Home made rubber tracks

[WildCat]

Wow what a feat of ingenuity nicely done -was curious the slopes on inside of guides do they round off after use (and -or) what do they do to the sidewall of tire was chatting with Rockdoctor07 he says he got an idea from you or got a set from this idea --must have traction of a Bear --Middle alberta Boy

[sherman]

I understand from a friend that the double cut saw that sears and harbor freight sale is purdy good for cutting rubber but I personally have not used one yet just an idea

[Rock Doctor]

What would you recommend is the best way to cut a rubber track?

I have aluminium ramps. I put a strip of snowmobile track on each to help machines climb up when all muddy. I used a Skill Saw to split the track in two.
This also might not be the best way, but it worked. Used a knife to trim them to length.

RD

[smog]

My first goal was to install the tracks as close to the tub as possible so the tracks snow footprint would extend under the tub, reducing the drag effect from bottom floor. From experience, the track will have a footprint at least 3 inches wider on each side in deep powder, so making it closer to the tub would help a lot. It can be done on the Argo as the tub "walls" are straight up so the 1 inch clearance from the tracks at the bottom is still 1" at the top of the tracks. BUT the MAX IV have taper walls.

If I use the "non-contact area" offset on the outside, without any wheel spacer, I would have contact interference with the upper tub. So using the Argo 2.5" wheel spacers and the offset on the inside, I get a 1" side clearance with the tub.

On an Argo, this set of tracks can be used without wheel spacers.

This is the result of my observation on Martwell's tracks and Daniel's tracks over at Sentier6x6 (both have Argos with custom 15" tracks)

[micmac]

Smog,

I noticed you offset the track so the extra non tire contact area is toward the inside of the tub rather than on the outside. Was there a practicle reason for doing it that way? I was thinking I would want it the other way to get more spacing between the track and tub. What am I missing?

[sparkola]

LOL The Sawsall!!!! Love it. I have been pondering just taking a snomobile track like yours and cutting a double paddle section and fastening to my Supertrackes like every other track segment. I think I could end up with similar traction results as you did. I think the Supertracks are a good base(mounting) to attach rubber track sections to. They don't weigh that much and I would reduce the weight of the rubber by only using half. A plastic track segment has to weigh half of what an even sized piece of rubber track does so the overall result would prolly weigh less than a fully rubber track, no?

[smog]

What would you recommend is the best way to cut a rubber track?

may not be the best but I used this :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reciprocating_Saw.JPG

[George]

That's really cool SMOG. Very nice.

[sparkola]

What would you recommend is the best way to cut a rubber track?

[smog]

the track profile got a lot of paddles but I'm not sure it will swim a lot. It's a winter track set optimized for ice and snow. Right now there's no open waters to test any swimming abilities; next time to test it in water will be in April/May.

So if your goal is to get a set of swimming tracks, better get the Adair system. (even more if you are in SC)

[highrollinmopars]

Any chance you have tried to swim with them yet? I wonder how they would compare to the adair tracks?

[sherman]

Thanks for the dimensions, and again a really great job

[smog]

10" for the tire width and yes I had to push back up the low part just behind the front seat. Easy to do and hard to spot for most people.

[micmac]

What is the width of the tires? At 24" you must have done some tub modifications? Thanks for the track guide template!

[smog]

Smog,

What size tires did you end up using? Did you use any bearing extensions?

I'm on the 50$ Maxxis 4snow tires 24" @ 5psi . (sold as 22x10x8) no bearing extension used but I MAY built a tie-bar like RI is doing