• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Tucker idler wheel options...

Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Rubber belted Tuckers have many virtues, and they have some areas of concern; especially in units with more hours. One of those areas is the idler wheels (some call them bogie wheels) which attach to the carrier spindles, and are what keep the tracks in contact with the snow. Different track lengths have different numbers of idler wheels. A 1300 series machine has four on each carrier for a total of 16, a 1500 series has five per carrier and a long track Tucker has six per carrier. These wheels have a center aluminum casting and a hard rubber "tire" bonded to the wheel. (De-icer wheels are located at the rear-most position on all four carriers and the tires are made of different materials harder than the standard idler wheel tires, though polyurethane seems to be perhaps the most common.)

Over time pieces (or chunks) of rubber break off, and if it gets bad enough, the idler wheel needs replacement. Of course one can buy brand new ones from Tucker. A company called Fall Line in Reno, NV recovers wheels with polyurethane in different "hardnesses" which is measured by durometer. Another firm is Mountain Services Group in Golden, CO. (This company was formerly known as Okners.) I called both for current pricing. I should point out I recently got a quote for a new idler wheel assembly from Tucker and the price was $350. I did not price the cost of a de-icer wheel.

Fall Line recovered wheels (and drive sprockets) are distinguished by their bright yellow material, (which I believe is a polyurethane). You can specify if you want the softer (idler wheel) or harder (de-icer wheel) compound on your wheel. The price is identical at $240 per wheel. I also priced narrow seven tooth drive sprockets in the square tooth style. Those cost $252 each. They are also yellow, and it is the softer compound.

Mountain Services offers only one material for wheels and it's a black urethane. The wheels could then be used in either an idler position or a de-icer position. The cost for recovering a wheel is $235. The cost for a seven tooth narrow square tooth sprocket is $245.

The very early rubber belted Tuckers had wheels that differ from the later ones in that the aluminum wheel was a larger diameter and the rubber tire was thinner, though the overall diameter was about the same. Later style wheels have "Tucker Sno Cat" in the aluminum wheel casting whereas the earlier wheels say "R & K". I believe Tucker gets their current production wheels from R & K with their unique wheel casting. I Googled R & K wheels and their website mentioned they offer wheel recovering. I contacted them for pricing and was quoted rubber at $189.14 and polyurethane at $265.14. They made a point of saying credit card orders are charged an additional 3.75% fee.

This past summer I won an auction for a ride-on floor scrubber to clean concrete floors. When I picked up the machine it was apparent the front tire was toast. It too is solid rubber and bonded to an aluminum wheel and I thought "No big deal; maybe $75 for a new one" (smaller than a Tucker wheel). Yeah... List price on a new tire/wheel combo was (no kidding) over $600. That was almost twice what I had paid for the whole unit and I felt there had to be a lower cost solution. Polyurethane wheels were available for less money, but I wanted to stick with rubber if I could. After more than a little research I brought the defective wheel to a company in SLC called Rema Tip Top. The manager is a very nice guy and he thought they could do the job. No guarantees, but for $150 it was worth a shot. I thought afterward I wonder if they could recover Tucker idler wheels, called the manager and discussed it. He thought maybe but wanted to see a wheel before committing to it, or quoting a price. I haven't been there yet, so I can't provide any more information. But if I can get the original equipment manufacturer to recover a wheel for $189, I'm not sure it's worth pursuing.

There may be more options I'm not aware of...
 

aksnocat

Member
In my experience the FallLine recovered wheels and sprockets wear much longer than the stock ones and don't seem to chunk as badly when they do.
 

HankScorpio

Member
In my experience Fall Line are a bunch of f**k up, a-holes. I have had both idlers and sprockets go through recovering. The material is fine, the service and workmanship is horrific. My Tucker sprockets were poured in an open faced mold. When I asked them why they looked so bad the answer was "Its a really old mold and we don't do enough volume to replace it." They sure do charge full price to use that crappy mold and they don't warn you ahead of time.
They also completely screwed up a set of Tucker belts. They had me approve a custom belt schematic and then made a completely different one. They said they would replace the belts since they built them to the wrong spec. The problem was that even if they had measured correct they were of poor quality. Several holes were 3/8 out of place, some of the holes were a different size for some reason, 1 belt had a cut in the top sheet from someone slipping with a knife and several belts had chunks out of the side from poor slitting when they were cut to width. I will never use Fall Line and must warn everyone to never consider using them.

I called Joe at Mountain Services Group and he was outstanding. Top notch work and he knew everything about my belts without any issues. I cannot recommend him enough. Fall line cost me weeks right before winter with their mistakes but Joe was fast, accurate and got the project back on track. I would pay whatever he wanted because I know he will not screw around and his work will be right the first time. Joe is awesome! Call and he answers, no run around. 303-294-9291

Again, F**k Fail Line right in their stupid asses, they are the worst possible company to deal with and their workmanship is total garbage.
 
Top