homemade tracks question

[Buzz]

sounds good marts!
john swenson- That's kinda my thought too, you can adjust the steel angle and location of uhmw guides to fit any tire and then make up a whole batch that way. It's very simple, but.......takes for damn ever. That's the only real downside, but for a do-it-yourselfer it works well. The main width/design factor is the contact width of the steel on the ground..because your guides are connected to this. For flat ground or snow, a wide contact patch is okay, but when you start getting on lumpy ground, a very wide contact patch is leveraged around by the ground...and therefore your guides get leveraged around too. An ideal design shape is one that is rigid between the tires, but additional width outboard of that- isn't affected by leverage, or it is a separate bolt-on and alllowed to flex or move w/o tilting the main tire-guide area. Mudd-ox uses narrow rigid guides on their wide rubber track.

Just be cautious of that when you're going over really crappy ground.
My steel is 1" x 1" 3/16" thick, and I haven't bent a single one yet. It's 18" wide on the ground. I considered using 1/4", but so far I think that would be overkill.

[john swenson]

martz, it may be your least exspensive and easiest way to add more tire guides between the existing ones i to use some inch and a half flatbar 3/16'' thick. cut the length where you have the length next to the tire you want then add 2 or 3 inches to go under the belting. then just bend a 90 degree bend at that point. just like a shelf bracket. if you go that route, after cutting the bar the right length, drill the 2 holes first before you bend and drill the 2 holes on each end of the new angle guides also. if you do not want to make your own guides, lowes sells some pretty heavy duty angle brackets. johnboy va.

[john swenson]

marts, i checked mc master carr co. they sell a 5 foot length of 1'' o.d. fiberglass rod which is very strong, for about $ 30.00. if you made the tire guides by cutting a 4'' lenght, you would get about 15 pieces out of that 5 footer. that would be about 2 bucks a guide. just a thought on comparing that to flat bar plus the labor of drilling 2 holes and then bending a 90 degree bend. after i bent all my tire guides ( 56 of them ) i was worn out. johnboy va.

[martz694]

thanks for all the input guys. the original guides are homemade flatbar similar to what johnboy said. i'm still mulling over my options and hoping that i get a nice big lightbulb above my head soon. as for my angles they are 14" wide but the actual ground contact side is only 12" ...i have them grinded to kind of taper off towards the middle ....i figured it would help with turning and keep the tracks flat. it doesn't affect snow performance as the belting takes car of widening the footprint. Do you have a link to that fiberglass rod you are talking about?

[john swenson]

martz, i believe mc master carr co. has their catalog on the internet. when you find them punch in fiberglass rod. it will show you. if not, let me know as i have the catalog and can give you parts no. and phone. i have bought alot of neat stuff from them over the years. johnboy va.

[martz694]

what about the spacing in between them? is 8 inches too much? (the originals are 8 inches) i might try running them as is and if they don't stay on i will add more. i found the fiberglass rod and i will most likely use that if i do need more

[Buzz]

what about the spacing in between them? is 8 inches too much? (the originals are 8 inches) i might try running them as is and if they don't stay on i will add more. i found the fiberglass rod and i will most likely use that if i do need more

they might stay on over flat ground, but that's about it. A lot of turning and especially uneven ground will do you in.

[john swenson]

marts, i thought you were going to leave the old guides on and then add new angle with new guides inbetween the them, then spacing would be 4'' right ? that would keep the tracks on. just make sure new guides are not too long so they don't bang the old ones when they wrap around the tire. johnboy va.

[martz694]

i don't have a plan for new guides yet. the previous owner is a friend of mine and he used them like this for a couple years and he said it worked fine. he bought a newer one that came with the 18 inch rubber tracks so he didn't need these ones anymore. he said the only issue was that they would ride really rough on hard surfaces. i figured just adding more angles would solve the rough ride problem

[martz694]

here is a clear view of the guides around the tires.