TracMaster Adventure/Blowout

Hey All:

We got some new snow in Northern Colorado last week, so I took the kids out in my 1967 TracMaster (aka RoJo) up around Steamboat lake, had a great time...until we got back to the trailhead, and some cretin had blocked the way with his truck.

So, I tried to go around thru some trees (too tight), and lost a track...started losing daylight so I came back the next day and ended up having to haul it out with my tractor. Eventually one track split, the other completely off.

I'm trying to look at the silver lining -- it was probably about time for new tracks (and at least I was able to haul it out myself).

But I wanted to ask some of the SnowTrac veterans if there's an easy way to get a slipped track back on in the field -- I tried a come-along, winch, swearing -- couldn't get it.

TeleSteeze

Now that's a crappy way to end the day.

I just turned and drove after I loosened it. it is much easier with two people.
jim

Solution#1)
Materials required: Handyman Jack, or Railroad Jack, Snow shovels, as as many people as you can get.
This works on any surface, level or not. Dig out around the track, loosen the track adjuster, partially deflate the Rear
Wheel, and the ideler wheel, or "return-track" wheel. That's the one that carries the upper portion of the track. Use the big jack to lift that side of the cat. The track can simply be pushed on. It is imperative that you remember to re-inflate the tires. One of the primary reasons for detracking is incorrect track tension. Under inflated tires will leave the track loose,... and prone to detracking. since I have done exactly this with a Trac-Master, in a monster drift, on a logging road in the Cascades near Mt. Rainier, I know it works. I have pictures, but they are at home, and I'm 2600 miles away in Prudhoe Bay.
Solution#2) Break the 'Lap-joint'. Once again you will need some form of jack, and if you are in the snow some cribbing to support the jack in the snow. Loosen the adjuster, and if you have a pump or bottled air as above soften up the big tire and the little support tire. DO NOT Deflate the tire if you do not have some way to reinflate it. The tube will crawl around inside the rim and you will destroy the tube, which leads to further complications!
Pull the coil wire, put the machine in First, second or Reverse and use the sprockets to drag the track around. You need a board to wedge between the square tube that supports the leaf springs and the wheel guides to keep the track from pulling out from under the machine. A piece of #12 or #10 Solid copper wire can be attached to the sprocket and used to both pull the track in position, and to tension it enough to get the bolts in the lap joint started. Don't forget to re-inflate and adjust the tensioner.
Using this method i have gotten a Snow Trac, or Trac-master track on, in my shop, by myself in under 30 minutes! That was from track rolled up next to the cat, to completely bolted and tensioned. With a buddy, if i didn't stop to tell stories too much, maybe 8 to 10 minutes, probably faster than most people can change a tire.
I use a small air wrench in my shop, but having the proper nut driver and a couple of phillips screw drivers handy for alligning the bolts is handy. For out in the field the new cordless impact guns are great.
this was covered in : http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=3818
#3 method on next post:

I was just revisiting this post, you blew both tracks off!

I am slow.....

Here is to hoping, better trips to come. I think the smiles on the faces trump the tracking experience.

OK, this next method was explained to me by a Hunter from North Pole Alaska. He had totally destroyed several Trac Master's, and was a real "Cob-Job" mechanic who got fed up with the spline shaft problems and just gone ahead and welded the axels to the wheel drums,........
But I know it works for Snow Trac and Trac-master, and judging by the physics and dynamics involved, would probably work for any rubber tracked machine:

This Guy's Trac Master was so prone to detracking that he had become an "Expert" at re-tracking it with-out even deadjusting the tensioner. He would simply cut foot to 18" long pieces of tree branches that were between the size of a closet pole ("inch-and-a-quarter") to two inch. usually 6 to 8 pieces, lay them in the track by the sprockets so that they got sucked in under the track between the sprockets and the track, and literally drove it right back on, usually in reverse.
I analyzed this method and it appears that the diameter of the dowels or wood tree branches needs to be very close to the height of the tire guides, but it is a proven technique and seems to work without damaging the machine.
Editors note: Snow Masters, and Trac Masters make lousy "hunting-rigs"!

If you are responding to refute this, forget it! don't even think about it, you'll get hammered!

At a drag race Me and my buddy John, (Mark & John?), with Dave Keeping time, pulled a VW Engine out of a VW bus in one minute and forty seconds. No floor jack, no power tools. One guy get under the car, yanks off the fuel line, plugs it with a pencil, disconnects the two heater box cables, rips off the heater hoses, and removes the 2 bottoms bolts that are 17MM. Meanwhile the "Top-Guy", rips the wires off, pulls much of the tin around the rear of the engine off, either with a straight blade screw driver or a 10 MM wrench, dissconnect the the throttle cable, and using a flat ratchet un-does the two 17MM "Top-bolts" .Pull the engine out, remove the passenger side rear tire and slide the engine out.
After not having done one for 10 years I was still able to remove a VW engine, by myself in a bit over 4 minutes, but I had the advantage of having a Floor Jack, which we would normally consider cheating.
John's girlfriend, Carol, pulled a Vw engine out, by herself in just over 4 minutes, wearing a white blouse, in the grass, without getting the blouse messed up!
Getting a VW Motor out of a Snow Trac? that's a "whole nuther beast". I've never managed toi do it in less than 15 or 16 minutes, and that was in a shop, with help!
O.K.,... I rest my case.

Should have just drove over the asshat who parked in the way! At least you had the equipment to get it out of there.

dave_dj1 said:

Should have just drove over the asshat who parked in the way! At least you had the equipment to get it out of there.

Click to expand...

That was where my mind went too. But I was hoping to hear that they set the truck on fire when they went to get the tractor.Or flipped it over with the tractor when they got back.

I think I would have rearranged the snow bank all around the truck with the tractor bucket this time of year you can get those 4-5 ft freak snow storms in 20 minutes

Lyndon, your posts are always so helpful and full of good info. Thank you.
Now will you please post a video of the track installation in 15 minutes. I have only done it once and it took a half a day (a lot of that was head scratching!). Also a video of the bus engine removal. I seem to do mine in about 20 minutes, and I get dirty...
I guess I better practice on both! Hope to meet you one of these days.