Need help with mud!

[argoweasel]

I am running a couple of Argo's on a project in the Cascades. We are dealing with serious mud. This stuff clings to anything and keeps building up and building up. It is very thick. There is so much of the stuff on the plastic tracks, it impedes the Argo daily and they have to be washed off with a pressure washer. This entails loading them daily and bringing them down from the job site. They are Frontiers with 18 inch plastic tracks.

Does anyone know how to keep this mud from adhereing to the tracks? I heard Pam cooking spray might help. I need help!!!! This is a multimillion pipe line construction project. Thanks!!!!

[Rock Doctor]

Interesting problem. I've had the same sort of problem with sticky mud building up on quad tires to the point where the quads can no longer turn them.

I've heard of, and tried the Pam Cooking Spray thing...............it actually does work for everything EXCEPT tires and tracks. Moving parts like the tires and tracks will self clean for a very short time with the spray, but it wears off quite fast.

What would you think of making a scraper, mounted at the back of the machine, so that it scrapes the tracks as they come around the tires, just before the track goes under the Argo body? I would think it should be hinged, and under spring tension, to press it down toward the track. It would also need a roller, or slider set to keep it ...............maybe 1/4"-1/2" away from the track face (Assuming you have no Traction cleets, picks, paddles, grouzers, ect mounted to the track faces).

I also suspect that the 18" Supertracks are NOT your best choice in tracks for this purpose. Possibly the Adair "Open Track Design" might be better?
Tires alone are probably not an option, due to mud packing between them as well as packing up under the tub fender?

I think we do have similar conditions around here, so I will check around and see if anyone has come up with a viable solution. Might have to bite the bullet and get something more sutible, IE, no fender/wheel space issues. A thought might be something like a Rhino, or Razor type machine fitted with tracks (I don't know if this would be better or not, just thinking out loud)

If you do come up with something, I would be interested in what it is.

Good Luck


RD

[argoweasel]

Thanks for the reply. We are running a couple of Ranger HD's with tracks, but they have trouble running in the mud and are getting stuck alot. Currently we have 3 Frontiers, 1 650 HD, and 3 Hdi's. The HDi's had the rubber tracks and had trouble running in the mud. We ordered 2 sets of Frontier tires and plastic tracks for them. The Frontiers with the plastic go through the mud great, until we get hundreds of pounds of mud on them and start having trouble turning the tracks. We also have a Hagglund which kicks complete ass, but, unfortunatly, we only have one.

This mud is bottomless and has no base at all. I thought about the scraper system, but I think the mud would simply build up on it and eventually break it. I am from Georgia and have lived in the rockies for 16 years. I was use to Georgia red clay, but the mud we have out here is like nothing I have ever seen anywhere. It just builds up and up and up. I don't even thing the Adairs would help. Somehow, I need to figure out how to keep the mud from clinging to the tracks.

Thanks for the reply and if you think on anything, I am open to all ideas.

BTW, the reason we have to pull them down from the job site is EPA requirements. I have no idea why it is illegal to spray the mud off with a pressure washer (no soap, just water) on site, since you are basically returning the mud from where it came, but it is. Go figure.

[Rock Doctor]

A buddy of mine has 2 or 3 Haglunds, but I suspect you are too far away to want to rent them. They are in Northern BC Canada. I'll turn you on to him though if you want?


RD

[argoweasel]

We rented another one, probably from him, and it has been stuck in customs at the boarder for 3 weeks. Something about emmissions. Thanks, but I think we are going to stick with Argos.

[brushcutter]

Let me just throw on a little food for thought here, there was a guy, don't remember his name off-hand, but Mudbug3 (Dave) and I talked with him a few times, and the subject of super sticky mud came up. He rode (quads mostly) in the Mississippi/Red River delta country and had problems identical to what you are talking about. He said the stuff would build up to the point it would rub the fenders on their bikes, and related having fenders broken due to this. The solution, and it surprised me, that he came up with, was to run plain stock tires with snow chains. He said what he found was the chains had a little slack in them and as they rode the slack allowed them to move back and forth slightly, which in turn would "cut" the mud off the tires and keep it from building up too much. This could possibly be a less expensive solution to your problem, and chains shouldn't be hard to find out that way. Hope this helps.

[mudbug3]

The bad mud that you are talking about that clings to the tires and tracks until they can hardly move, sounds like what we call gumbo clay in the south. As you drive through gumbo clay it just keeps building up around the tires until they become larger and larger. When this happens you no longer have any traction because the gumbo clay has turned your tires into big gumballs. If you drive into any water this makes the situation even worse. I,ve found out by experience , that its best to scap off the gumbo clay before it dries hard. When it dries its even harder to blast off. I avoid driving through this stuff like the plague. Thats why I don,t go to the Marengo swamp run , because the trails are full of gumbo clay.

[Stonewall]

We farm on some gumbo here and like mudbug was saying, it is best to avoid at all costs. When we harvest rice in a flooded field thats full of gumbo mud, about the only way that we can manage to not get our tractors stuck is to spin the tires so fast (only about 10 mph but they are 6' tall tires) that it slings the mud out from between the lugs. I think that Rock Doctor is right about a scraper, if what you're in is anything like what we have here, there isn't much else that can help you. If you build the scraper from half of a piece of about 10-12 gauge steel pipe, it should roll the mud into a ball that will fall off behind you. Provided that you put enough bracing behind it, it shouldn't break.

[Mr. Moose]

Gumbo is mean

l ran into the same problem this past fall 2x, once goose htg(gumbo & stubble) l thought l had done something wrong like not enough speed etc., the 2nd time deer htg in a different area ( gumbo ) and the results were the same. ever try to get the stuff out with your hands and a pry bar in the middle of the field The third time l was just going to run tires this spring in the stuff thinking the tracks were the problem. Thank you guys from saving me a lot of trouble and aggrivation. good sound advice by just staying the heck away from it.