Are These Snow Tracks Going To Be Enough??? 

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.

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.

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.

Your larger front 12” wheels will definitely need to be upgraded to utilize sealed or greased bearings. Looking good. Keep it up!

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.

The tracks will definitely weigh more than the tires. Great job Rudy can't wait to see it in action.

I'm concerned that the 12"" wheels are going to disintegrate.

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

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.

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

Just remember ..... You get what you pay for. I believe the 12'' Bogeys are not going to stand up to the steady pounding. And the smaller wheels look like some I purchased at Harbor Freight for my tool box. The weather destroyed them in 2 years.

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.

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.

The main drive wheel sitting on its side on the floor, looks like a cool industrial chandelier. Rudy’s industrial home design, maybe? ;)

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.

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..

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.

Hey Rudy. Hows the snow tracks coming? You didn't post last week. Leaving me hanging bro.

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

You stated you anticipate brake-age because you intend to utilize them to their maximum and finding week spot (reading between the lines of your comment) you should make a 5th one as a spare for when that moment happens.

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.

Great concept. Those 4 corner wheels will be trouble. The bearing will fall out of the stamped wheels. Don't wreck your tracks.

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!

😊the 1st . hi Rudy lol

Excellent content....keep it coming and your channel will blow up

Those 12 inch wheels and maybe you got the 10 inch there as well, dolly cart wheels, soft steel bearing, meant for light loads, we used these in cub scouts cub mobile racing. Need some heavier sealed bearings, for those wheels, the races are just press fit into those wheels. They can actually suck into the wheel two havles. The races will fail, if you get 20 miles out of them at 20 miles per hour, I'd be surprised.

YAY!!!

Nice work but not having quality wheels and sealed bearings is going to be your demise.

Great Project Rudy !! Do you think it would be beneficial add any type spring tensioner ??

Basically this is a basic understanding of how tracks basically are put together..... basically :)

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? 🙃

What program do you use for your computer design

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 !

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.

wheres ur next video? come on now!

It has been a year when do we get to see the tracks work. Cool vide sir.

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.

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 think all those axle bolts need to go all the way through, connecting the two adjacent wheels on one shaft.

I love you and your channel Rudy Not sending hate, just trying to help... You need a rail system with hyfax similar to a snowmobile to support the weight of the Jeep. The little wheels are just to aid the track around the rails. Those wheels will break or bend first hard obstacle you hit...

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.

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.

Brilliant work Rudy 👍🙂👍

Them bearings on your big wheels are junk just feel them they are dry lose good for nothing. No good will not last 1 hour guaranteed I promise. Knock them out and toss in some timken bearings or moog bearings immediately

@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.

I like to have a set of these for my blazer

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.

Baby Rojo Beard, you're very talented. Those tracks look amazing!!!

Love your content.

I am concerned that the attachment bracket to the hub is NOT heavy enough. There will be tremendous stress at that point, especially when you are steering in heavy snow. Bob from Wisconsin. Lots of snow cats for grading snowmobile trails.

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.

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

Those came out sweet! They definitely look heavier than your tires…

Do those wheels have bearings? Snowmobile rear suspension idler wheels might be worth a shot if those don’t work out. My atv tracks use them.

I like that you are making them. Is cool to see the thought process behind fabricating and engineering something like that.

“What fun is that” is exactly right. Love where your content is headed

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 ..

Pretty awesome rudy! Look/ great dude!

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!!!

I think those little wheels will work if they have bigger bearings. Ideally you could use Honda or Toyota wheel bearings (not the hubs, just the bearings- look those up on ebay). You can cut the centers out of the wheels you have and weld in the Honda bearings with little gussets, etc.. then use a pipe as your axle for them. Because those front wheels are going to take the most contact as you hit things and run over rocks, etc.. and it needs to be super strong on those front wheels. Your small shaft and bearings are too small on those front wheel IMO.. But the steel wheels themselves would probably still be ok, once you welded in those honda bearings with several triangle gussets on each side... Those are like double bearings on the inside, that's why they would work so well for this..... The rest of the wheels might still be ok, but those front wheels are quite a bit more crucial, if you want things to survive a beating. Cheers

Good work! That is an awesome design.

2 videos in 2 days? Hell yes!

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 be willing to bet no matter what steel you use it’s still gonna be at least 300lbs per track unit. Still worried about the drive “sprocket” destroying that track with how sharp and pointy and thin the teeth are going into the track clips

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.

I know you wanted to do this but all the money you spent and your time is money you could have bought some with a warranty

So awesome looking too

Axel size, diameter is the starting point to determine durability of these track assembly along with the oa diameter of the wheels themselves. What I see here is a proof of design build.

Go!

not sure about those wagon lookin wheels holding up, can't find video where testdrive?

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

How about you build 2 track's fit them on the back and go for a drive The front wheel hubs you used why not put a shaft in the middle for additional strength Great series can't wait to see you in the snow with them

Definitely an interesting project for your fleet

Pretty sure your fail point is going to be the bearings in the big wheels. Not sure if the steel in them is stout enough to merit a bearing upgrade.

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!!

Did you ever finish the tracks I haven't seen a follow up video? Just curious.

How is the part that attaches to the hub going to hold all that weight? Even with gussets it looks like the weak link. I appreciate the effort but those wheels will never last. You and your Father are the Best!

Why would anybody hate upon you we're just having fun seeing what we can build out of steel I know it's expensive but hey it really looks cool there's too many haters in this world I think it's cool and you're having fun but where is the lovely Chanel as long as you're having a good time I'm having a blast just watching thank you

Dang it Rudy! Now I want to build these. I live in San Diego and have absolutely no need (plus a bunch of other priority projects for my jeep), but after watching these past 2 videos, I'm starting to think of reasons to convince my wife to move to the snow.

Maybe on the ends of the tracks; instead of using the double wheels for a garden cart, use a single 12" trailer wheel and tire.

wow , uploaded 15 mins ago .. 2k views & 200 likes .. go Rudy

Got a link to the tracks by chance? Can't make heads or tails on the 30+ advertisers..

You can do it Rudy.🤙🏾👍🏽🖐🏽🖖🏽✋🏽🙋🏽‍♂️😊😎

The 12" wheels mounted on the half moon adjusters - is the pivot going to be strong enough in single shear?

You should consider limiting straps to keep them from stubbing the toe or heel of the track into your Jeep body

❤ Keeping your Channel on-Track in the comment section 👍😎✊

Crazy build, looking good ! Love Utah !!

Dog … please get with MY needs program!

Thats fun to watch... Iam Just doing the Same for my 1/10 scale Truck 😄 greetings from Germany

Idk how much this project costs but I'm sure it's substantially cheaper

Damn dude I waited to see a update on your tracks and never happened any plan to finish what you started ?

Love it … re-inventing a wheel Rudy’s adventurous way!

You think the wheel bearings are going to hold up they look kinda weak.

golf cart wheels will work the best!. what you have now are to light weight. love it

Could I get the link for the tracks

Your large wheels have a single point of failure and the bolts will shear off. You need an outside arm support so the big wheel will be supported properly when the track hits something at an outside edge angle.

What happened to the snow tracks for the Rudicon??

I think the whole track assembly is going to weigh at least 50% more than the tire. That's my guess😁 That was a LOT of fabrication to design and make all the pieces for those tracks. Looks to me like you nailed it!! I'm looking forward to the test drive!!!

This is a fascinating project. You sure do show a lot of design and fabrication skill! Watching this stuff sure makes a fella' wish he had a proper garage and workshop! Just a comment from watching Casey LaDelle videos with his tracked Jeep: www.youtube.com/@CascadeHeavyRescue The leading and trailing wheels are much smaller. The leading wheel is higher, like to give the front edge of the track an angle of attack on the snow. But the bigger wheel you used maybe does the same thing? Also, your frame for the wheels looks a lot beefier. Looking forward to see you test this out in snow!

When you gonna finish the tracks, and give us a run video?