Customer is looking at buying a skidsteer. New or used hes not sure yet. He asked me about getting a machine with tires and putting steel tracks on it. I told him i think they are hard on chains and drive motors. If he wanted tracks buy a tracked machine. He says local dealer told him steels tracks werent hard on a machine. Am i right or wrong?
Hello moonlite I don't work on many Skidsteers But most of our customers have a few and I have noticed this factory track machine's final drives don't last long. And have heard good things about over the tires. But anything with added weight and more traction should cause more wear or breakage. Hopefully some season skidsteer guys can she'd some light.
all depends on the machine, and the operator :drinkup
x2. Friend of mine has run the same grouser tracks on his gehl 5635sxt for 3 to 4k hours. I found him a set of nearly new grousers for cheap. He's got over 6k hours and just had his first bearing go out...probably due to the chain case oil getting too low.
I think that the OTT provide the best bang for the buck when it comes to putting power to the ground in a skid steer. The increase in tractive effort can shorten the life of some of the SSL components as the machine will not as easily spin out with the tracks as it will with tires. However even with that said, the cost can still be less than going with a CTL given the costs of drive motors, rubber tracks and idlers/sprockets and so forth. The issue with OTT is the ride is rough, they are not nice to improved surfaces, sometimes the tires can slip in the tracks in certain conditions ( running the steel tight to prevent that can cause issues if you get rocks or tree limbs in the tracks), sucks getting flat tires with OTT. I used McLaren airless tires when I ran tracks which adds cost to the package but eliminates the flat tire issue. There are pros and cons to each, depends on conditions you plan to use the machine, how big of a deal productivity is and so forth.
I ran two bar grousers on my 8875 for about 5 years. I loved everything about em. Never had any issues. I think key is run it like a track loader, dont "ram and slam" the machine to reduce the shock load to chains and bearings. I think in most applications the steel tracks find more traction than a CTL, the exception being on asphalt or concrete and they slide like ice then. They don't have the floatation a rubber track has, but they'll find something solid to hook up to if its there and if not you'll be setting on the belly pan. Loved Mine John
I had a set of McLaren Rubber OTT Tracks (steel tracks with rubber pads) on a New Holland LX565 a few years ago. I had run it on just tires for several years until I ran into a job that required tracks. Overall I really liked the OTT tracks, they really helped in the mud. The only downsides were when I had flats and they robbed some power. The LX565 only had 40 hp to start with so the addition of the tracks the machine didn't seem to have the push that it did on tires. I now have a NH L190 (on tires) and will install OTT tracks as soon as I find a job that will require them. I also have my tires foamed so that should eliminate the flat problem. They are not that hard to install or uninstall so there is no need to run them if you don't need them. I took them on and off of the LX565 several times while I owned them to save wear on the tires and tracks. Tim
I have a NH L220 on rubber Camoplast OTT, primarily for flotation on grass & in the woods. I leave them on all year, plow snow on non-pavement with them, too. They actually improve the ride I think. But I don't put high hrs on the machine, just for use on my property.
Thanks for all the info.