Steel vs rubber tracks?

[hayden]

I have a mini excavator with rubber tracks, and am looking for ways to improve traction. I have a lot of steep terrain and when there are rocks or ledge to go over, and it's at all wet, the rubber tracks just slip and slide. I am contemplating switching to steel tracks, but am not convinced they will really do any better on ledge. I have experience ice skating on steel tracks once when I got a dozer sideways to a slope and the machine took off down the hill. Fortunately I got it spun around before I took out a building that was in my slide path. I got rubber tracks in the first place because I need to track over sections of public dirt/gravel roads, and don't want to chew them up. Plus I can work around the house making less mess of things which helps with marital harmony. What about studding tracks? Is that possible, and can you add studs to any track or do they need to be designed specifically to accept studs?

 

[Rustyiron]

If you are on ledge sometimes.......
I'd look at alternative sources for a better, more aggressive rubber track. I've seen a wide variety for CTL"s making me think that someone has to have a choice other than the lame block style.
I have seen "street savers" that are bolt on rubber pads for steel tracks, but only for mid size excavators and it looks like a half day job to switch.

 

[seville009]

As mentioned above, the track pattern is pretty much what you may want to focus on.

My only experience is with tracked skidsteers, primarily in snow removal. I have a tracked ASV (Terex now) that has basically “ribs” as a track pattern vs the common large alternating block pattern on many tracks.

My ASV tracks are excellent in the snow. My neighbor had a Bobcat (think a 900 series - big heavy one) with the block pattern tracks. I drove his once in snow, and it had terrible traction compared to the ASV.

 

[notaz3]

I wouldn't go with steel unless you are in rocky terrain. Traction is worse with steel in mud or ice.

 

[4570Man]

Dozer tracks have way better traction than rubber tracks do. 3 bar excavator tracks would probably still beat rubber tracks but not by a lot.

 

[4570Man]

I wouldn't go with steel unless you are in rocky terrain. Traction is worse with steel in mud or ice.

I wouldn’t consider that to be correct. If the conditions are so bad that the steel can’t bite the rubber track would have been stuck a long time ago.

 

[timbatrader]

What you need is steel tracks and add some extra cleats to them something like these UltraGrip - TrackGrip

 

[Mike1955]

I have a mini excavator with rubber tracks, and am looking for ways to improve traction. I have a lot of steep terrain and when there are rocks or ledge to go over, and it's at all wet, the rubber tracks just slip and slide. I am contemplating switching to steel tracks, but am not convinced they will really do any better on ledge. I have experience ice skating on steel tracks once when I got a dozer sideways to a slope and the machine took off down the hill. Fortunately I got it spun around before I took out a building that was in my slide path. I got rubber tracks in the first place because I need to track over sections of public dirt/gravel roads, and don't want to chew them up. Plus I can work around the house making less mess of things which helps with marital harmony. What about studding tracks? Is that possible, and can you add studs to any track or do they need to be designed specifically to accept studs?

I have rubber without issues. Never had steel on a track hoe. So I don’t really know. If you position the front blade to brace you that could really benefit. It’s a learning experience from the start.

 

[Mike1955]

I have a mini excavator with rubber tracks, and am looking for ways to improve traction. I have a lot of steep terrain and when there are rocks or ledge to go over, and it's at all wet, the rubber tracks just slip and slide. I am contemplating switching to steel tracks, but am not convinced they will really do any better on ledge. I have experience ice skating on steel tracks once when I got a dozer sideways to a slope and the machine took off down the hill. Fortunately I got it spun around before I took out a building that was in my slide path. I got rubber tracks in the first place because I need to track over sections of public dirt/gravel roads, and don't want to chew them up. Plus I can work around the house making less mess of things which helps with marital harmony. What about studding tracks? Is that possible, and can you add studs to any track or do they need to be designed specifically to accept studs?

Hello Hayden. The thing that would get metal undercarriage out of my mind is the cost. Astronomical