So working a dirt pile the other day, was a pretty hard climb to the top, all nice clay sand, had a nice level spot and was just moving a bit when there was quite a bit of a bang from the track. Spot up by the idiler split, the outer edge was intact but between the outer edge and the center it looks like all the steel cables snapped. Quite a few cables, maybe six or seven. Track has some years on it, maybe 6 or so years with most of that with the previous owner. No damage visible in the area where it broke, a few minor cuts and scrapes here and there. Might snap a picture later, got it walked off the pile okay and back to the garage. So have been shopping for a new track, looked at Summit and ebay etc, still shopping but it looks like a few brands are out there. First time buying a track, Summit was fast delivery on replacement sprockets.
This guys seems to like this, he also follows others who play in the dirt and said nothing but good things about this company. I have never used them but plan to just throwing this out there. Good luck
Fast how many hours per year do you put on the machine and what do you do with it?
Heya there, typically a hundred a year or a couple hundred, home landscaping, brush clearing, ditching stuff, picking up heavy things, a little grading, great for pushing over tricky trees that don't want to behave. Every now and then, it goes off site to do things, presently at the gun club, helping to loosen up some soil, couple thousand yards to move elsewhere on the premises to clear out for a new parking lot.
truckortrack seems to have some smaller stuff, Summit has a standard duty and heavy duty, the HD track is 3100 with freight included. pricey track, think the economy one is 500 less or so.
Here is my philosophy and $.03 adjusted for inflation on rubber tracks for compact equipment. If it's for a CTL spend the money for the Bridgestone tracks. You'll pay double per track than the cheapest ones on the market but they are worth the money in the long run. Just replaced a set of factory Bridgestone's on one of our 279D's with a little over 2,000 hours on the clock. We have NEVER gotten 2K hours out of a CTL track over 20 years of running them. The Bridgestones from Cat were $2200-2300 a track. Dealer was running a special on UC including rubber tracks so we basically got 2 tracks, sprockets and bolts for $4600. The discount paid for the sprockets and bolts. Now I could've bought aftermarket for $2300 and hoped for the best which in past experience is 400-500 hours. BTW - always replace sprocket segments when you replace tracks on CTL's and mini's too. FWIW the tracks we replaced were still operational (just wore out) and considering keeping them for spares until the supply chain issues work themselves out. Now mini's are another story. IMO the extra money for Bridgestone or another OEM make won't necessarily translate to the same savings. Mini's obviously are not moving and going like a CTL so one can get more milage out of a cheaper track just moving the machine around. My suggestion for your application would be too look at cheaper tracks and save the money. When it's time to put tracks on our new to us 305E I'll probably go aftermarket unless Cat is running a heck of a deal. Now I'm going to sound like a spammer... . I've had great service on metal UC aftermarket chains from Tracks and Teeth, they also carry rubber tracks. Just ordered 15 track pads and bolts for our 321DL. In 2019 ordered new chains and sprockets. Great customer service and quick shipping.
Excellent advice! the 83.5 pitch seems to be a hard match, had a salesperson try and sell me an 84 that should be close enough... ummm no. I just put on new sprockets but the Yanmar seems to be a bit of a tricky match, most are an offset track that adds some expense. and I decided to shop by the pound.. Some of the cheaper tracks were 600-650 pounds where the most expensive 5 or 6 aftermarkets weigh in at 940-960 pounds. I looked through a few Bridgestone vendors, that pitch seems to be less popular, the 450 is easy enough but combined with 83.5 makes it a narrower list. Hopefully 1 new track is on a truck heading this way.
I have bought aftermarkets from www.rubbertrax.com . They have been pretty good so far and much cheaper
Summit supply says their tracks are made to the Bridgestone specification and their shipping weight is certainly on the hefty end of the scale so that's a good thing, 980 pounds listed.
I've had mixed results. Ordered a set of tracks for our T250 from rubber tracks, the chevron pattern and only got 500 hours out of one track before the cords broke and the T-bone tore through. However that was a CTL so a different animal than a mini as stated.
I picked up a track from Ameritrax sales, I guess I'll see what happens when it arrives!