Anyone run mattracks? (1 Viewer)

[JohnnyC]

I miss-quoted you how?

...

Boy a figure of speech ...Poser


money better spent elsewere ....than on tracks....


as I said they will get you just ABOUT anywere as i clarified for you and any other sensative people in post #9 and #12.

 

[hicruise55]

munch munch lol

 

[Joseph Siri]

I may be a Newb here but not to snow.

For "work" I am in some deep stuff but most of the time you need to drive a distance to get there. These bolt on tracks are nice when you are in the deep but wear out much too fast at speeds over 40mph.

They suck the big one when they break and they brake more often then you think. Waiting on the one or two small parts that are unique to any one particular track company also sucks.

When I go and see a track vehicle waiting for me I often cringe. They are nice to ride in and get places in BUT you dont want to break down in subZ and 200 km from civilization.

Nice big tires can be easily repaired.

If you are really considering tracks you better get a spare right now.

 

[Nomis]

Alternatives to Trax:

Snow penetration -
Google Image Result for http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2007/05/yeti_truck.jpg

Snow flotation -
Google Image Result for http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/08x23gOfqR28x/610x.jpg

Alternative Trax bling compensator -
http://autonomoussource.com/mt-static/images/truck.jpg

 

[amaurer]

I have no personal experience, but it seems to me that mattracks are going to eat your fenders alive. They're so much longer than a tire I bet you have mere inches of travel before you lose the front or rear corners of your fenders/wheel well openings.

You can kinda see what I'm talking about on the rear axle of the 40 in the picture at the top of the thread. Here is the issue on a suburban:

If you hit a whoop in the snow......

 

[Joseph Siri]

I know that there is discusion about "Track" rigs, Tuckers are nice and dont break all that much. This is only because they go slow. Top speed is anywere from 9-20 mph depending on the engine configuration. I again reiderate tires are better, for this reason also.

We went 320 Km with trucks and got to our destination in 3.5 hrs. The TTM's took 20hrs

we used them for 2 hrs and sent them onto our next destination...we passed them the next morning

 

[Toyoda ALW Ltd]

Buy Good tires and use the extra $20,000 for the restoration of your entire rig.

"money better spent elsewhere" is right.

buy a used snowmobile and still have money left over for goodies for your truck

 

[Hltoppr]

For the love of all that is good and holy do not spend your money on Mattracks!

We have several sets for our SAR vehicles, atvs and one suburban...total and complete waste of money! They essentially take a perfectly capable wheeled rig and make it into a flashy garage queen.

On flat snow they're okay. Pavement, IIRC, max speed is about 35mph. Any sort of off-camber terrain is a nightmare, as the tread is not deep enough to hold the vehicle on the slope....usually resulting in a stuck vehicle with fancy mattracks in a ditch.

I keep trying to get our unit to put these things on ebay and maybe buy a nice set of BFG MTs for all our rigs with the funds.....

Hope that helps with your decision.

-H-

 

[Toyoda ALW Ltd]

On flat snow they're okay. Pavement, IIRC, max speed is about 35mph. Any sort of off-camber terrain is a nightmare, as the tread is not deep enough to hold the vehicle on the slope....usually resulting in a stuck vehicle with fancy mattracks in a ditch. -

thanks for the information there Bud

sounds like "Tracks" are not all that great.

and if you want be be able to go anywere get good tires

 

[rusty_tlc]

Oh, well in that case, that was my mis understanding, for some reason I thought they were a hard rubber.

My buddy works at a discount tire and hates when people bring in M/Ts and what not to get siped cause all they do is break blades on the machine they use.

The rubber is relatively soft but the side walls are stiff. At normal tire pressures, 22 - 32 #, they ride like a solid rubber doughnut.

AFAIK swampers are usually siped by hand with a nibbler rather than the automatic blade units used in tire shops.

 

[rusty_tlc]

thanks for the information there Bud

sounds like "Tracks" are not all that great.

and if you want be be able to go anywere get good tires

No one rig will go "any where". It comes down to the right tool for the job. If you want to get out in deep snow a snowmobile would be called for. It sounds like you could buy a set of nice snowmobiles and a trailer for less than the cost of equipping a 40 with mattracks.

 

[Toyoda ALW Ltd]

"and if you want be be able to go anywere get good tires " SO AS to not be stuck in a rut get good tires

I can get any of my rigs to "go anywhere" just turn the wheel in the direction you want to go and step on the gas, If something stops ya step harder!



I go anywhere I want, just not going to be stupid and go thru 4' of fluff

 

[Toyoda ALW Ltd]

"A rugged off-the-road machine that will take you ANYWHERE you have the need to go"

I hope nobody is saying Toyota is a liar

 

[Poser]

"A rugged off-the-road machine that will take you ANYWHERE you have the need to go"

I hope nobody is saying Toyota is a liar

Sure....just like 31" tires will take you everywhere you should go...

 

[Toyoda ALW Ltd]

The 7.60x15 are 29" tyres

They have been helping everybody everywhere go where they want to go for many years

And now some people have them hanging on their garage wall because they love them so much.

 

[mano002]

The local ski hill has a couple of sets of Matracks on a 4x4 truck and an excursion. I saw one pulling an H1 Hummer out of the snow on a groomed run. So a 7000lb excursion floated better on mattracks than a 8000lb H1 on 42s.

 

[Bennett]

No one rig will go "any where". It comes down to the right tool for the job. If you want to get out in deep snow a snowmobile would be called for. It sounds like you could buy a set of nice snowmobiles and a trailer for less than the cost of equipping a 40 with mattracks.

this just about goes anywhere and looks cheap to fab as well ...kind of cool in a red neck sort a way...

YouTube - tracked vehicle/2

YouTube - tracked offroad vehicle

 

[Joseph Siri]

...use the extra $20,000 for the restoration of your entire rig.

I've seen tracks range from $25,000 to $45,000+

a buddy here says those on the FJ are probably $30,000

 

[LittleJohn]

Say what you want about tracks, but I had a set on a 850 Can-Am for work and they literally did take me anywhere I wanted to go. We got them because I had to run up a 30* grade in the dead of winter in blizzards to keep a hydroelectric plant running and they would do it easily in 4' of soft powder. The only danger was when I got where I was going as soon as I stepped off I would be waist deep in snow...

The way they are designed they add a gear reduction and add about 4-6in of lift so they clear your fenders with no problem. I had ours up to 60km and picking up speed at times so the aren't that slow but that was on open logging roads.
They do suck to drive on anything that isn't powder are expensive and not as easy to repair as putting on a spare tire. But if you have a hunting cabin or work remote and will be driving on long stretches of power that you would need to drive through Then they work.
Also they reduce the footprint of the vehicle to about 1.5-2psi . That isn't just for a quad if you get them sized accordingly . If you had a 4500lb vehicle each track was 1'wide by 4'long that gives it a square foot print of 4' square per track. So 4 tracks = 16 foot square that is 2304 square inches . 4500/2304=1.95psi footprint. That is a LOT better that a deflated tire. Even if you loaded it down with a fat buddy and gear . 5000lbs is still 2.17psi. Still not bad.

I'm not saying I would do it unless I had money to BURN, and a specific type of driving in mind. But they do have their place.

 

[Wrencher93]

So clearly this thread is older than dirt...but curious as to what the opinion about bolt-on tracks is these days. I feel like the tipping point between tires and tracks for a land cruiser is probably around 3' of fresh powder...