Ok thought I would update the track issue, in case your not on the "G". Anyway Mike is getting closer and looks to be american made. Here is Mikes last entry. If you have a halftrack we need to have pepole willing to commit to a new set to get rolling on this. Otherwise we'll all have some very expensive yard art!
Regards the splice question, here is the Goodyear reply:
Mike,
There are rubber splices and potentially fabric splices if we have fabric in this plyup, but the cord is continuous and has no splice. The strength of the belt is in the cord in this case. The rubber splice welds together during cure and the potential fabric splice is just a bias overlap and neither should play a role in this belt. The rubber is in contact with the ground and you won’t be able to tell where the rubber splice was after cure as this all flows together.
The snow cat uses track of a certain length, but it is all fabric and open end so there is a separation in each belt as they assemble it. This doesn’t seem to cause them a problem, but they probably will replace it much sooner than you would ever think of replacing yours. Your track will be endless with steel cable so quite different.
The thickness of this sample is in the 1.3-1.5” thick range. The cord is situated about 5/8” from the bottom to the center of the cord line so there is more rubber on the outside which contacts the ground as there should be.
Jeff
Thundercat's question:
I have been working with the concept of a container of tracks (about 50 tracks) since way back when we naively thought we could just get this done in China. The idea was that the one time start-up costs could be spread across 50 tracks. We have a new ball game now.
Here's the IED just down the road: the track mold. I'll eat the cost of building the jig and I'll eat the cost of assembling the first two prototypes that will be used for road tests. Steve in Michigan is kicking in metallurgical analyses of the crossbars and guides, as well as getting prices on making these in America. Rob has volunteered resources but has not found a place to contribute yet. And that's it, guys, for the contributors to this project.
The mold price: about $15,000 give or take. That's a chunk of change for testing prototype tracks. I've been trying to get the Argentinians to mold the first prototypes, and maybe the first 50 tracks, but no response. The Argentinians have an original track mold. That's the cheapest option. If they remain unresponsive, what then? How do we pay for a mold? Could/should we use an existing Goodyear mold regardless of its shape just for testing purposes?
The mold problem aside, I guess the bottom line is this: if there aren't 25 guys willing to get behind this and commit to the purchase of 50 tracks after tests, we're wasting our time, and I'll gladly pass all the data on to someone else willing to do the heavy lifting with less resources behind him.
If you want to sse the whole thread:
http://g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=228085&start=480
This may be an opening for other tracked vehicles like the Clet Track and some of the other obscure tracked vehicles.
Don G.
