This is the track to get if you need traction. It turns your machine into a small dozer. I wonder how much lighter aluminum would be ? I like the belts to connect the crosses. It would be nice to get the weight down.
This is the track to get if you need traction. It turns your machine into a small dozer. I wonder how much lighter aluminum would be ? I like the belts to connect the crosses. It would be nice to get the weight down.
going aluminum usually means more thickness is required for the same strength...which starts works directly against weight savings. It would be a very sweet looking track in aluminum though.
There is some pretty high strength aluminum out there, that sure would do the job for the crossers. But you better be sitting down when they give a price. As Buzz said it sure would look nice all right.
hi ,
The typical rule ,alluminium is 1/3 the weight of steel .
Next for alluminium to be the same strength, the alluminium has to be double the thickness .
Therefore the alluminium is 2/3rds the weight of steel.
This assumption is approx. as the type of allu and steel can change this .
There is high strength allu but have had zero experience with high wear resistant allu.
The wear resistant steels do out last by 2-3 times std steel [cheaper than high grade allu sheet I would suspect ]
tomo
So throwing #s out there. If your crossers came in at 90 lbs. Then going the same strength you would still save 30 lbs. Thats still not bad. I wonder what the price of the high strength aluminium would be. Would be interesting to know.
I have my doubts that aluminum would wear as well then high strength steel, it may even break under higher stress situations.
That being said it would be interesting to test if money were no object!!
Rock
Last edited by rockrewls; 03-05-2014 at 03:00 PM.
Aluminum won't wear near as well. I doubt it would wear much better than UHMW and the grouser would need to be thicker than steel witch takes away the grousers sharp bite. Aluminum can't take twisting and torquing action very well and is time consuming and expensive to weld. It won't rust and would look cool but cost and longevity makes it uneconomical. If 20-30 pounds makes or breaks a track your over loading your AATV!
Camo side up, Rubber side down!!
2014 Argo 750HDI SE
2008 Honda Rubicon, Camo
2008 Jeep Rubicon, Black, 2 door, 6sp, 2 Warn winches.
This aluminium Alloy developed in the mid 90's would probably work well.
7068 alloy provides the highest mechanical strength of all aluminium alloys and matches that of certain steels. This outstanding alloy combines a yield strength of up to 700 MPa (up to over 30% greater than that of 7075 alloy) and good ductility with corrosion resistance similar to 7075 and other features beneficial to high performance component/equipment designers.
RD
I've heard quite a few people ask about making aluminum crossers. It would be super cool...heck yeah, but I kinda feel like it would be like building a glass house or putting 20" aluminum rims on your pickup truck (no offense if you do)....A lot of trouble and expense for something that isn't near as practical, might not hold up as well as a high-strenth steel alloy, and would only save a little weight.
Do I still want to do it.....hell yeah. But I never would. I'll let someone else do it and would be happy to cheer them on. There are far more practical things to do. Like maybe sanitize the bottom of my shoe for instance. Just ribbin a bit boys, it would definitely be very cool.
A much easier option would be to press some aluminum U-channel into channel-style tracks...They might just be strong enough. That would be super light that's for sure.
COST. For what it would cost to build aluminum tracks and save 20-30 pounds. People complain about the cost of Escargo tracks now, if you ad 20-25% more for aluminum no one would buy them.
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