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UNA TRACK. Wheel conversion tracks.

Mainer

Boggie likes our museum
SUPER Site Supporter
There is a company in Japan that makes them too..

n-west.co.jp/sv/4x4hyper.html

But similar prices to Mattracks

What an AWESOME variety of vehicles they've got too... endless configurations of vans, 4x's, BUSES! Too cool.
Just need an English version!
 

Vance

Member
My idea for an anti rotation device would be a torsion sping trailer spindle. mount the square end in your design and link the lever into your steering. would allow the track to move up and down to follow terrain, but wouldn't let it flop around.

That concept IS what the Mattracks patent is for. The anti rotation concept. They use a simplified rubber torsion system in the Mattracks. I found the patent once when looking at track designs. There is lots of good technical info in patents!! Do a search and you'll find it, I'm sure.

Also of note, Tucker has quite a few patents on snocat applications.

Vance
 

Deerlope

New member
This is what I am using
 

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fogtender

Now a Published Author
Site Supporter
Biggest problem I could see with longevity was the track sections. They appear to be made of some form of super plastic. But they did have cracks and rips in them. I added a 3 ply rubber band all around both edges to strengthen the weak spots. Lots of bolts and holes to drill. I could find replacement track sections no where. UNATRACK is out of buisness I believe, the phone number and address on the back of each track section does not work any longer.{Quote}


If I am not mistaken, those look like some of the earlier snowmachine tracks that were converted/used to be used on your Unatrack by the manufacture. If you check the length, width and pitch, I would bet a dime that you can still find new replacement tracks for it.

http://www.camoplast.com/en/tracksystem/replacementtracks_snowmobile_all.php

http://www.tracksusa.com/

Anyway, just a thought...
 

Deerlope

New member
Was just out with that and I still can not beleive where the tracks will take me. It is totally unbeleiveable to me. 90 % of the time I was in 2 wheel drive with the differ locked. For the last hour I have been in snow 24" deep and dragging bottom all the time. Only once did I have to use 4 wheel drive. I will tell Santa that I need a heated cab. The sooner the better.
 

Deerlope

New member
I have had the RTV for a couple of years and only just got the tracks. We use it for gathering maple sap to make syrup and it is usually in March before it sees much winter use. By Mar things are starting to warm up. We don't have the below 0 temps any more.
The whitetail deer are having a hard time finding feed so I just went out and cut a few cedar for them. In the spring I will go back and get the wood that is left in them.
 

Mainer

Boggie likes our museum
SUPER Site Supporter
I dug up the patent and uploaded the pdf.
I think there are ways to skin this cat in terms of a patent...


I'll check out the patent designs that have been approved to date and see if there is something like this. If not... you may want to consider filing a patent application...relatively dirt cheap as long as you keep a lawyer out of it (which is pretty straightforward to do). Otherwise I would fear that the M-company may file it just to keep others from putting it into their design (hopefully they don't read the forum!). ;)

So many companies buy patents just to shelve the idea to prevent competition. Gross but a fact of business.

I think the one place that you do get your money's worth from Mattracks is in the ATV track. They leveraged alot of design from their full-size version obviously and they actually sell for a more reasonable sum. When you look at those and what the competitors offer for ATV's... they blow the competitor away for price/performance point of view. I saw a used set recently for $2,500 with only 1 season of light use. I'll buy a set of those down the road. Of course Mattracks hasn't attacked the ATV competitors because the money ain't so great... although I think there are far more Mattracks out there for ATV's %-wise than for trucks/suv's/etc.
 

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The testing described a modified set that had the leading edge turned up to allow better "climb out" for lack of a better term. I think this is the key to better powder performance. A snowmobile nose up with enough track under it will go through an amazing ammount of powder. On the net sometime ago I saw a frame that you drove your whole truck up on, chainde it down, coupled the rear drive wheels to input shafts, and drove away on tracks. Steering was done electrically with buttons from the cab. Anyone seen anything like this?

I saw rigs similar to what you describe, but the steering was done using the power steering pump to power brakes on each track - the steering was done by the steering wheel, but the turning was done by braking
 

battdad

Member
So I havent been on the forums for a while but i was surprised when i saw the whole new section for tracked 4x4s. Here is some pics of the machine that I built. very similar to what you have there.
 

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battdad

Member
That is correct, 2002 pt cruiser on 1992 chevy blazer frame and running gear. The tracks are standard snowmobile tracks on homemade gear,
 

Slinky Pickle

New member
Here's my rig on home brew tracks. It's a pretty light vehicle and I went for lots of surface area. I'm running about 1.25 psi on both ends.

I try very hard not to lock my diffs. I had an issue in the past where I locked them and since there was so much traction on the tracks, as soon as they both found grip, the locker exploded.

2re4gzk.jpg


Here's a couple of videos

https://youtu.be/U6U7VGP5ZG0

https://youtu.be/fHZTWdPJLdM
 

battdad

Member
Hey Slinky pickle, Nice track set-up you have there. If you don't mind me asking, what length tracks do you have on the frontend? I put 141s on the rear and 136s up front. Mine is a touch hard to steer unless you are moving. I added a hydro assist cylinder to the front but unless everything is rolling, its a bear. Did you manufacture your own track frames? Did you design the front ones different from the rear to help ease steering?
Sorry for all the questions but when I see other people doing what I have attempted, it is a bit encouraging.
I have already built mine but there is always room for improvement.
Great job on your jeep.
 

Slinky Pickle

New member
Hey Slinky pickle, Nice track set-up you have there. If you don't mind me asking, what length tracks do you have on the frontend? I put 141s on the rear and 136s up front. Mine is a touch hard to steer unless you are moving. I added a hydro assist cylinder to the front but unless everything is rolling, its a bear. Did you manufacture your own track frames? Did you design the front ones different from the rear to help ease steering?
Sorry for all the questions but when I see other people doing what I have attempted, it is a bit encouraging.
I have already built mine but there is always room for improvement.
Great job on your jeep.

Mine are 146" front and rear. I built the fronts with a ski tip but the rears are flat. Next time I would make them all the same as the fronts. The ski tip really works well when you drop in to some soft stuff. It just causes the frame to lift the front and drive out of the hole.

I'm in the process of adding hydro assist to mine as well. Like you say, it's pretty tough to steer unless you're moving.

I manufactured the frames and sprocket drives myself. Next time I will reduce the sprocket diameter so that I can get a bit more torque. Right now it's pretty much done at the top end of second gear, high range. I would like to gear it lower so that I can use the full range of gears.

All in all they're a blast and I would recommend them to anyone!
 

battdad

Member
I built my track frames using rear suspensions out of arctic cat snowmobiles. I stripped them down to just the skids and wheels and then built up from there. I am thinking of redesigning the front ones so they tip up more, I think it would help in deep,deep stuff.
I too would recommend them to anyone. They are a blast. The only thing that I have to be careful of is getting too far from civilization, don't want to get stranded too far out in the sticks.
 
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