Kubota SVL series undercarriage wheel bearings..

[Wormwood]

I bought an SVL97-2 a little over 2 years ago & I'm currently on my second set of bearings for the undercarriage. The Kubota has only 200 hours on it (mainly because I'm trying to baby it, because of these stupid bearings). I had all the bearings replaced $13,000.00 worth right before the warranty ran out. That was in February/March of this year. It's the end of July & now those bearings are starting to squeak, pop, & grind!?!!

I have no idea what it going on but I quickly gather there's enough B$ to last me a lifetime, depending on who you ask they might tell you that the dirt/mud building up in the under carriage will quickly destroy your bearings but the guy right next to him say you can't use a pressure washer on the under carriage to clean because the water will get inside the bearings a destroy them!!!

All things held aside I do have a Loftness disc mulcher which is very heavy but that wouldn't explain why my boogie wheel bearings going out & certainly wouldn't explain why my second set idler wheel bearings are popping & squeaking after only 20 hours of use??!? I can & will replace them but I have to figure out what the problem is so I don't have to do this again for a while.. This is ridiculous...


****I realize this is my first post & forums are always a convenient to drop in & vent, but I try not to inject my opinion unless no-one else offers to give advice. Since this is my first track loader, I'm sort running blind. I own about 100 acres & it's a more than a full time job cutting back these hybrid pine trees the paper companies have engineered that grow as fast as kudzu... I hate genetic engineering & I wish I could hold these people/corporations liable for the damage they cause to my property.***

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Equipment_Tech]

Hey Steve welcome to the forums

I work on kubota equipment at my dealer, just wondering how heavy is the attachment that your using ?

Sounds to me that it is too heavy and that is causing the bearings to fail prematurely

 

[Wormwood]

Yeah, I've wondered that just the same. Which I do have a loftness Bad Ax, however, Loftness is recommended equipment for the SVL97-2. As far as weight, it's up there close to the limits but not overloaded.

That said, this is my first CTL & just to show my ignorance as well as how bad the bearings were. I couldn't turn the SVL when in rabbit mode, from the very first day I purchased it. I thought this was normal. Unless I had the rpm's way up & gave it a running start, I could not turn the machine from a standstill in rabbit mode. And yeah I thought all the grinding, popping, was normal trackloader noises.

I understand things break & problem happen & for the most part, I got all the bearings warranty replaced. The issue now is that even some of the replacement bearings started to grind & pop after ~20 hours of light loader work (never even attached the mulcher). So I'm wondering if the bearings in the undercarriage are just something that's perpetually failing? Since there's at least ~20 bearings spread out across the undercarriage, is it just something we all have to listen to until it gets bad enough we need to start replacing some as time & it's performance dictates? Or should I expect 100's of hour of use before hearing a single bearing start to grind or pop?

I'm wondering if something may be installed inncorrectly which is causing the bearings to fail, maybe... I'm still thrilled with the Kubota & It's only one of several pieces I own. My shop looks like a kubota promo ad...

Thanks for the reply!

Steve