Wrap-Around Tracks Out-Perform 4WD, Duals

Wrap-Around Tracks Out-Perform 4WD, Duals COMBINES Traction Devices 10-5-4 Those wrap-around tractor and combine tracks we first told you about last winter (Vol. 10, No. 1) are selling like hotcakes as another harvest approaches. One farmer who's tried them says he bought them for his New Holland TR70 combine this spring to harvest corn still in the fields after rain turned his fields into mud bogs last fall. "It worked its way through ground you couldn't even walk through. If I had had these last fall, I could have finished harvest," says Russell Leichtfuss, who farms near Fond du Lac, Wis. He also bought a set of tracks for his tractor. The specially cleated tracks wrap around the outer circumference of the tire. The cleats, 4 in. by 6 in. and made out of 3/8-in. thick angle iron, are a couple inches wider than the tire. Because each cleat flexes on individual hinges, the tracks self-clean. Manufacturer Jim Vanderloop, of Modern Agri-Systems, says the tracks get equipment through conditions that duals and 4-WD can't handle. "One farmer was pulling a forage chopper through a field with Cat Tracks and had a big 4-WD tractor standing by to help. The 4-WD got stuck and the smaller 2-WD with Cat Tracks pulled it out." In addition to tractors and combines, Vanderloop also makes tracks to fit irrigation system drivewheels, Prices range from $1,100 to $4,500. For more information, contact FARM SHOW Followup, Modern Agri-Systems, W. 2817 Dundas Rd. Brillion, Wis. 54110 (ph 414 766-5785).

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