Marks Adair track modification

[MAX IV Mark]

Some of you saw my modification at Ashtabula, here is a video of what I did.

I added some rubber surfaces to help with slippery rocks and wet wood. I am pleased with how it works. I started out doing every fourth cleat, but it was way too rough ridding, so I did every other and it helped alot. The way it is now, it is a little rough at certain speeds but well worth it. The rougher the surface the smoother it rides now. If I was going to do it again I would do 3 bolts wide instead of all 5 and I would do every one but stagger every other one. I drove over all different surfaces and even a creek bed of shale and had none of the slippage it did before.

[Rock Doctor]

That's cool
Have you noticed a difference in traction when in mud now? I'm wondering if the Grousers will "bite" as well with the rounded rubber faces.
That's thinking outside the box

RD

[amphibious drew]

That's cool
Have you noticed a difference in traction when in mud now? I'm wondering if the Grousers will "bite" as well with the rounded rubber faces.
That's thinking outside the box

RD

I haven't seen anything stop it yet. Mark did a great job modifying these tracks. It is probably well worth the efforts.

[highrollinmopars]

I am curious did it affected your swimming ability for better or worse. Great work.

[MAX IV Mark]

It still seems to swim the same as before, I didnt notice any difference.

[MAX IV Mark]

That's cool
Have you noticed a difference in traction when in mud now? I'm wondering if the Grousers will "bite" as well with the rounded rubber faces.
That's thinking outside the box

RD

I noticed a little bit of a tradeoff comming out of a mudhole, if it has tree roots or rocks it does better, but if its a sharp but soft turf edge (like dug by a backhoe), a machine with tires would dig in better than I could, and pull itself right up.

[CBass]

talk about the wow factor. very impressive.

[rickga]

Very nice Mark!

[Obsessed]

Some of you saw my modification at Ashtabula, here is a video of what I did.

I added some rubber surfaces to help with slippery rocks and wet wood. I am pleased with how it works. I started out doing every fourth cleat, but it was way too rough ridding, so I did every other and it helped alot. The way it is now, it is a little rough at certain speeds but well worth it. The rougher the surface the smoother it rides now. If I was going to do it again I would do 3 bolts wide instead of all 5 and I would do every one but stagger every other one. I drove over all different surfaces and even a creek bed of shale and had none of the slippage it did before.

Great idea Mark...nice trade off between a rubber cleat and an open style mud and water track...

we used to build a similiar bolt on metal cap similar to that that was about four inches long for improved traction on snow and ice and to protect the leading edges on the grouser....i have been thinking of building a die and extruding what would look like a rubber C channel with sharp corners....my thought is it could be cut down to individual lengths on a chop saw with a fixture and then after being fitted to the top of the grouser it could be quickly screwed in place with a few self tapping screws...we have extruded custom shapes of EDPM rubber before as seen on "crowhaters" older generation of rebuilt tracks and it has proven to be very durrable in this application...

i am anxious to hear more back of the sucess of the modification and see if we might need to persue an option like this for applications where additional traction is needed on hard surfaces and also snow and ice...

one final thought to consider...i understand that urethane is even more durrable than rubber and it can be extruded in a dual durometer which would allow you to have the sides be stiffer for better retention with screws and softer on the tread for more grip...different examples of urethane durometer are very hard objects like a bowling ball, or softer obects like the bottome of a tennis shoe or the wheel on a roller skate....seems like you could develop a pretty neat product like your rubber cap with all of the options available ...

thanks for sharing your improvements...well done!

tim

[fmints]

great work Mark!!

[jpswift1]

As usual, Mark works out the flaws and makes the equipment as close to perfect as you can get. I was up at his shop when he was working on the mod, and it was time consuming, but certainly worth it. Keep up the good work, and as always, over-engineer everything......that way you have to try harder to break it.

I'd even imagine you could even put studs in the rubber for the ice if you chose to do this mod for the tracks on a machine you'll be driving in the winter.

[mustangwagz]

The rubber add-ons do great in my opinion, i was super impressed with the performance of the machine! in his photo, i'm the dork making the "peace" sign, a little bit before this photo was taken, i was making the "OH CRAP" face as he went through a nice big ditch. i totally didnt expect it to be as stable as it is, i was blown away.. I probably would have never gone through some of the stuff he did, but after seeing it in action, first person, now i have almost no doubts about where these machines can go! THanks again mark for the awesome trail ride, and great modification!!

[MAX IV Mark]

I noticed a little bit of a tradeoff comming out of a mudhole, if it has tree roots or rocks it does better, but if its a sharp but soft turf edge (like dug by a backhoe), a machine with tires would dig in better than I could, and pull itself right up.

After thinking about this I need to expand my thoughts a little. If given the chance to add the grip and dig of a tire to the tracks I would decline. When climbing a hill with tires, we have all hit the point of loosing tration and starting to dig a rut, with the hope the tires dont grab a root, pull a wheelie and flip us on our heads. I dont have that fear right now. If I climb something too steep the front end has never lifted on my machine, I will just spin the track and stop moving. This lets me push the machine a bit harder without the nagging dread of the epic fail. Just trying to give some objective thoughts.....

[spookum]

After thinking about this I need to expand my thoughts a little. If given the chance to add the grip and dig of a tire to the tracks I would decline. When climbing a hill with tires, we have all hit the point of loosing tration and starting to dig a rut, with the hope the tires dont grab a root, pull a wheelie and flip us on our heads. I dont have that fear right now. If I climb something too steep the front end has never lifted on my machine, I will just spin the track and stop moving. This lets me push the machine a bit harder without the nagging dread of the epic fail. Just trying to give some objective thoughts.....

Way cool! I never thought of that! So now i can not only tell the wife "honey i need money for tracks, they ride nicer and help me go more places with ease". I can now say "they are also an enviromently friendly safety feature" They dont trench as bad as tires and will keep me from flipping it when im going crazy on the throttle! Two thumbs up.. .way up

[kghills]

Great idea Mark...nice trade off between a rubber cleat and an open style mud and water track...
....i have been thinking of building a die and extruding what would look like a rubber C channel with sharp corners....my thought is it could be cut down to individual lengths on a chop saw with a fixture and then after being fitted to the top of the grouser it could be quickly screwed in place with a few self tapping screws...we have extruded custom shapes of EDPM rubber before as seen on "crowhaters" older generation of rebuilt tracks and it has proven to be very durrable in this application...i understand that urethane is even more durrable than rubber and it can be extruded in a dual durometer which would allow you to have the sides be stiffer for better retention with screws and softer on the tread for more grip...different examples of urethane durometer are very hard objects like a bowling ball, or softer obects like the bottome of a tennis shoe or the wheel on a roller skate....seems like you could develop a pretty neat product like your rubber cap with all of the options available ...

tim

Tim, I like the idea of a cap for trail riding. It would be cool to just throw on the urethane caps when not going for a strictly marsh or mud run. This all assumes there is room between the grouser and tub however. The way most of the tracks are fitting however from what I see would not allow for much of a cap but maybe they would not be very thick? Maybe they would be cheap enough to be a somewhat disposable item. Couple runs and you throw on a new set.

Keith.