Track Tuners ?

[mudbug3]

gunner22a

The forum members that run the Adair tracks and also those members who run the Argo rubber tracks with the track tuners ,just can't stop talking about the HUGE improvement this has made for their machines.

[rodp]

Do these disconnect drive to the wheels completely, the same as the old freewheeling hubs used to? Or do they allow over run one way as in a ratchet? Do you have to physically get out and disengage / engage them ?

As you might have gathered, we don't see many of them over here.

[Buzz]

disconnects altogether. Same as an idler hub mounted over a spindle.

[plott hound]

i ordered a set and should have them for next weekend.cant wait to try them out.

[Rory_mcw]

My track turners should be here soon too, I'll let you all know what I think of them

[plott hound]

installed my track tuners yesterday.they arrive dry so make sure you pack the bearings.pulled them apart and packed bearings the old fashion way(by hand).went out on the lake for a real long drive and yes they make a big difference.much smoother ride,less thumping and bumping under the floor pans.so they do eliminate a lot of the chain wind up.now i just gotta save my pennies up for a set of adair tracks.

[mudbug3]

installed my track tuners yesterday.they arrive dry so make sure you pack the bearings.pulled them apart and packed bearings the old fashion way(by hand).went out on the lake for a real long drive and yes they make a big difference.much smoother ride,less thumping and bumping under the floor pans.so they do eliminate a lot of the chain wind up.now i just gotta save my pennies up for a set of adair tracks.

Those will be pennies well spent!

[Rock Doctor]

.they arrive dry so make sure you pack the bearings.pulled them apart and packed bearings the old fashion way(by hand)..

Mine arrived with grease already packed in them

RD

[Rory_mcw]

Mine have arrived, they need packing with grease.

I'll get round to it in the next few days and let you know how I get on.

The tracks I'm running are standard Argo 18" rubber ones

[plott hound]

thats because your "special"

Mine arrived with grease already packed in them

RD

[Old Tucker]

My track tuners just came in. I had to pack my bearings to. But thats OK. One thing I did notice is they did not turn very easy at all. I head to file the seal end of the hub down a little so it would not rub on the spindle. That was no big deal. But mine will not sit flat on the old two piece conquest axles It wants to rock on the enter part of the flange. Now if I tighten it down it will bend the flange. Have any of you run into this? The tuners are built a lot stronger then the old axles flanges. The tuners fit nice and snug on the new HD axles. but not a chance not the old axles .
Over all I must admit. They are built strong.

[Rock Doctor]

My track tuners just came in. I had to pack my bearings to. But thats OK. One thing I did notice is they did not turn very easy at all. I head to file the seal end of the hub down a little so it would not rub on the spindle. That was no big deal. But mine will not sit flat on the old two piece conquest axles It wants to rock on the enter part of the flange. Now if I tighten it down it will bend the flange. Have any of you run into this? The tuners are built a lot stronger then the old axles flanges. The tuners fit nice and snug on the new HD axles. but not a chance not the old axles .
Over all I must admit. They are built strong.

I never had this issue with my Conquest Axles. I wonder what the difference is?

RD

[Obsessed]

My track tuners just came in. I had to pack my bearings to. But thats OK. One thing I did notice is they did not turn very easy at all. I head to file the seal end of the hub down a little so it would not rub on the spindle. That was no big deal. But mine will not sit flat on the old two piece conquest axles It wants to rock on the enter part of the flange. Now if I tighten it down it will bend the flange. Have any of you run into this? The tuners are built a lot stronger then the old axles flanges. The tuners fit nice and snug on the new HD axles. but not a chance not the old axles .
Over all I must admit. They are built strong.

Hi Old Tucker thank you for your kind comments and honest reviews...hope you dont mind, but i just wanted to jump in and give some answers to a few of your questions...

1...why are they not pre-greased??? (i'm not saying that RD isn't just special...lol....) but two reasons really, one is that we have found that they are so close to the shipping weight limit that if we added the weight of the grease then it would bump them up to the next more expensive shipping charge which is pretty considerable with all 4 pieces.......second consideration is that it seems that everyone has their own preferance in grease brands and we didnt want to use our brand preferance and cause others to have to purchase a second grease gun and supplies in order to not cross-contaminate the lubricants...just my thoughts...

2....why are they not fitting up to my older axles very well??? I have a couple of thoughts here also (messy welds or warped flanges)... 1. track tuners have been designed to have a recessed pocket in the back side, so that the factory style axle that has an 1/8" of axle shaft exposed and then is welded to the hub flange, has a place to hide inside the back of the tuner...for this to all work in such a tight space the factorys welds, and ours, both have to be perfect and pretty flat, its possible that one of the welds is a bit too messy for the pieces to fight correctly....2. a second thing that might cause this is the fact that we have modified the way that we are now welding these parts together and the extreme heat has a slight tendency to warp the back plate on the track tuner and cause it to flare forward...this will also cause the slightly tighter fit on the backside of the wheel hub....because of this thought, we have designed the back of the flange to have the shape of a 5 sided star for two reasons...makes it easier to grease the new style axle bearings and to line up the access holes in one of the five positions, and secondly so that if they were ever mounted to a slightly damaged axle flange they could be tightened down and would flex enough to give a perfect fit....with that said, i think that another simple solution might just be 5 common fender washers placed over the axle studs and then go ahead and mount the track tuner tightly on top...

3....seems like the fit is very tight between the hub and back flange and the hub does not want to easily free wheel??? a few thoughts here also....1. the fit of the very close tolerances on our welding Jig (that lets us center and square the custom spindle to the two back plates) does not allow for any imperfections in the production hub castings and their machining processes...and secondly (as already stated) our welding process could be warping the track tuner flange slightly, or our paint finishing process could be slightly thicker than we expected... 3. or we could have gotten the packing nut slightly to tight......as long as the wheel dosent wobble, none of this would really bother me with the design because the high level of stress that it is designed to releave is more than enough to rotate the part (there have been many cases where the chain wind up of a tracked machine has been so severe that it will actually break an axle, or axle weld, this is what we want to eliminate)...if you can turn it by hand it is probably plenty loose...also it is a very slow moving part that probably will never see more than 1 MPH or about 4 MPH at full throttle in high gear in your application with a "classic" style track....and after there is grease between the parts, within a few hundred rotations the two parts should wear in together very nicely...we have actually considered not installing the rear hub seals and using the extra space for a second weld, or trying to machine the back of the hub off so that we could get the overall space down to 2.5" (instead of the current 2.75" offest)...i think that the slow movement and the tight fit would be about all it would take to keep adequate grease in the back bearing with only occasional grease input..

as usual, im probably overthinking it...lol...please let me know your thoughts, and if you might have any helpful input...im always struggling to try and improve our products

respectfully

tim

[Old Tucker]

Hello Tim.
Thanks for the reply, And as for the tuners I think they are built very strong. You will bend a axle or brake something else before you brake or bend the tuner. You have done a very good job on them. Thanks .

As for the grease, we all know that grease is the least of our worries.

Now as for them not siting flat on the old axles. I took a good look and it looks like it,s the weld on the inside. If it was just one axle or just one tuner. Then I mite think something may be bent. But it,s all the old axles and all four tuners. I ran a straight edge on the tuners. and they were all straight. And besides if they were warped they would rock even on the new HD axles. But they sit nice and flat. It looks like the weld on the in side of the recess may be the problem. Would it weaken it to much if I took a die grinder and cleaned it up a little. Or as you say I could just use some fender washers.

Now for the hub rubbing on the spindle on the seal end. I did not have to take much off at all. For them to run free. Now you were saying you would like to take out the seal to make up that 1/4 Inch. How about turning it down and to give you that room. And instead of the regular seal. Put a grove in the back side for a O ring type of seal. and it could ride on the spindle. the hub would sit nice and close like it is now. Now there would be just a O ring in there. to keep out the muck.

Thanks again Tim And I think We will be giving you a jingle. I do not want to take a chance with the old conquest axles.
So I may just bit the bullet.
Al

[Rory_mcw]

Have had mine fitted now for 8 hours. I noticed a huge difference once fitted.
This is a fantastic product!