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Very nice work, welcome to the sweatshop labor club!
On the older machines, guide/belting height must be shorter if you opt to run a wider grouser body and belt on the inside. It becomes even a bigger deal if, for instance, 11”wide tires are used instead of 10”wide. I’ve actually seen taller guided bar channel grousers force the inner belt into the rear bearing extensions, causing the rear tire to de-bead from the rim. I actually use a taller guide on the UHMW Bush Tracks (even on older machines w/smaller diameter tires) but adjust the grouser body and inner belt so that this cannot happen. Then you get the benefit of a taller guide too. You can/should always add wider belts to the outside instead.
I’m guessing you went with around 4” on center
Make sure you bevel/cut belting back from the guides a bit so that tires never have to rub on it. Bolts are best inserted the opposite direction so the everything stays low-profile on the side of the belt opposite the ground (especially on vertical through bolts for the hinge) ,and assembly is easier this way. I do not recommend metal hinges or horizontal hinge pins/bolts etc as they are scratch points and also do wear out, can tear out, and could come loose (rare but happens). My advice is to always take out all the slack (with machine sitting on track with corner tires flat (leave middle tires inflated), then work the ends together so that you can get to within 1” shy of where you would ultimately get with a ratchet strap. That way your length will be just right with 3-5 psi in corner tires. This is with the small pair of tires on the corner positions. If you need to snug it up more than that, you can always swap larger tires to the corner positions to make the track approx 1” tighter (on most batches of tires). But, do not run the track really tight with steel bar channel grousers, or you WILL fatigue and break the grousers. Your guides will not move, so your track does not need to be tight necessarily.
Most tires when positioned in the middle, should be oriented in the non-traction direction. On argo swimmer tires, this means the “swim” orientation. It can also be helpful to put the #1 tire exactly opposite of this (meaning non-swim or “traction mode”). I actually like the back 3 tires in swim-mode (non traction) if possible. If you’re not sure about your tire, just run it around the tread carcass both directions to see which direction is smooth and which direction hangs up. Remember, your middle tires will exhibit a slip-load on top of the square edged grousers, so you want to orient then the correct direction.
I’ve lost my train of thought��, and I wish I could have saved you a bit of trouble ahead of time. But, you did a bang up job by the looks of it, so pat yourself on the back! And thanks for sharing your handiwork with us all!
AK Buzz (Jeff)
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