Tracks-hinge vs overlap

[pixie]

What are your experiences with the two ways of attaching the ends of the belts together ?

For my J5, I got the endless belts like they were made with. My Skidozer has one track done each way.
I am presently trying to replace the cleats over the overlap on one side because the cleats were cracking lengthwise and scrubbing the sprocket. I don't know if this is common ?

I'll be buying new belts for that side and need your opinions.

Thanks

 

[snowbird]

My grousers are rusty enough to look like they might be originals (1971)? and I've not noticed cracking at the overlap, but I'll look. Both my SkiDozer tracks have not only an overlap, but a short piece of antique-looking belting (to reinforce the joint maybe?) I don't know what it takes to change a track on the J5, but I'd sure not want to tackle putting a continuous track on the SkiDozer (I thought it was extremely difficult getting the ends together with the overlap; I don't know how I could have done it with a continous track).

 

[Melensdad]

Pixie, my experience with track hinges is not on snowcats but on industrial conveyor belts. From my research, snowcats and industrial belts use the identical hinges from the same suppliers. What I can tell you about conveyor belts is that we had failures most often at the hinge splices. One of my warehouse 'rooms' was a sorting room that had over a quarter mile of conveyor in the room, which means it had double the length of belting. I can recall 1 instance of a belt tearing mid-length, all other belt failures were at the hinge point. Just my experience, may not really apply here?

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I've wondered the same thing about hinges vs overlap. On the lamtrac, we've always overlapped but the BR160 has the hinges. The way we've done it on the lamtrac is by overlapping the belts by 3-4 cleets and using longer bolts to get through the double layer of belting in the overlapped area. The hinges look like they'd be a pain in the derrier to line up. We've never had a problem with the overlapping method in the past. The trick with installing cleets is to make sure you don't overtighten the bolts as that has caused us premature wear and failure on the belts in the past.

 

[IMP]

I replaced the tracks on my Imp a few years back and the worst spots were at the hinge. They were tearing out and real cracked / dry rotted mostly at the hing point. I bought new hinges to install with my new belting then decided to try the overlap method after learning about it on this forum. Its worked out great so far but I haven't had to remove my tracks yet. I know it wont be an easy job to do but I bet its not easy with a hing track either. Another thing to consider is it was hard for me to find new hing pins. I needed 5/16 X 10" grade 8 bolts which are not a common item where I live. If you need some new hinges I have some to sell. I bought them from Tim at snotrans for $60. But I recommend the overlap method

 

[snowbird]

Since overlap seems to be a favored method, is there an opinion out there concerning adding a short piece of belting in the overlap (as a sort of reinforcement)? Life would likely be easier for me if, heaven forbid, I need to take my tracks apart again. It's tough enough getting holes lined up with two layers of belting, but three layers was even more of a challenge.

 

[J5 Bombardier]

Hi Pixie
I went with an overlap when I changed my belts, it sure makes it easier to do future work on the J5, compared to a endless belt. I have a set of muskeg tracks [endless] with a few seasons left in them, to put them on is not fun! J5 Bombardier

 

[pixie]

Thanks for the replies .

The tracks on the J5 aren't that hard to deal with because they are pretty narrow . I used milk crates and pieces of wood to get them the right shape and wiggle them on.

I'm guessing that new cats come with hinges and have for many years and there are several brands of hinges; some better than others. It looks like the most common failure point is at the connection wether it is a lap or a hinge.

Snowbird, I think the extra layer is good on the Skidozer that has a fairly thin belt but the third layer would be too stiff on a J5 that has belts about twice as thick.

And since Brian brought it up .... how do you tell if the cleats are tight enough but not too tight ? Loose cleats wear the tracks, too.

I'm still hoping for a few more opinions

 

[NorthernRedneck]

The way we always tell wether or not the cleets are too tights is, when we go to tighten up the cleets when we're installing them, we keep an eye on the rubber as we are tightening up the nuts and bolts. We always snug it up enough that we can just start to see the rubber kind of compressing and expanding. Tighten it up too much, and the rubber will wear prematurely. If they are too loose on the other hand, the cleets will "flop" around more and cause tearing to the belts.

 

[cranman]

I have the overlap on my narrow guage bombardier but I've always been bothered by the thumping as it hits the sprockets on hard trails. So, when I build my new track I'm using The FLEXCO kit 140E Belt fasteners for belts to 7/16 inch. The kit has 25 but you only need 5 for a 5 1/2 inch belt so you use 20 to do a set of tracks. I see everyone here has them placed so the join is under a cleat so I can't see them ever breaking. They also sell the tools for punching/boring the holes. Fot the J5, depending how hard you are going to use it you may want 1/2 inch or more so you would need a different FLEXCO kit.