Steel vs Rubber tracks

[Eagleridgeproperty]

Hi everyone, I run a landscaping company in norwestern ontario. we do lots of natural stone work ie. retaining walls/stone steps and flag stone. we have a brand new this year cat 305 with rubber tracks and have just about 800 hours on it and counting will be just under 1000 by end of season.

with the line of work we are in there are alot of sharp rocks around and even with being as careful as one can be the tracks already have lot of cuts and slashes in them and i dont see them lasting much longer tbh. now in our area we have alot of smooth bedrock scenarios where rubber is nice because it forms to the terrain in that case. other than those scenarios i dont see much of a upside to rubber.

Ive talked to my local buddies tht have simmilar equipment and they all run rubber and just say " steel tracks won't work in this terrain and replacing tracks every year is just what it is" I just cant wrap my brain around that lol.

im thinking about moving to a steel track with rubber pad for when we do work in the city on pavement etc. Does anyone have experiance with steel tracks in this type of terrain? any input from people who have ran both would be helpful. Thanks guys!

 

[jbernielh]

I'm in Victoria BC and have a 304C CR... I have a lot of fractured rock here as well.. really sharp stuff..
I bought a set of camso (owned by michelin now) MEX HXD tracks about 8 years ago and have about 2200 hrs on them.. they're pretty much worn out now.. lots of slices on them but no cable strands showing and the nubs are just about gone.. just ordered another set which hopefully will be here in November sometime..
the price is a little painful but the longevity and durability in this environment makes it worthwhile

 

[BC Placer gold]

Steel tracks (even excavator triple grousers) will have much better traction in all terrain excluding smooth rock…

We exclusively do bush work and our Deere 50d came with completely worn out rubber (Camoplast) tracks; cuts/longitudinal rips, almost no tread etc..and yet this year alone has walked 60km in and out of various mountain mining claims…I am surprised they have not broke. When that time comes will definitely switch to steel tracks. You can get ‘road liners’ (steel tracks with hard rubber bolt on pads). My buddy had those on a Kobelco 115 and they were good but traction on steep muddy roads was extremely poor…I would say worse than rubber tracks…but in your application may be perfect (as long as not many steep muddy grades)

 

[Eagleridgeproperty]

I'm in Victoria BC and have a 304C CR... I have a lot of fractured rock here as well.. really sharp stuff..
I bought a set of camso (owned by michelin now) MEX HXD tracks about 8 years ago and have about 2200 hrs on them.. they're pretty much worn out now.. lots of slices on them but no cable strands showing and the nubs are just about gone.. just ordered another set which hopefully will be here in November sometime..
the price is a little painful but the longevity and durability in this environment makes it worthwhile

Thanks for this info! My other thought about going with the steel track option is I have a rototilt and the extra weight makes it more tippy then mini exs already are so the added weight of the steel would help with stability as well. Wish I could find a set of used ones to try them out without having to spend the wad on a new set and not liking them. Decisions decisions lol

 

[jbernielh]

don't quote me because it was about 10 years ago, but if you go from rubber to steel some of the undercarriage needs to be changed as well.. I just don't remember what specifically..

back before I got the HDX tracks I was considering going steel with road liner pads as well

 

[Eagleridgeproperty]

Steel tracks (even excavator triple grousers) will have much better traction in all terrain excluding smooth rock…

We exclusively do bush work and our Deere 50d came with completely worn out rubber (Camoplast) tracks; cuts/longitudinal rips, almost no tread etc..and yet this year alone has walked 60km in and out of various mountain mining claims…I am surprised they have not broke. When that time comes will definitely switch to steel tracks. You can get ‘road liners’ (steel tracks with hard rubber bolt on pads). My buddy had those on a Kobelco 115 and they were good but traction on steep muddy roads was extremely poor…I would say worse than rubber tracks…but in your application may be perfect (as long as not many steep muddy grades)

Yeah and taking those pads on and off would be a time consuming process. And we don’t get much rain. Definitely not as much as you guys on the coast. Also the hills and elevation changes aren’t huge so if you got to pull your self up a hill once in a while wouldn’t be the end of the world.

 

[Eagleridgeproperty]

don't quote me because it was about 10 years ago, but if you go from rubber to steel some of the undercarriage needs to be changed as well.. I just don't remember what specifically..

back before I got the HDX tracks I was considering going steel with road liner pads as well

I wondered that. I haven’t dove into it to deep yet but I’ll most likely just talk to the dealer see what’s all involved in switching over.

 

[Eagleridgeproperty]

I'm in Victoria BC and have a 304C CR... I have a lot of fractured rock here as well.. really sharp stuff..
I bought a set of camso (owned by michelin now) MEX HXD tracks about 8 years ago and have about 2200 hrs on them.. they're pretty much worn out now.. lots of slices on them but no cable strands showing and the nubs are just about gone.. just ordered another set which hopefully will be here in November sometime..
the price is a little painful but the longevity and durability in this environment makes it worthwhile

What did a set of those tracks run you?

 

[jbernielh]

Again this is from memory

the first set I got were when it was called camoplast and I believe made in Korea.. they were about $4500 CDN for the pair at that time…
this set coming in November is camso brand (same company, new name) which is owned by michlen now and made in Sri Lanka .. I haven’t seen the final bill yet but I know it’s going to be just over 7K CDN for the pair..

considering the OEM tracks from cat were Bridgestone only lasted me 1200 hrs and were completely trashed at that point these were worth the extra money

 

[KenMac]

McLaren has steel tracks that fit rubber track sprockets. At least that's what they told me.
Price for Takeuchi TB260 was about $5500 4 months ago.

 

[GrabherbytheTakeuchi]

McLaren has steel tracks that fit rubber track sprockets. At least that's what they told me.
Price for Takeuchi TB260 was about $5500 4 months ago.

I don’t want to drop any names, but yesterday somebody at a reputable dealership told me that steel tracks are interchangeable on the TB260, without needing to swap out any other components other than the tracks themselves. I’d like to believe this but I’m suspecting that this may not be the case. It sounds like you know what you’re talking about. Can you elaborate on the differences, please? This may be a stupid question but is that $5500 per track? (Ouch) And do you know if they are pre-drilled for rubber pads? What I’m really curious about are these segmented rubber tracks… does anybody have any experience with them and know of what the pros and cons are?

 

[KenMac]

That price was for both sides. I wound up with rubber tracks from Tractor and Equipment in Birmingham, Alabama, so I can't be of much more help than that. McLaren has a web site and was quick to return the contact email. Wish I could be of more help.

 

[laidback01]

My deere 50ZTS (older 2001 model) came with steel tracks. They used it in sand mostly and steel tracks were the wrong setup. However, where i'm at, it's forest loam for about 1' and then sharp gravel in hardpan for about 10' then clay after that. I've never dug deeer, so I don't know the rest. regardless, in the spring, I tear everything all too hell with steel tracks, but already, late spring early summer, I'm barely making a dent.

One thing about steel track vs rubber tracks is the noise. Holy cow is my 50 noisy compare to the rental shop rubber-tracked machines the neighbors rent. I wear hearing protection because the squeals, pops and slaps are just painful on the ears! This literally made me think my tracks were worn to the point of failure at 3k hours. I bought a new set, and had a professional come out and asses. He kind of laughed at me, said I have bought a set of tracks about 2k hours early based on what he sees. Said I did good to replace the rollers, but no point in worrying about the tracks, sprocket or idler till later. He also stated the noise from the tracks was nothing out of the ordinary. So... still running the old noisy tracks until it's time to change to the new noisy tracks. lol... learning experience.

Oh, and traction? Yeah, I've got traction to go anywhere. it doesn't slip on anything. I was worried about it in the marshy area, and it's nothing. gravel is no issue, sharp rocks get turned into smaller sharp rocks. nothing matters, and you don't have to pussy-foot , you just know what whatever you run over is getting ruined, so it's kind of a whatever, there's time to clean up after the job is done. this tracked setup gets places none of my tractors can go... and rubber tracks slip a LOT more on wet wood - or at least that's my experience. they sure a nice and quiet though...

 

[GrabherbytheTakeuchi]

That price was for both sides. I wound up with rubber tracks from Tractor and Equipment in Birmingham, Alabama, so I can't be of much more help than that. McLaren has a web site and was quick to return the contact email. Wish I could be of more help.

I will look into that company..that’s a decent price for a pair, now that I have done a bit more research on the topic. This is a learning curve for me and I’m essentially a green horn (though an old dog) so I appreciate any bones that are thrown my way! Thank you much, sir.

 

[GrabherbytheTakeuchi]

don't quote me because it was about 10 years ago, but if you go from rubber to steel some of the undercarriage needs to be changed as well.. I just don't remember what specifically..

Looking through the parts catalog for the Takeuchi TB260 (Thanks Edward!), there appears to be a difference in the undercarriage configuration pertaining to a guide, which I assume is not used for rubber tracks. If this is the only difference for this particular model, then I assume the tracks are essentially interchangeable, albeit the difference of steel tracks utilizing an additional guide. In the drawing, the guide doesn’t appear to be very robust. Nevertheless, it must somehow assist the alignment of the track, is my guess.