Argo Standard Tracks --- Swim???

[Mr. Moose]

i use 13 inc plastic tracks on 4 of my argos in huge swamps here with botomless holes and they work great, where just tires would never make it,the trick with plastic track in water is you cant go ape sh## on the gas and just go a quater speed at most and they work awsome that way

Hi Moose Man. I have a bigfoot with 13" tracks and last fall got totally hung up in loon s**t and out came the winch. ( i shld have left one track on the shoulder or stayed out of it) This spring I took an old bush trail with lots of water ponds in it and the tracks didn't perform well but now i guess I was using to much throttle. I'm going back in a cple of weeks and was just going to go on my 25"s and see how they work as no swamp just water but I am curious when you say swamp do you also mean plain water. I'm from Wpg also and am talking about Beaver Creek area. any other info you have on terrain etc that you travel on and your advice would be helpful as I'm new to this game of make your own trail and really really get stuck by yourself in the boonies. Thx from Mr. Moose

[Jeff Johns]

Mooseman is right the 13inch plastic tracks do a pretty good job in the swamp, I'm not saying they will go everywhere the 18inch will, but they will get you threw stuff the tires won't thats for sure. And he's right about the swimming, go easy on the throttle and they will eventually get you where you need to go.

[rotorav8r]

I recently purchased an Argo and I have the 18 inch plastic tracks with the metal snow cleats that extend them out wider. I tried to swim with them and it really can’t go anywhere I tried moving the tracks very slowly and fast neither really worked that well. Funny enough forward wanted to move me backward and visa versa, just at a snails pace. Luckily I had enough fore thought to bring a 2 x 4 as an oar just in case and I used the heck out of it to get back to Shore.The thing I noticed is the large cleats pull so much water over the track even at a slow speed that it is counterproductive to getting anywhere because the front of the track is pushing you backward as the bottom is trying to pull you forward. If the machine sat higher out of the water so just the bottom of the track could propel you I think it would do much better. Now I know that water crossings are not really possible with these tracks on unless I get a motor on the back. I will have to mount an electric motor on there because I really want to be able to use it in the winter time in the snow and still do water crossings because of the train near my house. That is the whole reason that I purchased this machine. Oh yes and since this is my first post hello to everybody out there in the 6 x 6 world!

[fornarog]

I have to agree with Moose Man. In South Dorchester county you simply cannot make it through the flooded loblolly pines and marsh of the lower eastern shore of Maryland without tracks.

As for swimming in just water, we have a few trails that have no bottom, the tracks push you through, but I think it is much slower than just plain tires would. In our case though, you'd never reach those spots without the tracks.

Just my $0.02.

Greg

[Coast2Coast]

I can't imagine how people are having success with the plastic tracks in the water. I tried mine once in a small stream about 20' wide. Took me 45 minutes to get out and I finally gave up and just jumped in and used the winch to pull it out onto the bank. I couldn't believe that it wouldn't even crawl out on the perfectly gradual nice boat ramp style incline onto the bank. I tried everything between pinned throttle and barely turning and nothing would make it move. At certain speeds it would go backwards at a pace I would describe as 1/10th the speed of using a tea spoon to paddle. It would eventually run into the bank and the track would grab the bottom and just spin it around in circles helplessly facing you away from the bank again. One of the reasons I don't use tracks. Where I like to go the only thing separating me from the other hunters is the water that they can't cross. I would like to get a set of adairs some day but to get them into Canada they'd cost as much as my conquest.

[Sparx]

Until the dollar comes down I would highly recommend the Escargo tracks. They work great in water, I swim my machine pretty much every single time I'm out in it so it must move on it's own in the water. I did swim my older Argo on Rubber tracks but would need momentum for short crossings or paddles I always kept with it. I even had a Minn Kota outboard for a bit but never really got to try it out much. Other then wind or current you really don't need an outboard I find. The tracks help climb out of the water better too I find compared to the tires even though you get more speed from the tires.

[fornarog]

Sorry Ontario 8x8 Swamp Addict, but I would have to disagree with any comments knocking the plastic Argo Tracks for use in swamps. We have run Argos since the 70's in southern Dorchester County, all on tracks since they first became available. There is NO way you could get where we go with just tires, period. The argo (and Tru Trax) plastic segments are fantastic for slogging through flooded pine forests, thick mud bogs, and across marshland heavily rutted and chewed up and flooded by muskrat and nutria.