil  and powdered graphite in the bottom rollers and front idlers?  Does anyone see a down-side of it??   I have used it for years in other old gearboxes, rear-ends with real good luck.  Although it would NOT work well with the brake bands in these trans-axels.
                C.M. DeLong

The way the idlers on an OC3 (and probobly other Cletracs) are designed, the oil lays in the bottom of the hollow roller, and dribbles down on the shaft when the roller rotates. If you use grease, it would probably stick to the inside of the outside of the idler (that make sense? think spin cycle on a washer) and never get to the shaft.
I got a cheap air powered grease gun from Harbor Freight, turned over the rubber cup in the barrel so the lip points up, and got lots of rags.
A retired Mobil lube engineer friend told me not to worry about rear end oil corroding the bushings, that this only happens at extremely high temperatures, hundreds of degrees .
The early style Anderson blade on mine has adjustable pads to keep the blade from digging into the asphalt. We've got no snow out here, but it works great when the gully washers deposit the corrals down the driveway.  

For roller lubrication I would think about using "corn head grease" Both Deere & Agco have it . It is thick but is semi liquid, semi grease. If you are in farm country is should be easy to come by. I guess that is what Deere went to in there rollers. They used to recommend oil as well.

people are always trying to use something besides oil in the bottom rollers.I wonder why. Of course if grease is used youll not see a lot of leakage .Perhaps it is the paranoia that I always have that the seals are leaking and all the lube is running out before the next lube job.What do people use for a lube interval,and how much lube do you use in terms of pumps of the gun?Ive gone through a 5 gal pail of lube( mineral oil approx 90 wt) in the last year.Not a heavily used OC-46 either.

same here on a AG6H , got a fitting off Landis use 50 oil with a grease gun get a long very good

I bought a crawler that had flow grease  {corn head grease} in the rollers and idlers .It does not flow enough to properly lube these . With the cold climate your are in I would not recomend it . It would be better to use gear oil .

The seals on mine are shot, both on the front idlers and track rollers. One of these years I will rebuild them.

Meantime, I oil before each use (normally every 1 - 2 hours of operation). Old engine oil, about a third of a gun full for all 8. I have the Alemite oil gun with the large (half inch or so) piston, takes about 3 shots per.

The oil starts to run out almost immediately, but I figure enough stays around for the job.