Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Chains VS Tracks for snow plowing

[Janet]

HELP!!! I have a John Deere Skid Steer and I have am a new to snow blowing here in Montana. I was told by the dealer to put carriage bolts in the tracks for better traction and they have either bent (grade 5 bolts) or snapped off (grade 8 bolts) Now I am told to try "grousers". I have chains that came with the skid steer - should I just use those or buy these grouser attackments? I have to plow a mile to my house and it has a slight grade that I keep slipping on in the snow. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[theonlybull]

tracks with grousers will work good for pushing, but if you ever work on a side hill, they are very dangerous. studs in the tracks sound like a good idea to me, but not if they break or bend.
how about a couple sets of ice chains on the tires? we use them on our skidsteer and they work great
(mind you, our machine is homebuilt, and uses car tires)

 

[chim]

I recall a story in a 4WD magazine a long time ago about "bolted" tires for running on frozen lakes. I think the bolts were only protruding a bit past the nut (bolt head on inside of tire). How far were the bolts sticking out of the tracks?

By the way, what is a "grouser"?................chim

 

[narcnh]

Janet, I don't know your particular piece of equipment, but here are two thoughts. First, I put chains on my Kubota B7800 tractor with turf tires for plowing my steeply hilled drive and they made a lot of difference, greatly improving traction. So, if your rig came with chains anyway, then I would give them a try, before spending more money on parts. Second, if you bent or snapped bolts, how far did they protrude? I have studded snows on my F-150 and the studs only stick out a tiny bit, like a 16th of an inch maybe (just a guess). They do not need to stick out very far to bite the snow and ice. Too far and the weight of the rig will probably tear them up.

Just a couple of thoughts. Good luck!

 

[Egon]

Chim:

Tracked machines have metal lugs on the tracks that are at 90 degrees to the direction in which the track moves. On frozen ground or ice and a side slope they can act like skate blades and give the operator a few tense moments before he can get his machine into a forwards or backwards orientation. Many times tracked machine's have small steel lugs welded onto the grousers that will dig in and prevent the side slip. In mountainous terrain and steep drop offs this is a very sticky situation.

Ice racing cars and motorcycles can have some pretty wicked looking studs bolted through the tire,

Egon

 

[jmc]

Hi Janet,

I've never used a blower so for what its worth, if you only have a slight grade, it shouldn't take that much traction with the blower doing most of the work. But if you drive faster than the blower can blow, then you are also using the blower as a plow, which would take more traction. Sorry if this is obvious to you. Can't tell much from your profile.

John

 

[chim]

Egon, thanks for the explanation. I'd never heard of them before. Sounds scary.

The old article on bolted tires, IIRC, was in a now-defunct mag called "PV4" (Pickup, Van & 4 Wheel Drive). One thing I really miss are the columns written by a guy named Granville King. I think I read that he has passed away. His stuff was really great reading...............chim

 

[HitRocks]

Janet, I would think the tracks are spreading out your weight too much to provide any traction, you don't really need the floatation or reduced PSI of tracks when snowblowing on a road. The tires with chains should dig in much better. How well does the hydraulic snowblower work? Did your rig come from the Livingston or Great Falls JD dealer?

 

[Janet]

Thanks for the advise on using chains! We took the tracks off which was not so easy and put on the chains that came with the skidsteer and it worked like a charm UNTIL my husband decided to snow blow and went past my road markers and into the ditch. BTW don't try and pull out a skidsteer with a chain attached to a Suburban unless you want to get rid of your rear window /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif theonlybull you are correct on sliding on a side hill using tracks .....not fun! chains are better & thanks for the help.

 

[theonlybull]

no problem. i've been well advised in the past by my grandfather to leave the crawler alown in the winter. and if things do get bad enough to need it... go up and down the hill. not across it. lol

we've always had good luck with tire chains on our equipment. dad's '77 bronco is the only thing we have that doesn't run chains. even our 580 was useless without them.