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Rubber Track Care Guide

BEST PRACTICES FOR RUBBER TRACK CARE

Rubber tracks offer many advantages for those who drive heavy machinery such as excavators, loaders, dozers, and farm equipment. The irony is that while rubber tracks work well on rough terrain, you can easily damage them. If you drive over items such as jagged rocks, broken stone, scrap iron, iron rods, or recycled materials, you can ruin the tracks and invalidate any warranties that might come with the replacement tracks.

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ALL-STAR TIRES SUPPLIES THE RUBBER TRACKS & SERVICE YOU NEED

If you need more information on the best ways of preserving the life span of your rubber tracks, All-Star Tire can supply the rubber tracks you need and provide around the clock service and repair to keep your business up and running. 

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ENSURING RUBBER TRACK CARE

For best results with rubber tires, know where you are driving the equipment and observe some practical tips to keep them in good condition. Even though you are driving heavy equipment, you should exercise the same caution you would in navigating the road with regular pneumatic tires on a car or truck.

  • Consider the basics. First of all, buy the tracks in the right size, based on the horsepower of your vehicle. If the horsepower exceeds the track tension, the tracks will slip and not wear correctly. When the tracks are on your vehicle, make sure to rotate them frequently to even out the wear. To prevent sun damage, park your vehicle in a shaded spot. If you use the tracks less frequently than every two weeks, make sure to remove them and leave them on their side in a cool, dry environment.
  • Maintain your undercarriage. Worn, dirty undercarriages can lead to a host of problems. Wash your undercarriage frequently to prevent build up mud from freezing the recoil mechanisms and causing track cable failure. A dirty undercarriage can also hide other problems such as worn sprocket teeth that can pull links out of tracks or worn rollers than can cut the rolling area of the track.
  • Drive carefully. Driving over rocks and other sharp objects can ruin the track, as can some chemical contaminants. While paying attention can help you steer around occasional dangers, you should consider using steel tracks if the usual landscape you traverse is full of rocks or other sharp objects. Driving the tracks through salt, oil, chemicals, or barnyard manure pushes contaminants into the tread, which can cause the rubber to deteriorate. You should also avoid driving over curbs that can pull tracks out of place (de-tracking). The result of driving over improper terrain or curbs is rather drastic, as chunks of rubber fall off, which leaves the metal tracks underneath subject to corrosive moisture.
  • Properly adjust the tension. While loose tracks can slip off and damage the cleats around the planetary drive wheel, ones that are too tight put extra pressure on the rollers and idle bearing and can cause you to lose power. Overly tight tracks react like over-inflated tires.