RD-6 Bottom Rollers

it seems dave smith put a set of D5 rails and shoes on an RD-6. as far as
your lowers go i would guess you could drill your frames for a set of rollers
from a 5. i do not remember what the RD-6 rollers look like but will look in
the daylight. as far as the uppers? can you have a machine shop rebuild
them since there are only four? i have an upper roller from a 5 laying
around here somewhere, i will look at interchangability.

ok! i could not stand it and grabbed the flashlight and went out to my 6's.
on the uppers it will depend on what type of mount you have. if your mounts
are on the inside like my 6's they look just like the 5's rollers. in the daylight i
will have to get a measurement of the shafts. my thirtyfive mounts in the
center of the roller its the only standard gauge i have. if yours mounts like
the thirtyfives you have a problem. you are going to have to rebuild what
you have.

the lower rollers look to me like a D5's will work. you will need to find a 5
and measure the space between the two channels to make sure a 5's
roller will slip in there. i know you would have to drill your track frames
as the bolt pattern on the 5 seems wider as i remember. a D6B or a 9U
roller would be worth looking into also.

this unless someone has a better idea?

Thanks Bob - a road trip your way sounds good. Let me know what you have available. I'm still going to pursue brand new rollers for a bit. I could also check out the 3 high clearance tractors and the RD-8. Nice photos the other day!

Several years ago I went through the same situation with my Diesel Forty. It had had the roller frames replaced with RD6 parts. The nearest I could find were D6B rollers but the bolt pattern was different. I took 5/8" rod and cut fillers for the old bolt holes, tacked them in place and drilled the proper holes. It is necessary to do that because the holes overlap slightly and without fillers the drill walks into the old holes. It takes careful fitting to get the spacing correct, I had the frames completely off and turned upside down. I don't think it would be possible to do it in place. Since the holes are different the old nut bars don't work and the roller spacing is different from the available nut bars so I cut new ones and tacked them back together with the proper spacing so I could poke them in the closed inner frame rail. The outside just takes nuts. I don't remember if the outer channel is tapered, if it is just use channel washers under the nuts, they are available at any reasonable hardware supplier. For the carrier rollers I slit the stanchions and pulled out the old roller. Then I welded tabs on either side of the slit, drilled it for a clamp bolt and slid the new rollers in. My machine doesn't see heavy use, mostly just field plowing, maybe 50 hours a year and the system has held up fine. It is a pleasure to be able to turn and sideslope without having the tracks jump off the way they used to. It was quite a project but I think worthwhile.

Some roller info:
The D6B, D5, D6, 955,12A5793 up H, K, 20A1-2508 all use the same (lifetime bottom rollers)

The D6, 955C, E, 12A5793-7685, 977D, 20A1-2508 uses the same (grease type) top rollers.

The D5, D6, 955E, 12A7686 up, H, K, 951,B all use the same (lifetime) top rollers.

At one time you could get lifetime top rollers that fit the grease type stand
for the D6, 955, 12A5793-7685, 977D, 20A1-2508.

Might help a little by broadening the search😊 😊

Diesel 40 Don and Old Magnet - My track frames are off the machine so reworking the holes or frames doesn't worry me. I guess I just need to keep researching more to find a roller to fit or if Cat Iron or someone else can locate me some original good ones I might go with those. I asked the Berco people if they had a catalog I could look through to find a close match and they said no. One guy told me over the phone to send my dimensions to him and he would try and get a close match.

Diesel 40 Don and Old Magnet - My track frames are off the machine so reworking the holes or frames doesn't worry me. I guess I just need to keep researching more to find a roller to fit or if Cat Iron or someone else can locate me some original good ones I might go with those. I asked the Berco people if they had a catalog I could look through to find a close match and they said no. One guy told me over the phone to send my dimensions to him and he would try and get a close match.