Supporting Crawler Cranes

Towering over construction sites, crawler cranes are a familiar sight in the world of heavy lifting. These remarkable machines, with their immense lifting capacities and unique tracked mobility, are the backbone of countless large-scale construction projects. Unlike their stationary crane counterparts, crawler cranes possess the distinct advantage of manoeuvrability.

Maintaining Your Crawler Undercarriage

Maintaining your tracked undercarriage is important to keep your crawler crane running in top condition. Here are a few tips for maintaining your tracks:

Inspect the tracks and components regularly and listen to them work — high-pitched noises or squealing indicate wear points.
Check the tension of the track chains as per the manufacturer's guide. Loose tracks mean exacerbated wear — adjust as needed.
Clean the undercarriage to remove dirt, debris and other contaminants, especially around the sprocket and idler areas. Packing of debris will act like an angle grinder.
Check track shoe, final drive, roller and sprocket bolts and nuts as per the service requirements laid out in the machine operating manual. A loose bolt will cause elongation and expensive damage.
Feel for heat spots in track rollers and idler centres — these indicate loss of lubricant and imminent failure.

Sourcing Crawler Undercarriage Parts

Finding crawler undercarriage parts for your tracked crane has never been easy — it's an expense that comes up only once every seven or eight years on a crane, so choice is often limited to the original manufacturer or its distributor.

Astrak is here to supply you with all your crawler crane undercarriage parts, and we stand out from our competitors. Our prices are realistic, and our component quality is not negotiable.

The shells of our track rollers are manufactured from hard-wearing 40Mn2 steel, extending service life. The bushings are industry-leading 6–10mm thick pure copper rather than a less hard-wearing duplex combination of iron and copper, and our pins are made of tried-and-tested robust 42Cr steel. This attention to quality and performance is the same across the range — track shoe assemblies, chains with conventional bolt-on pads, idlers and sprockets, all built to fit, work and last.

Supported Manufacturers

We cover small, medium, large and very large cranes (up to 800 tonnes) manufactured by leading industry names:

Hitachi
IHI
Kobelco
Liebherr
Sany
Sennebogen
Tadano

The Foundation of Stability: The Crawler Undercarriage

Starting from the undercarriage and base of a crawler crane, often simply called the 'crawler', this is no ordinary set of wheels. This robust undercarriage boasts a set of continuous tracks that distribute the crane's weight evenly across the ground. This unique design grants crawler cranes exceptional stability, allowing them to operate on uneven terrain and lift massive loads without tipping over.

The crawler undercarriage itself comprises several key components, including:

Track Shoes: durable steel segments that form the tread of the tracks, ensuring smooth movement and providing traction on various surfaces.
Track Rollers: rollers that support the track shoes, facilitating smooth movement.
Sprocket and Idler Wheels: the drive sprockets at the front engage the tracks, propelling the crane forward or backward; the idler wheels at the rear maintain tension in the tracks.
Carrier Rollers: additional rollers positioned along the underside of the tracks for further support and smoother travel.

For more information on how Astrak can help you maintain your crawler crane undercarriage, please contact our team.