I have seen 312 and slightly large Cat excavators with rubber pads bolted to the steel track shoes. The rubber pads extended about 1/2" above the grousers. Probably would take a couple hours to swap them on/off though.I am finding its one those situations about compromise. My CASE Minitour DL550 has rubber as I thought overall it would be better and I still think it will be. However where I am now, single grousers would ideal. I have run these machines with steel and they are louder, and slower and of course you cant use them everywhere. On a machine like a CTL, unless you are only going to be only in the dirt (and maybe not even then), you wont be happy all the time regardless.
It would interesting to see if someone couldn't come up with a way to overlay rubber tracks on a single grouser steel track.
Good info, never would have thought of those drawbacks as have only ever used steel track on full sized excavators. Was thinking of steel tracks for our 5 ton mini….will rethink that.I had steel tracks on my 299, thought they would be great as I work in a lot of rock.
You're limited to single speed because they'll grenade your machine with vibration otherwise.
I couldn't have the side windows open because of how loud they were and they wear on the chains I think because of the idler being smaller in relation to the constant speed I was running at. I would not do it again for a general purpose machine
That would be good, we operate strictly off road, and the rubber tracks really get sliced up by sharp shale etc…JMO but I think a steel UC on a 5 ton mini would perform well. Mini's are a different animal UC operating wise. I've thought about spec'ing our next 305 with steel tracks.
Saw this new 304 at the dealer a couple of months ago.
View attachment 306319
All good points, I suspect an even higher Canadian price. Will have to check out….My personal thoughts concerning steel on a mini is, unless your in a rock, demo type environment all the time, I don't see the benefit of it. You’re limited on what you can do on improved services. Steel tracks slide around on asphalt and concrete more than do rubber. Mini excavators tend run on improved surfaces probably more than anything but a wheeled skid steer. Rubber tracks are comparatively cheap on a mini. It would likely cost 8-10 to get steel I bet, you can buy a lot of rubber tracks for that kind of money and still use it everywhere.
Will post up pricing as comparison for Deere (dealer here is Brandt). I know on the Deere all the lower rollers are single flange….will see what all is involved.Just did a quick search on parts.cat and metal chains for our 305E are $2,100 a piece plus $2800 for pads and hardware. So $7K + tax. Not sure if the sprockets, rollers and idlers would need to be changed.
The bolt on rubber pads add another $3,300. $40 a piece X 80.
For reference OEM Bridgstone tracks are $2,300 + tax. Like KSSS said one could buy a couple of sets of OEM rubber for the same price as retrofitting.
We do a lot of site demo - asphalt, concrete curbs, slabs, sidewalks, etc and it's rough on rubber tracks. The rubber on our 305 is worn smooth but haven't broke yet. If I were to go with steel I'd buy it on a new machine. Easier to price down extras when you're negotiating a new machine.