Any Downsides to Adair Tracks?

[Rock Doctor]

I thought they were less than that, never knew I could throw 225 lbs into the back of my truck like that, lol.
Sorry, I'm not at home, and am arguing with a friend about there weight. Lol

Thanks guys

[thebuggyman1]

I emailed Tim and also sent him a private message: How much does an 18" inch Adair track weigh for an 8x8 Argo. This was his answer.

About 193 lbs for the 14.5"
About 225 lbs for the 18.5"
On an 8x8

This is more complex than just weight. On land, you have to look at the footprint it adds. Any track will greatly decrease the psi of ground pressure.
In the water, you have to look at how much water the tracks themselves will displace too. It is not the same as throwing the 225 lbs in the back of the machine.

[foxvalley]

Is that weight for just 1 track, or a set?

[mudbug3]

Foxvalley

That is for one set of tracks

[foxvalley]

I emailed Tim and also sent him a private message: How much does an 18" inch Adair track weigh for an 8x8 Argo. This was his answer.

About 193 lbs for the 14.5"
About 225 lbs for the 18.5"
On an 8x8

Hope I'm not being nit picky here, just want to clairify that is for the set.(Sorry Doc, your not as strong as you think.)

[Rock Doctor]

Hope I'm not being nit picky here, just want to clairify that is for the set.(Sorry Doc, your not as strong as you think.)

Oh thank god, I had visions of bulging biceps, and a 6pack growing on my tummy, lol.
Not nitpicky at all, that's exactly what I wanted. Now I can go back to my buddy and say "I WAS RIGHT...................... SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET AGREES WITH ME"

RD

[bilimrl1]

Issues I've had with the Adair tracks.. 1. Tire slippage, 2. Ramps, 3. Riddin’ buddies
1. Tire slippage
My wife’s argo bigfoot now has Ver. 10ish... tires spinning in tracks
Slick surface inside track surface, after new tracks have their initial stretch… 30 +/- 5 hours or so we put on them. Her machine is running worn and old design terra tires of some sort. Tim has all the best combinations worked out that this is not an issue on what he sells now.
My machine has new Argo design tires that grip tracks even with extremely loose tracks. I hung the argos at 45 deg. in tree to spray out to clean after Mud national. There was probably 4-5 inches of sag. I never spun a tire while putting almost 35+hours during a 5 day Mud Nationals this year. Her’s spun as mentioned above in mainly an inclined surface. She had a little less sag, while hanging in tree at 45 deg.
Both machines have not had the first adjustment to the new ver. style track until after Mud nationals and have not been ridden since adjustment. Tire selection that grips surface inside track is critical.
2. Ramps
Next issue: I have issues with driving argo into my toy hauler. Because, tracks can’t get a grip on the large, angled ramp into camper... I need to add strips and/or textured surface for traction. I use the winch to pull it into the camper. This also happens on ramps that don’t have any way for tracks to grab traction. It’s dangerous. You must consider this before attempting to climb up a ramp. This goes for backing down the ramps. Mine has turned sideways, getting the tracks caught in the camper cable that supports the ramp. I have work to do.
3. Riddin’ buddies
The main issue I’ve had… NO ONE!!!! I mean NO ONE can keep up with us in the EXTREME mud any more… The wife and I find ourselves deep in the nastiest, muddiest areas with everyone else back at camp… HA
Adair tracks in extreme muddy or anything I’ve ran these things on/in are GREAT and well worth the money!!! Go TIM.. Let’s hear it.. GO TIM!! ((batman) And you to Mike… ((Robin))
Let me add, the new bearing setup with the adaptor plate I have not installed yet, should make the maintenance a breeze, can’t wait until this chore is completed on my machines.

[Noel Woods]

I have Adair tracks on my Argo Frontier 650, I have had no issues with my tracks. Tire pressure is critical to proper track tension, if its off the tracks will be loose. Once the tracks (or actually the chains within the tracks) stretch, it may be necessary to shorten the tracks by a grouser every now and then. On my machine I removed one grouser on one side and now things are perfect. I do have several friends that have taken out several grousers per side though. I think it varies on what you bump into (tree roots, rocks, etc.).
The tracks are difficult to ride up a metal ramp as Robert mentioned, it takes some getting used to but I have mastered it, just slowly drive up at minimal speed.
Also, the machine needs to be well tied down on the trailer as the tracks will allow the machine to slide while being transported.
The tracks however do make the machine for mudding and swimming, and its the best piece of gear available for an amphib.

[Rock Doctor]

Those that have had their tracks stretch..........Is it safe to say that your tracks are "Pre-Case Hardened Chain"?
If not, ............. How far will a Case Hardened chain Stretch before breaking?
Those that have had to remove "several" Grousers........Have you lost any of the Grouser Spacers? If the chains are stretched that much, there can't be much of the "Interlock Tabs" on the spacers still fitted into the Grousers.
Those that have "Tire Slipage", do you attribute that strictly to non compatible tires? I have the old Runasucks on my machine, and I have also installed the Track Tuners. Even without the center 4 tires "Driving" I have never yet slipped a tire in the tracks, and I don't think I'm running my tracks excessivly tight (About 4" sag, I think)

My Ramps have old Snowmobile track on them to give the Adair's traction when loading. Works very well, but does add some weight to the ramps. My Ramps are made from Aluminium, and were damn near dangerous to climb with plastic tracks.

Tks for any insight

RD

[mudbug3]

Rock Doctor

When I owned a Mudd-Ox with Adair tracks ( pre-case hardened chain ) I managed to get my tracks really loose on a two day ride at river run atv park. I was running 25 inch" goodyear rawhide tires and not once did the tires ever slip inside the tracks. The last time that Noel and I went to mud creek atv park I got my tracks in a bind several times while driving through hard dirt , atv ruts because I did'nt have the choice to avoid them. Noel and I continued to ride until we stopped for lunch and not once did the frontier tires slip inside the Adair tracks. The two best tires that Tim has found to use with his tracks are the goodyear rawhide tire and the frontier tire. I had one spacer plate push out of the slot on one side of a grouser when running over and the spacer plate never came out of the other slot than holds it in. Its still like this now after 25 hours of use. The chain snaps in place inside the grouser spacer plate and has to be pried out with a screw driver to remove the chain that's inside of it. I have now removed two grousers on each track and also eight chain links. I have talked to Tim about this and we both came to the same conclusion. After the initial stretch of the case hardened chain , the stretch that you get in the Adair tracks after that is'nt really chain stretch , but the sharp , flat edges on which the chain runs over inside of the grouser slot. The slot inside of the grouser becomes more rounded with extreme useage. By extreme , I mean constantly driving through hard atv ruts and pinching the Adair tracks on either side. I doubt that you'll ever brake a case hardened chain or even a regular chain inside of an Adair track in the extreme conditions that I talked about. Tim has a customer with the generation 10 tracks and is using non case hardened chain and he has'nt taken a link out of either tracks in almost 2 yrs.

[foxvalley]

I haven't noticed much stretch on my 18" tracks after putting on about 40 hours the last couple of months, not enough to take out a grouser anyway. What I have had happen though, is I have lost a few bolts on the outside edge of the tracks,I believe that the extreme flexing of the outside edge might be loosening the lock washers. I retorqued all the bolts,and will let you know if this is an isolated case, or if they are in fact getting loose.I picked up 1 lb. of bolts, washers,and nuts just like tim uses for $1.89, and keep them under the seat. No problems on the inside bolts.

[Obsessed]

[QUOTE=bilimrl1;120127]Issues I've had with the Adair tracks.. 1. Tire slippage....
1. Tire slippage
My wife’s argo bigfoot now has Ver. 10ish... tires spinning in tracks
Slick surface inside track surface, after new tracks have their initial stretch… 30 +/- 5 hours or so we put on them. Her machine is running worn and old design terra tires of some sort. Tim has all the best combinations worked out that this is not an issue on what he sells now.
My machine has new Argo design tires that grip tracks even with extremely loose tracks. I hung the argos at 45 deg. in tree to spray out to clean after Mud national. There was probably 4-5 inches of sag. I never spun a tire while putting almost 35+hours during a 5 day Mud Nationals this year. Her’s spun as mentioned above in mainly an inclined surface. She had a little less sag, while hanging in tree at 45 deg.
Both machines have not had the first adjustment to the new ver. style track until after Mud nationals and have not been ridden since adjustment. Tire selection that grips surface inside track is critical.

Hi Robert,

just going to respond to your thoughts here, as it my be of some interest to others...

on your 6x6 that is running the (22x11x8) rawhide III's we have noticed that a single grouser will slip rather easily one direction on that tread, but gets caught on the lug while trying to slip the other direction....if you leave the tires mounted in the normal AATV direction so that if you are looking at the front of the machine the ">" is pointing upward...then this will allow more slippage when the tires are driving the tracks forward....(i think i like this for two reasons...one, it is possibly easier on the machine as it produces no chain windup, and two, it insures more positive ingagement of the tire and track should you attempt to back out of a hole)...with that said, i think that the next time you service your machine and the tracks, try flipping the left side and right side tires so that they are mounted in the reverse direction and let us know if there is any noticable difference (the 22" goodyear tread pattern is slightly different than the 25" version of that tire, so our results might possibly vary and we havent had a lot of experiance or feed back from that tire/track combination)

as far as the friends not being able to keep up, just need to get more of your friends riding AATV's...lol :-)

Rock Doctor...."Those that have had their tracks stretch..........Is it safe to say that your tracks are "Pre-Case Hardened Chain"?
If not, ............. How far will a Case Hardened chain Stretch before breaking?"

no...the track "stretch" that some are refering to is still on tracks built with the new Case Hardened Chain...i think that it is not actually "chain stretch" as this chain does not stretch, but will instead shatter first....what happens is that the chain surfaces tend to "break into" one another and this will allow the tracks to relax a little...there is also (as David mentioned) the reality that under sever loads or if twisted up in ruts, etc the chain could be pulled slightly into the grouser where it passes through and this could also slightly relax the track...this slack may need to be adjusted from time to time durring your normal machine maintaince and is done by removing a half link or a full link in the connection point of the track and trimming the length back slightly....(keep all of your old parts so that if someday the tracks actually need to be rebuilt you can replace the four individual chains and reuse all of the origional pieces)

for improved durrability, where cost and machine width are less of limiting factors, the wider 16.5" or 18.5" tracks are prefered because the wider side spacers overlap and bolt together and allow for less individual movement of the parts...meaning, parts don't wear as fast and wear is much less noticeable...

hope this helps clearify what others are discussing

Tim

[foxvalley]

Oh thank god, I had visions of bulging biceps, and a 6pack growing on my tummy, lol.
Not nitpicky at all, that's exactly what I wanted. Now I can go back to my buddy and say "I WAS RIGHT...................... SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET AGREES WITH ME"

RD

Just because I agree with you, doesn't nessesarily mean I like you......... lol Doc!

[Rock Doctor]

Just because I agree with you, doesn't nessesarily mean I like you......... lol Doc!

Hmmm, anyone remember how to take away "reputation points"?


RD

[foxvalley]

You mean....point. My mother gave me one when she visited the site. Mike just feels sorry for me, so he gave me a star.(He took it from your pile, Doc.)