I have a cat 305ccr with 800 hrs on it. the 305 is used in a rocky environment and on asphalt. The tracks are showing the steel cables, broken cables and a few of the crossover metal drive bars are out of alignment or popping up. I was thinking about replacing the stock tracks with McLaren Hybrid Steel Track with Rubber Shoes. Does anyone out there have a history with these tracks? THANKS!!!
A friend of mine got steel tracks with rubber pads from McLaren and last I heard, he's been very pleased. There are two negatives I can come up with - they probably costs more and they make more noise and weight more than the rubber tracks. The positive, of course, is that you can't break them the way I can break my rubber tracks, so in the long run, they probably pay off, especially for the rocky environment you're working on.
Thanks for the reply, What you said I also got the same message from others, an addition note was from a CAT mechanic, he said that the STEEL tracks beat the crap out of the undercarriage and the undercarriage is NOT designed for anything but rubber.. The McLaren steel w/rubber pads were approx $5500 delivered, the CAT stock rubber are $3100 Delivered McLaren's rubber were a little less but the sales guy said that they dont last as long as stock CAT tracks.. The tracks on the unit have NOT broken yet, still not sure which way i am going to go. Mclaren Steel w/ rubber pads or CAt rubber...
I just checked with them on the hybrids for my Deere 35D.Their price was app.$2800 delivered, compared to just about anybody's rubber tracks at app.$1800.I had a feeling though about the other components taking a beating.
Hi , I have a 2007 305ccr with steel tracks from new , I got about 4000 hrs out of the first set ( after taking a link out ) and put cat chains back on with the same rollers idlers and sprockets ( they are all ok at 5070hrs but the top rollers are stuffed ,they only last about 2000 hrs ish and collapse the brearings.) so I don't see how anyone can say that the frames are only for rubber!! I think that you have to change the bolt on gaurds at the idler to run steel chains. Good luck. Ps my work is in all sorts of stuff from soil to gravel and rock ,demo ,trees you name it it dose it ,including walking a long way on some farms .