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Advantage - Disadvantage of the Solid Rubber or foam filled tires in the ST4

nikos

nikos

Active member
Hey Guys
August the 30th

I have some questions about the solid rubber or the foam filled tires in the ST4 ( The boggie wheels).
What are the features, the performance, and the characteristics of these tires in the Snow?
What about the strength-or the wear among in the guides?.
Also informations about the speed?

I need your opinion.
Which is the best The solid rubber or the foam filled tires?

Regards Nikos.
 

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I'm going to let you make the decision.I will tell you what to expect,if you go with the 6 ply aircraft tail wheel you will have a pretty durable pneumatic tire.as for foam or solid tyouare going to hear and feel them when running on the ice or hard packed snow,I know mine are all solid also the fomies or solids will weigh twice as much. on the plus side you will never have a flat and the tires can chunk out and still work. my tire guy says to foam the rear tire on my snow trac I will add 65 pounds per tire I think i'm going to try new tubes first. these are the proes and cons as I see them and I spend a lot of time in mine in the winter
 
I agree with dds. The ride will suffer on hard surfaces. The durabily trouble free nature of the foam fill make it worth while...

I have all mine filled. I like some snow to run it.......

Regards, Kirk
 
Few months ago in a discussion about the tires LYNDON also says

"I thought I had generated an article on the ST4 tires a long time ago, but it must be in with some other aspect of Snow Trac history that I generated earlier.
The little tires were always a weak aspect of the design. This actually led to the modification of the Large front tires on later models. It's also why other manufacturers went to larger wheels. There are very few substitutes for the small tire. I tried everything. So did MT. Snow, in Vermont. They had a whole fleet of ST4's and I remember seeing various attempts at substitute wheels that did not fare so well. I have even seen a guy in Alaska that made his own layered plywood wheels. Substituting Solid Casters for the second position from the front worked well on several of my machines. There is an aircraft tire that is made for Gliders, that works, but is hard to find and expensive. It's more ply's and can be inflated to higher pressure. The Canadian Phone companies had a tire manufacturer in Calgary that made solid tires for them. Probably Bandag. They also had Brass front sprockets made by someone in Calgary. As the Canadian Phone people purchased and operated about one fifth of the entire production of Snow Trac, Snow Master, and Trac Master's they got pretty good at modifications and improvements. Besides producing their own tires and sprockets, they were responsable for the later exhaust designs and some suspension improvements. They were possibly the only end user that by-passed all the dealers and delt directly with Westermaskiner. Some of the photos in the sales literature are of their machines. If you are going to stay with pneumatics, the original Snow Trac tire is the one I recomend. They are lighter and quieter, (16 on a Snow Trac, and 18 on a Trac Master), but if you want reliability get them foam filled. As the rear wheel is only for tensioning and rarely carries weight foam filling it is a good ideal and doesn't impair the ride. Always carry a spare big and little tire, check the air pressure regularly, and check to see that one has not frozen and isn't turning especially after sitting overnight. I've seen several machines with a destroyed tire and rime from being driven when they were not turning. One can also substitute a solid tire or caster for the "Top" tire, the one the track returns on to the back wheel. This also does not affect the ride or reliability."
__________________
 
Melensad -Don - Kirk

Thanks for the useful advice. I appreciate what you say. Your experience are very valuable for us with a few our on the steering wheel of the ST4.
From the 10 boggie wheels, the 4 of them, are 6 ply aircraft tail tires, and the others, are the mothers factory trelleborg tires,3.00 - 4.00 in very good condition.
Recently i bought a pair of solid rubber tires (Back up in the tool box).
I have the opportunnity to foam filled the 4 big wheels, but i didnt.
Its not for the money $ or Euro, but for the mess. I hope to do the right think with the pneumatic tyres and have no troubles outside in the free nature.

Which is the right speed for the foam filled tyres ? 15 or 20 mph.

Regards Nikos
 
nikos said:
Melensad -Don - Kirk

Thanks for the useful advice. I appreciate what you say. Your experience are very valuable for us with a few our on the steering wheel of the ST4.
From the 10 boggie wheels, the 4 of them, are 6 ply aircraft tail tires, and the others, are the mothers factory trelleborg tires,3.00 - 4.00 in very good condition.
Recently i bought a pair of solid rubber tires (Back up in the tool box).
I have the opportunnity to foam filled the 4 big wheels, but i didnt.
Its not for the money $ or Euro, but for the mess. I hope to do the right think with the pneumatic tyres and have no troubles outside in the free nature.

Which is the right speed for the foam filled tyres ? 15 or 20 mph.

Regards Nikos
Click to expand...
Even though there is a weight penalty I may be doing my big tires as they don't impact the ride bit and the tires are a bit hard to find in the us filled they could chunk out and still be serviceable
 
the stock tires have flat surface and our aircraft has a round surface. But it seems to work fine.
 
Hey Jim

The solid tires in my tool box (For BUCKUP) are with Flat and Round surface, like the aircrafts. In any case we shall see the working behavior of these tires if something happens.
The man in the factory with the foam filled tires told me, that these kinds of tires, it must be working in low speed, otherwise it burned and it get damaged.


e.g The devil in my computer struck again.

Your experience are very valuable for us with a few hours (not our) on the steering wheel of the ST4.
Regards Nikos
 
JimVT

As i can see from the photo, except from the ice sticking sprocket, there are (Always) Significant amounts of frozen wet snow, on the horizontal bar - part of the chassis. The same thing happens to me, no matter the quality of the snow. Wet or sugary. I have designed - (just a SKETCH) a construction, for this reason, not to congregate the snow from the tracks, at this point of the chassis.

But I need to find the best way to install the constructions, on both sides. On the left side, there is, the exhaust pipe in mine, that leads the fumes close to the rear left wheel.
Anyway, I'll find a solution for this. Sometimes the things seem to be complicated, but it is so simple.

Regards Nikos
 
directly behind the drive sprocket I built ice scratchers that prevent any buildup. snow settles on top of them. It isn't my design, I copied it from one I seen. they work good for that wet snow . most people removed them.
 
I think my ice scrapers are the ones Jim copied.. Mine are OEM parts and originally the base was mounted to the aluminum drive housing the front drive axle, and the cutting bits were mounted turned around facing the drive sprocket. The snow and ice cuttings built up inside of the drive sprockets, and around the cast axle housing. Some one perhaps Lyndon discovered by mounting them inline, and facing the front the amount of build up was less and in a less sensitive spot, most of it falling clear of the track line. That is my understanding of this, anyway. I never take mine off. They are a no wear and tear item. and very usefull if you need them.

There is a thread with pics of mine around here some where...http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=51542&highlight=st4+ice+scrapers

Regards, Kirk
 
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