Farmers who’ve switched from tires to tracks all miss one thing: air. Tracks jolt, jive and torture man and machine. Tires let you ride on cushions of — well — air.
The Trelleborg Mitas PneuTrac isn’t quite an inflatable track, but for now it’s the closest thing we have. In a perfect blue-sky world, farmers could buy implements with genuine inflatable rubber tracks. These miracle tracks would provide the superior traction and flotation of tracks. And with a pair of elongated air-filled rubber bladder balloons rolling over the earth, they would also give a better ride than any tire could.
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Is this just wishful thinking? Is it like when the dirt bike guys get together for a beer around the campfire and some guy says, “Man, wouldn’t it be great if they built a two-wheel drive dirt bike? And all the other guys chime in, “Yeah, yeah, that would be really great, but they don’t exist.”
Whoa! Back up your 350-single boys. Not only are there a dozen two-wheel drive motorcycles on the market today, but in the past half-century there have been literally scores of different full-size working tractors running on pneumatic rubber tracks.
First, we’ll take a brief glance at some of our favorite two-wheel drive bikes. For the front-wheel assist, they employ chain drive, cable drive, hydraulic drive and even electric drive front.
Search online for “two-wheel drive motorcycles” and you’ll find a rundown of the top 10 front-wheel assist bikes, including genuine production model two-wheel drive bikes from the likes of Suzuki, Yamaha and BMW.
Firestone field engineer Wayne Birkenholz once said that “Air supports the tractor. A tire is nothing more than a strong rubber container holding air.”
He went on to explain that manufacturers haven’t yet figured out how to mass produce reliable pneumatic tracks. In the meantime, they build ag radials that flex laterally for a wider footprint and they build solid rubber tracks that create a longitudinal footprint.
But what about true inflatable rubber tracks for ag tractors? Tracks that are pumped up to maximize traction and flotation, and give the operator a smoother ride? Actually, there have been dozens built and tested since the end of the Second World War.
Located in the Czech Republic, Mitas was at the intellectual hub for inflatable rubber tractor tracks. Most of these innovations seem to have come from Russia and Eastern Europe. While details are not available, the photos tell us that after the Second World War, Russia poured a lot of money into the development of pneumatic rubber tracks for military vehicles. Not to be out done, the American military also built a bunch of these unusual test vehicles.
For a look at some interesting machines, enter Pneumatic Tracks Unusual Locomotion into your internet browser. You’ll find many examples of what has been tried.
