How to Avoid Burning Up Rubber

by Curt Bennink
Created: September 20, 2010

Pay attention to both selection and maintenance to get optimal life from rubber track undercarriages.

The terrain has a major impact on the wear rate of the track. If you must work in a harsh environment, you may want to work the additional operating cost into the bid.
The terrain has a major impact on the wear rate of the track. If you must work in a harsh environment, you may want to work the additional operating cost into the bid.
The pitch of a sprocket will change as it wears. Placing a new track on a worn sprocket results in a pitch mismatch that shortens track life.
The pitch of a sprocket will change as it wears. Placing a new track on a worn sprocket results in a pitch mismatch that shortens track life.

"Also, through monitoring warranty, we've correlated unusually severe track damage to undercarriages in a state of disrepair (e.g., idlers and rollers with missing tread rubber)," Hare states. "Machine manufacturers include convenient means to align, and customers have learned to check and align tracks, if needed, on regular enough intervals, so that track removal due to misalignment is somewhat rare."

Of course, tracks do wear out, one way or another. "The rubber wears out, which happens after an extended service life; that is the normal rubber track failure," Zafirov states. "Then, there is premature track failure, which typically happens when you have a core component failure, such as the steel cables inside."

"It gets to the point where most tracks get to the end of their service life and they actually end up breaking," says Steier. "Because of the high expense, [contractors] will work them until they get the last workable hour out of them."