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Are These Snow Tracks Going To Be Enough???
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- Published on Jan 28, 2023 veröffentlicht
- Casey Ladelle’s channel: / @casey.ladelle
Ambition Strike channel: / @ambitionstrikes
Walls outdoor wear: bit.ly/3R1DUeH
Today we finish mocking up the track frame and getting all the wheels mounted. I’m super excited to get these tracks finished and tested!!!
Thanks for watching! 
Autos & Vehicles
This is a great project. Once you get them on and they're working good, you should challenge your dad and his snowcat to some fun in the snow.
@Bill Chessell
No one said he needed his Dad. 🤷🏻♂️
I would watch this. Twice.
He doesn’t need his dad…
The tracked recovery Winter Olympics, with RAD, MORR, Robby Layton and Casey Ladelle. 😂
The tracks will definitely weigh more than the tires. Great job Rudy can't wait to see it in action.
Amazing! The 12" idler wheels look suspect, but the road wheels (as they are called in the military) on military track vehicles are basically the same thing. Granted the road wheels are more heavy duty, but they are on vehicles weighing from 12 to 70+ tons. It'll be interesting to see how well yours hold up.
I love where this is going!! I really wanted to build my own tracks for this season, but a serious lack of time and an abundance of other projects meant it made more sense to just buy them again. I’m hoping that this summer I can get time to redesign the lower half to use larger pneumatic wheels that smooth out the ride on rough ground.
hey Ruditoot you need to replace all of that square tubing with plate steel you have access to a plasma cutter you can come right off the hub with plate steel, bend it at a 90 degree angle and have plate all the way to the front and rear idler wheels and then have ear tabs off the bottom of that for the boogie wheels......you can cut holes in the plate as well to lower weight after it is all shaped out
@Matt Williams he just did hydro steering! So it shouldn’t be a problem!
Did you tell him to upgrade to a 10 gallon power steering fluid reservoir or add some type of cooling system?
Casey is the best.
@Rudys Adventure and Design You Can Do It!
You're Makin incredible progress. I've been a metal fabricator all my life so I have a pretty good grasp of the scope of work you're tackling. It's big. Props to your brother for all the welding. They look great! Looking forward to the next installment!
Looks great. I would think about putting the adjustable wheel at the back of the track so your threaded rod isn't taking the shock of anything you run into.
Beat me to it
Maybe an air shock on the front bogie instead of a threaded rod to soak up some of the shock
Put the track on the other side of the vehicle and it’ll be at the back.
@William Sanders The rear wheels on this are the ones being pulled on all the time. I did maintenance on the Nodwell tracked vehicle I used in the Arctic many years ago and they had a grease cylinder to tighten the track on the front. To loosen the track to do maintenance on it the grease zerk is taken off to bleed the grease out.
I don't know about the threaded rod, on snow tracks, but on most tracked heavy equipment, the adjustment system is on the front of the machine. True, they are (Unless really old) grease adjusters, that tighten tracks with grease pressure in a cylinder. But even the old Caterpillar equipment with the manual adjustable track tensioner, have the adjuster on the front idler wheel.
Your larger front 12” wheels will definitely need to be upgraded to utilize sealed or greased bearings. Looking good. Keep it up!
I agree on those wheels. Plus the metal on those is usually pretty thin. I had similar ones on a dolly and they did not hold up to much side load.
I agree that the large idle wheel bearings appear sketchy at this point and only support minimal lateral load with their thin metal sidewalls. Hard turning may lead to more lateral stresses than you may think. Are the bearings fully road-worthy? Would a single fat wheel or two adjacent narrow wheels at each end of the track and supported with outboard bearings provide more lateral stability? If I understand your design correctly, it seems like the track tensioner rod is in compression subject to bending under the vehicle load and against track tension. It could be inverted so that the weight of the vehicle contributes to the track tension and the adjustment threaded rod is also in tension. Potentially a stronger orientation if the tension rod fails, the vehicle weight can still help keep some track tension.
Also, was thinking that the boggie wheels should be more inboard on the smooth rubber between the cogs, the metal in the slotted section will probably eat them up. Thanks for posting, very interesting.
“The rest of my life”. But Rudy, you’re such a young man! 😂🤣🤭
Yeah, those wheels look a little sketchy! I think you’re right about the bearings; maybe the hub as well.
For ur fans u should go through a price break down of what u spent on ur tracks and what a set of tracks would have cost great video
I would be interested in this, as well. But, you built them. Now you need to test them to destruction or success.
Wow, those are looking great. Can't wait to see them in action! I love the walking beam design that the small wheels are attached to. -Riley
Hey Riley & Courtney, hope you don't mind I sent Rudy Adventures your link on your track build. Was hoping it give him some Ideas.
Love your channel, congrats on your baby
dang you really are an engineer this is showcasing your abilities really well it seems. no matter how this works or turns out you have done an amazing thing here.
Ambitious project Rudy..love it. Designing on the fly is what I do best too. Build, test, break, upgrade...repeat. Gotta feeling those idler wheels are not going to cut it though..
Pretty cool that you are crafting your own tracks from scratch and working through the fixes as you see the design flaws. Very nice work. Hope the end results turn out great.
I mentioned this in the last video, but quite late, so I'll say it here again. I'm sure this is way too late, but just in case, your tracks need to be somewhat turned up on the front. If not, the first time you encounter an obstacle with any speed faster than a crawl you'll likely snag on it rather than go over it. Even then you'll still snag stuff, just not as bad/often.
Yes, you're correct. I run Camso tracks on my quad & they have an "attack angle" plus a curve at the front.
If you look at the end clip the side of the track with the tensioner that wheel is about 3 inches off the ground, and with a 12 inch wheel it gives me a massive taper in the front.
The tracks are looking great and I'm impressed with your ability to prototype on the fly. If the 12" wheels give you trouble plasma out some 3/8" Hardox 450 plates with drive spokes on them to help retain the tracks. Hardox plate is weldable with sg2 wire or 7018 rod unlike AR plate, will last longer and is stronger than mild steel. I would also recommend using a sealed hub assembly on the 12" wheels to prevent water from seizing them and to give them better side load/thrust strength.
Looks good !Even though they may not last, it's a great project to help you understand how real manufacturers build stuff cheaply and made to last. In the end with enough metal you WILL make them work properly !
Ambitious! And they look really really good!
I'm glad you're planning on working them hard. It'll be entertaining to see if you can break them at first. it'll be a great way to see where the weak points are and finalize your design.
Nice project, I'm already waiting to see Rudicon on the tracks in the snow. The durability of the wheels and, above all, the bearings must be strong enough and waterproof. Snowmobile rollers are usually used in the tracks. The tensioning of the track should be directed towards the back, so that it does not receive shocks in the terrain. Most of them come from the front when the roller hits an obstacle, stone, etc. The increased weight is probably not a disadvantage, because the car's center of gravity rises higher, so the additional weight brought by the rollers only stabilizes the car. In addition, the rollers are usually not driven at high speed, in which case the suspension and shock absorption can cope with the additional weight.
I'm concerned that the 12"" wheels are going to disintegrate.
Im fearful of the bearings not being able to stand up to the speeds but I think he is doing a great job... trial and error is how we learn i guess..
It's nice seeing you going you own direction and getting to use the skills that I know you have. Brother needs to get on board with a R.A.D logo. I think the tires will be lighter than the tracks. I think they look good, but if you run into trouble it will be in the front when you turn because of the force against them. Fun to see them in action.
Your videos are getting better and better! I like how you were able to cram so much progress into 21 min. My only request is that you show a little more of the design. Keep it up!
Your going to want to make an arm that is on the inside frame that can be clamped to the link bar to stop the whole assembly from rotating like a tire
I admire your “I can build that”attitude. It encourages the rest of us DIY guys.
I'd be interested in hearing the cost for this build factoring materials and shop time. They have some pretty streamlined pre-made versions for like 5-10K. Obviously I get that this is more fun, and I'm glad you're doing it!
I like that you are making them. Is cool to see the thought process behind fabricating and engineering something like that.
I'm amazed you've made progress in design. Hate to ask, but how are you going to keep them from flipping up into wheel well? 🙃
In terms of how you're putting the tensioning arms together, the most accurate measurement is the one you don't need to measure. Using the frame to keep stuff aligned is totally a valid option.
My main concern with the 12 inch wheels is that they're going to buckle once you put some side load on them like steering.
It's fun watching you do this, knowing that the whole reason you are doing it is because you can, and you want to. When you started on them at first I figured that you had been in discussions with Casey about them, and he confirmed it on one of his videos, so the fact that you have his experience and use to help out is immense. It will be interesting to see when they are done how they hold up, and I'm also going to be curious as to how they weigh out versus the ones that Casey's running on is Track Jeep. It's the people like you that experiment and make their own systems that sometimes causes the original designers to change how they do things because they see things you have done and go "hmm - why did we do or not do that". RAD in progress!!
The main drive wheel sitting on its side on the floor, looks like a cool industrial chandelier. Rudy’s industrial home design, maybe? ;)
I second this
This is awesome, will kick your channel up to the next level, looking forward to seeing them on it. Do they get any spring tensioning later or is it just gravity on the drop wheel keeping them tight? Keep it up.
Waiting for parts in the mail for the tensioner
They look great ! I am curious regarding the weight comparison, to the wheel/tire.
I've owned and maintained my own snowmobiles and I'm curious to how long the bearings will last on all of your wheels. All of the bearings on snowmobiles are sealed and replaceable. I would pull them and repack them every other year and replace the bad ones. Water, snow and ice is hard on bearings.
Rudy, you have an engineer's mind. You have so much potential as your career progresses. Keep looking for bigger and better pursuits. You're doing an awesome job
If anyone ever doubted your fabrication skills you have definitely proven yourself designing these tracks. You are really good at it!
It’s awesome that you are trying to make your own. Like any first generation product big issues lay ahead. My guess is roller wheels will fail. But mostly importantly I’m watching every video start to finish and isn’t that what it’s all about
Nice job it’s a blast to watch you make this crazy stuff!! Keep up the great work.
Hell yeah Ambition Strikes! Probably my favorite channel right now.
Great concept. Those 4 corner wheels will be trouble. The bearing will fall out of the stamped wheels. Don't wreck your tracks.
I'm afraid the bearings on the 12" wheels will fail quickly as they are not designed for the weight and use you are intending on subjecting them to. Just hope you have a few spares when you do go out to test out the tracks so you can get it back. Great work on the designing otherwise.
Rudy has a great shop: lots of well-lit space. All the tools he needs, right at hand.
Awesome job Rudy and Colin helping you Made your life a little bit easier Can hardly wait To see them working correctly
I think all those axle bolts need to go all the way through, connecting the two adjacent wheels on one shaft.
I accept your reasoning for the project and think you are doing great. I also agree that your big wheels are going to fail first.
Absolutely amazing fabrication and design
I too have serious concerns as to strength of your 12" wheels , can remember useing something similar on a gokart project years ago (they failed miserably lol)
Maybe cut a couple of 12" discs to strengthen up each wheel with some better bearings
But no one ever succeeded without trying
Great job!!!
Колёса от вилочного погрузчика, 12 дюймов, цельнолитые бывают.
GOTTA HAND IT TO YOU, THATS A BIG PROJECT. THANKFULLY YOU HAVE THE SKILLS!
I love this and the spike in content !!! Can't wait to see it drive !!
It would be a very good idea to paint/powder coat your parts to prevent rusting.
Something to think about is offering the plans for your build to help some of you’re followers with a good starting point I’m mostly thinking the hub tooth spacing and like so many can’t wait for the next video ps I’m hoping you are going to be one of the judges at the wrecker Olympics
Looks awesome can’t wait to see it in action
Great Project Rudy !! Do you think it would be beneficial add any type spring tensioner ??
Very impressive engineering and manufacturing. Good job.
Love the fabrication content!! Great project!
Definitely an interesting project for your fleet
You are doing GREAT!!!! Keep up the good stuff Rudy...... Love watching all of you guys!!
Ambitious project for sure. Good job Rudy!
Maybe you should think about some type of adjustable coil over shock with your adjustment rod to give it a little flexibility That will let your track Spring back off the two main front wheels to keep the track tight but what you already put together looks great
This was an awesome build, you remind me of me when I was young, very ambitious and building things way over my head BUT with that said, you have a higher skill set then I did at your age or that I even do now(lol) I don’t know how to do CAD.
So good on ya bud! Keep up the great build! But please don’t lose the street ability of the Rudicon!
So excited about this project. I have watched Casey's channel and seen a lot of his snow rescues with the snow tracks.
Looks like a lot of fun.
Rudy I admire the fact that you are making your own tracks and putting your design skills to the test it's will be trial and error to get them all figured out. I am excited to see how they turn out when you get them done
Looking great !! Thats gonna be waaaay heavier than your tires. Also gonna be a rough ride, I would think pneumatic wheels would be better for that. Or install some shocks in the tracks buuut, that would be tough, sure you could do it.
Cant wait to see them in action ..
The tracks look REALLY Awesome!! I do believe your gonna blow the bearings outa those 12" Wheels pretty Damn quick. I personally haven't had much luck with them in any kind of "extra duty" typed situation, but curious to see how they work out for you. #BuiltByBo.
Lookin good Brutha! I was thinking that you might finish one track completely and mount the one track on the Jeep with the other 3 corners being the normal tires and then driving it for proof on concept That way you only have to make revisions to one track instead of all four. But you're going all in. Looks like so far so good. 👍👍
I’d love to do that but the gearing would be way off
Rudy, you could make tracks that work on snow OR sand, like the Ripsaw. That would be awesome.
Looks good! Can't wait for the next video! I'm a bit concerned about the hub because every 2wd hub I've worked on had a stub shaft in it. They don't come with them from the parts houses for some reason. Idk about the exploders (it's been a while), but at least on XJs, you have to transfer the 2wd ghost stub from the old hub. Just got done doing one last week.
I'm excited to see these in action!
These are awesome. I'd love to see them bolted onto the morrvair
I'm enjoying the content and the new shop! I wonder where you got the new tools and machinery. I'd love to see a mini shop tour sometime. It's great to see you chasing your dreams. I wish you the best! Your mom and dad have done a great job raising you and your brothers.
Very impressive design work Rudy !! Farming out some of the welding work to your brother was a good call 😆, I enjoy it too but after so many hours worth it's nice to take a break... I do have a thought about the larger idler tires loosing their bearing pretty quick , you could revamp the centers with a tube/dom chunk that will carry more weight and be less likely to fail .. Taking into consideration the weight of the vehicle and the force they will see from impact and torque plus getting loaded up with snow & ice I think that's the only weak link... Otherr than that awesome job !!
“What fun is that” is exactly right. Love where your content is headed
Love the "do it, see if it works or breaks then fix it" engineering ethos.
I'll bet after a few test and trial runs, a tweak here and there Rudy will have them working just fine!!
I'm luving this project Rudy. I'm guessing the tracks have to weigh more than a tire and rim assembly. 1½ times as much. Good luck with everything I'm excited to see more
Pretty cool project. Really interested to see how they work out.
That looks great! Gonna be an awesome adventure!
Excellent content....keep it coming and your channel will blow up
Big thumbs up for making these!! You are totally right about making them yourself as there’s no fun in buying them. I am curious to see how the sprocket teeth will hold up to wear. Do you think hardening them would benefit them or would they become too brittle? Look forward to your test videos 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I'm impressed by all that you can do, Rudy. Plus, the quality of your content has improved substantially lately. Great job 👍👍
Thats dope man, i didnt think this was gonna work out as well as it did, time to bolt up and test em out
Way to go Rudy! It is an inspiration to watch to do your thing! Can't wait to wacth the Rudicon roll on those fantastic looking tracks!
Loving it, keep up the great work. Hope these work as well as they look!
Those came out sweet! They definitely look heavier than your tires…
For your unit bearing you might need a cut down cv stub the axle is what maintains bearing preload
I was expecting to see Kaulin's fabulous welding get a well deserved close-up. He kicked butt. Those tracks are looking amazing and there's supposed to be snow Sunday night and Monday. Tight deadline for a test, but...fingers crossed, we'll see the "Ruditerod" out racing dog sleds.
Looking good!!!! Have fun welding the rest of them up!!!!
Wow Rudy theyre turning out awesome I can't wait to see how well they work on a snow wheeling trip.
Very cool build, can't wait to see them in the snow man
Good work! That is an awesome design.
Great idea I'm just worried about if the wheel bearings in the little wheels and bigger wheels that you were using for your tracks will be able to handle the speed without burning up
A very good question , the 12 inch wheels which are designed for a hand truck have a design speed of around 5 to 7 MPH the 5 inch wheels less than that . Years ago a company I worked for sent me to Torrington bearing school . And I learned that if you double the load on a bearing you decrease its life about 8 percent , if you double the speed. you decrease life about 90 percent . Ball bearings are the weakest and roller bearings are best for heavy loads . The wider your roller bearing the better . And lubricants in bearings need special attention on low as well in high temperatures .
Looking good. Enjoy watching you work through this process. I always wait till the next video to see if you answer my thoughts and concerns. So far about 90% questions answered.
If will weight more than the tires.
The way you are doing them is probably how the first set of tracks were built! You never know if you can do until you try!
Great video!! I love seeing you guys work together!
In case I missed it in the Pt1, and I've not yet seen it in this one, make sure you bolt the hub bearing center (where the axle would go through) together, so it doesn't separate. EDIT: @21:00 nevermind ;)
One question, if you go over an obstacle, your little wheels are nearly FIXED and don't move enough in the upwards / downwards movement, will be a problem. Make then more so you have done with that problem. Look at a track from a tank as example.
Great job from concept to rolling piece that's great stuff
Rudy, these tracks are going to do everything you expect them to do. Waiting to see them on your vehicle and in the snow.
God bless ❤️🙏🙏👍👍🌟🌟❤️
Looks great Rudy. Nice work figuring everything out.
I love watching you make/build/weld stuff, ever since the morrvair. Good job buddy. Love the channel
can't wait to see it run!
@Rudys Adventure and Design - Great work so far. I just worry that the attachment to the hub way out at the end is going to be an Achilles heel. What if you added a bolt on bracket that attaches on the inside (nearest the Jeep frame) to the brake caliper mounts with slightly longer bolts, attach a swing arm to the bracket, and put that swing arm onto the frame of the tracks. It would add stiffness on that back side and in theory still allow the whole track to swing as the front of the track lifts up and down going over obstacles. Hope that's making sense.
Also, you may want to consider putting bearings into the area where the small wheels attach to the track frame. They look like they will be constantly see-sawing as the tracks move. Without a bearing they'll likely get hogged out pretty fast even when driving over smooth terrain.
How about connecting the center disc to the outer disc with a large diameter pipe that fits inside the vehicle hub bolt pattern, but over the wheel hub. This will transfer the load directly to the new bearing and track structure in a robust design from the vehicle hub.
@Lynn Bartels I'm not sure how he could fit that hub in a more central location with the design he has. However, by adding a brace on the inside of the tracks it would in theory alleviate the stress created by the lever arm that's hanging off the hub right now. Goal is to move the point where the force is effectively applied ... Into a more central location, without having to relocate the hub. In theory it should work just about as well.
Only downside is having to disconnect something from the back/inside of the tracks in addition to the 4 hub bolts on the outside of the tracks when removing them. Still, if the bracket attached to the caliper mounts is designed right it could stay permanently on the vehicle and use a bolt through a heim joint to connect/disconnect the inside track brace.
I would think you would want the hub/bearing attached to the middle disc (on truck hub) rather than the outside disc. Currently, the force will have to transfer via angle iron to the vehicle hub/axle. A lot of leverage in this design will be the weak link.
That hub is definately a weakness in the design. In the automotive application that hub resides within the inside/outside of the wheel. Having it that far outside the tracks will place a different load on the hub. Also, if and when the hub fails, the whole track will fall off the vehicle. As Mike Jones says, for the tracks, it would be better to create a structure inside and outside of the drive wheel.
One heck of a project, and yes, it would be miles easier, and maybe money ahead, to buy the readymade tracks. Kudos for your confidence to take on such a project. Those 12" solid rubber wheels with cheap bushings are not going to hold up. There's got to be a more robust industrial conveyor belt tire that would work.
Rudy, you are so talented. I love this project. If you had a place to carry one, I think it would be wise to have a "spare tire" track, because when you break one, Murphy's Law will be in effect. If it snowed where I live, I'd want a set also.
That is quite a project! Great job!