hybrid crosser

[Buzz]

here's another experiment.
1" x 1" x 3/16 steel angle. UHMW guide-paddles. 1/2" thick UHMW backer plates and grade-8 hardware.

channel-iron would work well with this set-up too. If you "step" the outside of the guide paddles, you can decrease the ground contact width by about 4", but you have to adjust the tire-guide area to leave more material for an additional inner bolt...if that makes any sense at all.

[mightymaxIV]

Wow! Very nice work Buzz-the steel and UHMW look as if they will work great in ice, frozen terrain or other extreme conditions, what does a set cost to make? What would they sell for? How soon before you test them? How much do they weigh? Will they swim? Are you going to put these on your Diesel Mudd Ox????

[Old Tucker]

Very nice Buzz My question is. When do you fine the time to play? You are so buzzy building things things. I think those are going to work out great. Now which way would you run them? With the angle facing front or back, I think I would have the leading long edge forward in that way the edge will always be clean and the snow and ice may build up on the back of the angle. I found that with the paddles I put on my tracks the back side of the angle will have snow built up a little but the leading edge is always clean giving me a good clean edge that will bit into the snow.

They do look good I must admit that

[kghills]

here's another experiment.
1" x 1" x 3/16 steel angle. UHMW guide-paddles. 1/2" thick UHMW backer plates and grade-8 hardware.

channel-iron would work well with this set-up too. If you "step" the outside of the guide paddles, you can decrease the ground contact width by about 4", but you have to adjust the tire-guide area to leave more material for an additional inner bolt...if that makes any sense at all.

Looks interesting Buzz. I would be interested to see how the mating surfaces or joints hold up after 50 hours and more. I was thinking of a design a year or so ago that would bolt together but the engineers at the company next to my shop talked me out of it saying that they felt bolting the UHMW to other parts would not last over time and just work loose. Never know till you try though sometimes.

Keith.

[Buzz]

Dan- yep I'm gonna put them on the ox first. I don't know how much they weigh yet (my back tells me maybe 140 lbs when I'm scooting them around, but I'll figure that out). There's less UHMW but way more labor. I'm going to build the other track today and hopefully put them on to run today. I know they'll paddle, probably no better than anything else especially since they have some weight you know. Cost depends on how you cut the blocks. We CNC'd these with the typical curve on the inside, but I think a guy could acutally use square-shaped blocks with the elevated design, and it would still work very well. So you could turn it into a chop saw, drill press, and table-saw job. You'd still want to router the guide edges, but you could do that with any router.
It does eliminate the washer weight and gives a tall traction cleat 1" w/o sacrificing tub clearance.
I gotta see if there are any unforeseen problems when running it, so I can tell folks to scrap the idea if that's the case.

[Buzz]

Old Tucker- I plan to run with the angle forward just like you're thinking. It does take time alright, but it's fun! I just try to plan ahead so when I get days off from work I can hammer something out. I have a pretty good system, but it definitely takes a little time.

[plott hound]

holy crap buzz,you must own a rubber belting factory.lol

[Old Tucker]

BUZZ How tall are the crossers on the Escargo track?

[Buzz]

BUZZ How tall are the crossers on the Escargo track?

1.25 under tire, 2 7/8" tread-to-belt mount surface, 3/8" thick belt on top. (typically) for the 25" tire

These hybrids just have the belt 1/2" lower with the remaining guide (1/2") placed on top. The under tire area is 1" on these.

Plan to test drive tomorrow

[rockrewls]

Interesting Buzz Cant wait to see the vids!

Rock

[garretttpe]

HI Buzz
where do you buy the UHMW from? I have a set of real nice Yamaha snowmobile tracks that I want to you on my 2000 MAX II (another forum members idea) your new grosser looks like it will work perfect to bolt onto the outside of the sled tracks. Did you use a router to cut the radius? and if so what size bit did you use?
thanks for all the pictures and information you have posted.

Larry

[Buzz]

I'll get it from ak rubber up here frequently, sometimes shop around online and start making phone calls. Shipping freight is a big factor for us.

tire guides are expensive to buy or time consuming to make. Trying to make standard guides out of UHMW for a flat track like you describe would be expensive. Might be cheaper (still not cheap though) to get argo tire guides for that purpose. But I understand wanting to use free snowmachine track belting if you have it.

Your snowmachine belting should have rods embedded in it already for lateral stability, and you can bolt on pieces of angle iron, or even an additional winter kit for more floatation and traction if needed. If you want to use full-width angle, just round up some conveyor belting. After all, that's all snow-cat tracks are.

My guide blocks were cnc routered, let me check on the bit for you. You could make square ones that I think would work just fine though.

[Buzz]

Interesting Buzz Cant wait to see the vids!

Rock

Like a knucklehead, my track was about 6 inches short.......I forgot that I dropped the belt location 1/2". Dumb dumb dumb. Anyway, I made up an extension and took it for a short ride. It's got some serious bite that's for sure. There's probably an 8 or 9 inch gap w/o a crosser where I made the extension, so I have to make up another one, and trim the inner belting 1/2" while I have it off, then it's ready to go for some video. It will be 23 1/2" wide.

I might get some center half-track video today though with any luck.

[Buzz]

here's a couple pics of the track mounted from the other day. Full-width 3/16" angle iron track w/UHMW elevated belt guides. Doesn't tear up my cement garage. Straight bolts or points might, but straight flat metal doesn't seem to hurt it. It leaves marks every else though I'll get some video tomorrow. Forgot to bring home a jug of diesel the other day...the gauge finally got down there.

[Old Tucker]

I like the tracks their buzz. It will be interesting to see how they work out. Looks like you have good paddle size on every crosser. Should give you lots of bite. 23.5 wide I like