I have seen some (older) discussion on tracks but thought we could update it. My situation would be forestry work using a 5-6 ton excavator in redwood country, but am also curious about everyone's general thoughts, pros/cons...
If we didn't have to cross finished surfaces (concrete and asphalt) on a regular basis I would run steel tracks on our 305's. FWIW.
Not an excavator but I just moved my Cat D3G LGP across an asphalt road using 06 old tires, no damage to road.
Not putting 45 tires across a freshly paved Taco Bell parking lot and sidewalks so we can backfill curbs and final grade for the landscaping. There are a lot of curbs and landscape pockets in a typical QSR build. The amphitheater project we are on now no equipment other than small scissor lifts are allowed on the finished concrete walks.
Strictly bush use? Steep/wet ground? Full steel triple grousers would be my pick. A lot more traction… It has been my experience that the bolt on rubber pads (road liners) have very poor traction in wet/steep terrain…
I have a CAT 320C with steel pads...and a Takeuchi TB370 with rubber tracks. I use both of them at my farm in S. GA, mostly dredging and working to recover a 20 acre pond from 70 years of silting. I work in the pond, often on mud mats, and around the pond, clearing the old dams and areas around the pond. Lately I am doing a lot of grubbing/clearing to redirect a creek that feeds the pond...all to say that I am often in water/mud, sometimes as deep as the tracks. The steel tracks (triple grouser) of the CAT 50,000 lb machine give a lot better traction than the Takeuchi 15,000 lb machine.