Hi durallymax
Nice looking skid.
How do find the wheels do they give you a good ride.
I have a reverse camera on my ctl im ashamed to say I have back into a few things mainly rollers with learners on them and to date not a problem camera still there in one peace.
You can go to Michelin Tweels website to find a dealer. I don't think they are in Australia yet, just a limited amount in the US right now but they are expanding rapidly. You can contact them if you are interested and they will get ahold of you when they are in your market area. Very good to deal with. The Tweels ride much nicer than any solid or sold flex/flex port style. A little bit rougher than some stiffer Bias tires and much harder than the Bibsteels, but the goal of the Tweel is mostly to give you an air free option with a good ride, good traction and less machine wear.
Our machines get run inside very tight barns so stuff tends to get torn up especially on the rear of the machines. The Camera is a small target to hit, but I could see it maybe happening. I'll leave it until they hit it once.
Sweet looking machine durallymax. I really like the D series machines ....I like the tires, what kind of hours do you get out of them ? Ride ? etc....everything I own has a set of tracks on it....but would like yo hear your thoughts on the tires.....looks like flats are not an issue....Best of luck with your new CAT iron....
The D's are nice.
The Tweels ride nice, get decent traction and flats are obviously non existent. They don't outperform our bibsteel AT's when it comes to ride, traction and value but they make up for that with the advantages of being airless. We don't need a set on every machine, the Bibsteels do great on the other two, but its nice to have one machine with them where you know you can go brush hogging ,or working in other areas where punctures are common, without issues. The Bibsteels are steel belted and have resisted punctures very well. I think I have maybe had to fix one total between the two machines and 2500hrs. They primarily are operated on gravel and concrete so punctures are not as common but we still fixed a few per month when running the Cat bias tires (Titan). The issue we still have with the Bibsteel is rim damage. Inevitable with pnuematic tires, our machines operate around concrete curbs all day, especially many in the 4-12" size that love to bend rims. Easy enough to deal with bent rims though. If you are in an application that needs a solid tire then the Tweel is a much better option, if you simply want a pneumatic tire that performs better and lasts longer then the Bibsteel is the best option. For us its two machines with Bibsteel AT's and the one with Tweels. Works great. Bibsteel AT 12" look like they will run 2,000-2,500hrs easily. The 10" will probably hit 2,000hrs as well. 12" are on a 242B3, 10" are on a 226B3. The Tweels in the photos of the 262D have almost 1800hrs on them. They only start with 30/32" of tread just like the Bibsteels. Currently they are just under half tread so I think 2,500hrs is a reasonable expectation out of them. The 262 is fairly heavy (8,000lbs) and we could get maybe 600-700hrs out of the Cat bias tires which I felt were actually pretty decent (we got 1,000hrs out of them on the 242B3's). Solid tires commonly go to 2,000hrs or so as well. The advantage with the Tweel is that you can retread it for a couple hundred dollars and keep going. You can choose whatever tread you want at your local retread shop. The pricing for the Tweel is high, but not that much higher than many comparable solid tires. For the advantages you gain in ride and traction it is worth it to me. The only thing I can say is that if you work in an area with sharp objects protruding outwards you may want to stay solid. If the sidewalls of your solids get torn up then the Tweel may not be the best option right now because the spokes are very thin and can be cut. If you just nick them, you simply radius the cut to prevent it from spreading and keep going. Even with a few broken spokes they still operate fine. But if you think you will really beat them up they may not be the best choice. DOn't want to steer anyone away from them because they are a great product and Michelin is great to deal with but I don't want someone to spend the money and be disappointed either. Who knows maybe in the future they will add some sort of sidewall protection that will make them a viable option for those who can't use them. I thought about something that would bolt onto extra long wheel studs after the Tweel was mounted, and then have a thick heavy rubber disc to protect the spokes but not interfere with performance but don't know how well it would work. The Tweel needs to be open on the sides to clean out the mud/rocks etc. The disc would still allow cleanout on the inside but I do not know if that idea would work or not. We don't have an issue really so I'm not too worried about it right now. The spokes themselves are recessed quite a bit and flare out at the edge so simply rubbing a curb or something wont catch them.
Here is the image from when they were new to compare.
