AUSTRAK MODS

In the last few years of communicating with Austrak owners there has been a lot of discussion about Austrak modifications and the building of new implements to suit the machine. These have included:

• Tilt conversions for the blade
• Simple FEL
• Effective conversion of a 3pl rear loader into a front mounted digger
• Replacement of the servos with Bobcat type yokes directly attached to the variable displacement pumps
• Installation of additional oil coolers
• Ventilating the tub at the oil cooler end to reduce the operating temperatures.
• Roofing the roll cage.

Hopefully I will be able to post pics of these mods here once I get clearance from the owners/modifiers to do so.

If you have any mods you would like to share on the site or questions you would like answered on the mod topic  just drop a reply on this page.

Neil’s Front End Loader

The pics below show detail of the FEL which was built by Neil from the South Coast to fit his shaft driven Austrak.

You can see how the stepped design of the front on later RT45’s invites a mod like this. The linkage points Neil added look pretty much like original equipment. The lift rams on the loader attach to the normal implement points at each side and the loader arms attach at the linkage pints added at the step.

Neil modified the hydraulics to accommodate the bucket ram.

General view of Neil’s loader. It’s a really well built bit of kit and would greatly to the versatility of the machine. It’s not rocket science to build and its easy to remove when not required.

Thanks Neil for sharing the info and the pics.

Rodney’s  Tilt  Blade

You can see Rodney’s Gason built Austrak in the Gallery . Rodney discovered that the wear in his blade pins was sufficient to enable this clever system of tilting.

You can see that the degree of tilt would be very useful. The blade arms are [inned above and below the frame to create the tilt. The central pin on Rodney’s machine has enough movement to make this possible.

Rodney Eliminates Dripping Servos

Austrak variable displacement pumps are operated via servos to which the steering cables are attached.  Most people would say that the servos are problematic. I think that leaking servos were the major cause of my own Austrak expensive crisis described elsewhere here.

Rodney’s solution was to fabricate a pump control arrangement similar to those used in many skid steers. In this system the levers operate the variable displacement pumps directly and the servos (…and the dripping oil) are eliminated.

A few years back the last Austrak sold on Ebay also featured this type of arrangement. It’s a commonsense approach to a very annoying problem.

This view gives you a better idea of how it all works. You can just catch a glimpse of what I think are the self centering springs that Rodney built into this arrangement.

Excellent modification Rodney!!!