How many hours left in this sprocket?

[Dan Watrous]

This is from a 2013 CAT 320 with 5500 hours at a price of $65k, a little over my budget. All the other 35 pictures look good enough to examine the machine and negotiate. I only need about a hundred hours a year, so can this last a while? More importantly, does this gear's wear and a worn out seat cover make you want to pass on this machine?

 

[Vetech63]

It doesn't look too bad from what I can see, especially only using it 100 hours a year. Offer $50K.....what have you got to lose?

 

[skyking1]

The seat cover means nothing. The rails are also worn if the sprocket is looking like that.
I would be looking at the lower guards for signs of wear, looking at the rails.
When they get worn enough they tend to come off at the most awkward moments.

 

[grandpa]

Pins and bushings are probably worn too. Stand on a pad with a foot on each end of the pad and rock back and forth to see how worn they are.

 

[Gary Layton]

I bought a CAT 320, 2006 model, last year...had approx 6800 hrs on it. The seller said he planned to remove some links from the chain in about 6 months because the sprockets were worn like yours. I bought it knowing the undercarriage was worn but did not understand how worn. We pumped grease into the adjuster, tightened the tracks and started using the CAT. I made one excursion into the pond with no problem...all the way to the old mill site. The next day I went to return to the work area and did not realize the idler/adjuster was leaking down. I could tell something was amiss and started retreating from the pond. I made it about 40 feet and the left track started coming off. Long story short...my son made a rush trip down to the farm and brought our small Takeuchi TB370. He was able to use it to retrieve the thrown track and then he drove the one-legged CAT out of the swamp to the pond bank where we re-installed the track in a deluge. We then tracked the 1/4 mile to the shop where we parked it and got it ready to rebuild. These picts show the madness:

2023 Jan CAT 320 excavator throws track in Gin Pond - GaryLayton

Excavator throws a track -- recovery and repair of CAT 320C track...in the field and by the field...at the mill site.

garylayton.smugmug.com

My advice, if you get that CAT, is be ready to rebuild the undercarriage. We replaced four carriers and four rollers (they were either very worn or frozen), new chain/track, sprockets and rebuilt the idlers...had CAT swap the pads to the new track. Our rebuild was 6 months ago...all good so far. Here is a snippet of part of the rebuild:

 

[Lagwagon]

Pins and bushings are probably worn too. Stand on a pad with a foot on each end of the pad and rock back and forth to see how worn they are.

not necessarily, i just replaced sprockets on a 21 tonne machine where the rest of the u/c was in good condition At 5,200hrs. Even with chains slack there was no movement in bushings when doing the foot test, little stretch in chains And rollers had minimal wear. If the rest of the u/c is in good condition then I would buy it, put new sprockets on and you’ll never have to worry about it again if your only putting 100hrs a year on it.