Dave, flotation comes from the surface area in contact with the ground. The more the surface area, the wider an area the weight is spread out over, resulting in lower psi ground pressure. Surface area is length times width of the contact pad. A tire has the width times about 6" to a foot of length in contact with the ground, let's say the width is 1 foot. So we have 1 foot times 1/2 foot which amounts to 1/2 square foot per tire. Multiply this by 6 tires and we have a total surface area of 3 square feet. If the machine weighs 100,000 pounds loaded, the ground pressure is going to be 33,333 pounds per square foot.
With this tracked truck, let's say the tracks are 1 foot wide, the same as the tires we used. The length of the track appears to be about 5', give or take, let's call it 5. So the surface area of the track is length (5') times width (1') or 5 square feet. Multiply this by 4 tracks and we come up with 20 square feet total surface area. Now let's say this machine weighs the same 100,000 pounds. We divide that by the total surface area (20 square feet) and we get 5000 pounds per square foot, much less than the 6 wheeled truck.
If you increase either dimension of the ground contact pad, you increase the flotation. That's that algebra at work!
rofessor