Track Guide situations in rubber tracks.

[Big Moose]

Hi, wondering if anyone has ever found a way for your tires not to track over the tire guides on the tracks. I had an old Argo with the plastic 18 inch tracks and what I did was put a steel angle right across the track so it could not bend. I cut the angle down where the track rides under the plastic frame but left the rest sticking up, had incredible traction. I bolted this angle in four places where the tire guides are held. It seems the tires will want to track out of the track if you are on a bad slant and these plastic guides start to drive themselves into the tire. The angle eliminated this problem by up to 90% and I could live with it. I have since bought a new 2012 8x8 argo HDI with the 18inch rubber tracks and again I have done almost the same thing except I ran a flat bar across the track and used a snowmobile stud for traction, it pulls itself right out of the middle of the lake and onto ice with these studs, I found the argo cleats to be useless. I still have the problem of the guides driving themselves into the tire but its 70% better than having no steel across the rubber track to stiffen it up. I can almost live with it now but am wondering if anyone has a better solution.

[Mudbilly]

A better solution would be to get a set of Adair tracks or a set of Escargot tracks, They are designed to fit the radial edge of your tires which keeps them pretty much tracking in a good center line, Plus they are designed to be agressive enough to get a good bite on the ground, snow, mud, or pretty much what ever you are driving over, They also have more of an open design between the track links themselves making them a lot better at self cleaning themself throwing mud and snow out of the way, They also traverse through the water, mud, & slush very well with the paddle design of the track links, But adding the angle and metal bars to the ones you have sould do pretty good for now, As it does add some better ridgidity to the original designed plastic argo tracks & super track, But if you are looking to upgrade I would check into these style tracks, The ((( Adair or Escargot ))) line of tracks...

[Big Moose]

I will figure out how to get a post started on this. My problem is with the rubber tracks. I looked hard and long at the adair tracks and escargot. They are not for me. No track is perfect and I chose the rubber track and am trying to fix it's issues. My choice to not go with adair is that they dont give a lot of details on there floatation attachments. I want to go from snow to land without having the job of attaching the floatation pieces and how are these pieces going to stand up to ground, everything is not always covered in snow so when I get in the bush what happens to these extensions, how do you navigate with something that wide. Also I climb flat rocks on steep slopes and these tracks will slide. My rubber tracks will not. I thought about getting the adair tracks and fixing these issues as well and maybe there is a fix for that, however I have 18 inch rubber tracks now which I prefer and am wondering if someone has fixed the problem of these track guides driving themselves into the tire. I have another solution I have not tried yet, I will post some picks as it may help others with rubber tracks. The steel plate is a huge improvement and you still get the advantage of the snow cleaning itself out. The plastics dont clean out when slush hits it.

[Big Moose]

Track Guide situations in rubber tracks.

Has anyone figured out a way to stop the plastic tire guides in the rubber tracks to stop driving themselves into the tire. I have found a way to make this situation a lot less likely. I will post pics if someone can give me a how to tutorial it would be appreciated.

I have a 2012 8x8 HDI with the 18 rubber, I have modified the track with a steel plate that runs across the tire guides to stiffen the track. It stops the guide from pinching into the tire but not completly. On steep slants the weight of the machine tries to drive the tires over the plastic guides. The driver has to be aware not to do this but I am trying to full proof this situation. Any help, Ill post what I have done, it should help a lot of people with the rubber track. The adair and escargo has other issues that make those tracks not right for me so I keeping with the rubber and trying to fix this issue.....not change tracks.

Thanks

[thebuggyman1]

More PSI? A different tire with stiffer sidewalls? Just thoughts....

[Big Moose]

These things take money and time, Ive been trying different things and always find a flaw in the design. I think this could work but the plastic guides would break...I think. I could change to steel guides. However the ride quality would be gone. With little suspension that we have with these machines all come from the soft tires. Thoughts can be expensive, thats why I'm here, Ive been through enough of my own ideas and I'll share the ones that work. Im hoping someone has defeated this situation and will share it.

There are no problems only situations, thanks for the idea, if we get enough of them maybe we can combine and conquer

Thanks

[Obsessed]

The rubber tracks have more slop between the tire guides than necessary which allows the track to slip into bad angles against the tire....this has been improved with the wider tire that the HDI uses...on a slightly older 8x8 avenger with 25x11.5x9 Goodyear rawhide3 tires it was pretty effective to move one side of the guides in to the narrow mounting position closing the gap between the wheel guides and keeping the tire positioned better...depending on what side you move in you can also improve body clearance and help stop some of the track rubbing....this will probably cause a little squeaking between the tire and wheel guides, but almost eliminated all the broken wheel guides and throwing of tracks....new HDI tires have a lot softer sidewall so take this idea for what its worth and deside if it might help with your problems

Best of luck :-)

Tim

[Big Moose]

The dealer told me about the new tires so I have these on now. I cant compare to the tires that would be smaller being the paddle tire type. I dont use the tires for treading water so I have the tires that suit the tracks better. Pushing the guides in may help, I believe there is too much play and may help to reduce an angle that the track goes on under side load where the tire walks up on the guide and gets out. This will take some work if I try it. I don't think it will be a complete fix though. Under rough terrain such as numerous stumps in the bush....if the side of the track clips a stump or rock the plastic guide will bend with the track and drive itself into the tire and in some cases you lose the bead on the tire or damage the tire or break the plastic. I put steel flat bar across the track and pretty much eliminated this scenario. However when your tracking down a slant the weight of the machine slides between the track and tire so all the weight of the machine on a slant is trying to drive the tires over the track guide. Moving the guides in will help but there has to be some room.

What im going to try is..... putting several 3/4 inch screws through the track first. the points will stick into the tire on the inside giving the tire traction inside the track, this way when the weight of the machine tries to shift sideways the tires will have traction in the track and stay away from sliding into the guide. My fear is there will be more traction for the tire to ride itself out. However this will only cost me a bit of time and the screws are cheap. A 3/4 inch screw only sticks out a 1/4 inch through the track so there is no fear of a tire puncture and minimal damage of a couple of screws through the track wont hurt.

[Buzz]

sounds like maybe you already did this, but a piece of flat steel on the inside of the track (under both tire guides) would help with the "flexing" of the tire guides. Similar to a mudd-ox rubber track. It's just really heavy. The only time I've thrown a rubber track-18" is when I let my air pressure get too low (or flat) and was turning aggressively on a side-hill. Seems like with this kind of tire guide, the tire lifespan is directly related to how long the side-walls hold up. Rawhide III's are good for this.

[Big Moose]

Here is a few photos and tips with what I did to my rubber track. The plate I used is too thick over what is necessary and if I do it again i am going to try aluminum to lighten the track weight. The stud gives ultimate traction on ice and icy rocky hills. I took the Argo cleats off as they don't really do anything useful. If i go through the ice the argo climbs out because of these studs. With the steel plate bolted to the tire guides the stud can never rip out. It stays perfectly straight even under load. I used a double nut to help with that as well. There easy to change when needed. The plate keeps the track straight as well which helps with flotation as the track stays flatter and keeps the guides from digging into the sidewalls of the tire.

And im starting with the screws now to see if this will give the tires traction in the track to keep from sliding into the tire guide when on a slant. Im hoping this works.