Rubber track wear
- Thread starter jmfox
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machmeter62
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jmfox said:
I think it depends on the tire type; R-1's with their deeper lugs would be more vulnerable, and some claim they will "split the lugs," but I think that is a myth? I have tractors with R-1's and R-4's, but prefer R-4's when traveling on a hard surface for ride comfort only! Tight turns on most tractors will cause wear on the outside tire, because of the radius of turn issue. I have the three major tractors; and JD's have the radius issue down to a science in my opinion?
machmeter62
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Sorry, I was distracted when I replied, and responded before re-reading it? I have no experience with rubber tracks, but would suspect when the forward section of the track contacts the hard service as it rotates, it will cause increased wear with the slight binding?jmfox said:
Thanks for you sharing your experience and opinion. I did talk to ASV and they did not hesitate to recommend limited road travel for their machines. It has the speed and suspension that makes it possible. I don't have a trailer and I wanted to rent and pick up attachments from a dealer about 5 miles down the road.
jmf
jmf
Asv tracks are warranteed for 2K hours. That being said, mine only goes 6 mph, so your trip down the road would cost you 2hours of time. If the Asv you are talking about is the Rc 30, most of the attachments are small enough to fit in the back of a mini pickup. Lots cheaper to run the mini pickup down the road, and leave the heavy machinery to do the heavy work!
DmansPadge
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Maybe once or twice at the most... I wouldn't make a habit of driving a tracked machine 4 miles. Turning or not the pavement will wear the tracks a whole lot faster than dirt. Those tracks are really expensive also. I replaced a set on a small excavator a few years back and it seems that they went for about $1500 each
According to ASV this is a feature of their design. The factory gave me examples of many customers who get over 2,000 hours on hard surfaces. Their point was that the track is as good on hard as it is on soft surfaces for straight travel. By appearances, the ASV track design is much different than the others, and according to ASV they are more like tires than convention rubber track machines.
jmf
jmf
White Shark
New member
I try to avoid as much road use as possible, but my CAT 247B tops out just over 7 mph, so I trailer whenever distance is an issue, just for time issues if nothing else. I've driven a few miles to quite a few local cut and grade jobs though, and the wear isn't much.
You can reduce wear by making very gradual turns, and avoiding pivot turns by doing a 3 or 4 point turns. This will definitely reduce wear.
I would avoid doing a lot of high speed distance runs if you have steel bands in the tracks though. The steel really heats up from continual high speed flexing which can cause early track delamination. The CAT tracks use a kevar/fiberglass/rubber bias ply which is less prone to this type of heat up. A similar construction is used in the huge CAT Challengers that top out at 24 mph.
IIRC, the ASV track is virtually the same as the CAT since they share undercarriage technology. Don't forget the slow moving vehicle triangle on the back when running on the road. It's cheaper than a ticket.
See the fancy triangle?....
..
You can reduce wear by making very gradual turns, and avoiding pivot turns by doing a 3 or 4 point turns. This will definitely reduce wear.
I would avoid doing a lot of high speed distance runs if you have steel bands in the tracks though. The steel really heats up from continual high speed flexing which can cause early track delamination. The CAT tracks use a kevar/fiberglass/rubber bias ply which is less prone to this type of heat up. A similar construction is used in the huge CAT Challengers that top out at 24 mph.
IIRC, the ASV track is virtually the same as the CAT since they share undercarriage technology. Don't forget the slow moving vehicle triangle on the back when running on the road. It's cheaper than a ticket.
See the fancy triangle?....
..
