FARGO, N.D. – A quick glance at the STX might suggest it’s just another QuadTrack. Then the details start to come into focus.
There is no QuadTrack decal and the rubber tracks are narrow, wrapping around 62-inch diameter drive wheels sporting big, aggressive teeth to power the belt. If it sits beside a QuadTrack, difference in the geometry of the triangle are apparent. It’s taller, to accommodate the big driver.
The unique track system, called Fargo Track, is a new aftermarket product engineered and marketed by Fargo Products and available for STX and Magnum tractors.
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Fargo Track is not designed to be an aftermarket kit to convert round rubber tire tractors into T tractors. Rather, it is engineered for producers who need the traction of rubber tracks, but without their big, wide footprint. The Fargo Track comes in only one width – 16 inches.
For grain farmers, the rear-axle-only kit allows a Magnum to pull a sprayer at 24 km-h with barely a hint on the ground that a tractor had been in the field. It also allows spraying operations to continue on schedule, even in axle-deep water.
For row crop farmers, it allows fieldwork in corn, sunflowers, potatoes, beets and beans without trampling the rows. One grower in Nebraska pulls a mammoth 80-foot Kinsey planter with an STX equipped with Fargo Tracks, front and rear.
So far, the kits are available only for the rear on Magnums and all four corners on STX models. The retail price is $34,000 US per axle, so a Magnum costs $34,000 to convert and an STX costs $68,000.
Eugene Breker, one of the people behind the Fargo Track project, said it may sound expensive.
“But if you’re a row crop farmer, there is absolutely nothing on the market that gives you centre-articulated, narrow track and four-wheel-drive,” he said.
“The QuadTrack doesn’t do it for you because the tracks are a minimum of 30 inches wide. And any of the narrow track units are twin tracks, which creates their own set of problems.”
Although the public debut of the Fargo Track takes place Sept. 13-15 at the Big Iron Show in Fargo, about two dozen farmer-owned Case tractors have already seen heavy field duty with prototype kits.
Three of these are STX, while the rest are Magnums. One set of tracks has already logged 900 hours without a problem.
Breker said most of the kits have gone on the rear axles of Magnums, with the intent to convert a common tractor design like the Magnum into a better, faster sprayer tractor that would leave less crop damage. However, the exclusive mechanical track drive system provides an additional benefit greater than anticipated.
“The drive simply does not slip,” Breker said. “It’s 100 percent positive mechanical drive, so you get zero slippage between the drive axle and the rubber track. Slip between the belt and the field surface is nearly nonexistent. In normal field operations, without the mechanical front wheel drive engaged, we get between one and two percent slippage between the rubber track and the soil. Frankly, you do not need your front wheel assist.”
Breker said the company has conducted side-by-side field tests with rubber tired Magnums. The round tired tractor had triples at the rear with a full ballast load and duals at the front with a full ballast load.
“We had the maximum allowable tires and weight and the rubber tired Magnum continually documented six to seven percent slippage. With our tracks at the rear only, and without front assist or ballast, we repeatedly documented one to two percent slippage in the same conditions.”
He said tracks reduce tractor weight, increase the workload, burn less fuel and eliminate eight rubber tires.
“You take six tires off the rear and two off the front. When you look at a cost of about $2,000 for each wheel and tire, tracks start to become more attractive.”
Breker said Fargo’s system is the only rubber track in agriculture that does not use friction drive. Large teeth on the drive wheel precisely mesh with the inner drive lugs on the belt.
“We don’t rely on friction at all, so the tension on our belt is only 3,000 pounds. Compare that to 10,000 lb. on the QuadTrack and 16,000 to 20,000 lb. for the John Deere and Cat. Tighter track tension means that alignment becomes more critical. If the alignment isn’t perfect, there will be down time and repair bills. With lower belt tension, all we need is a spring tensioner. We don’t even need hydraulics for anything.”
He said lower belt tension provides longer life for belts, bearings and mechanical components.
“We use most of the same components as Case, Deere and Cat, so I think it’s reasonable to say we’re not putting as much load on those parts,” he added.
“We could probably get by with lower quality components, but from a business point of view, we have less risk if we buy the same components the tractor manufacturers have already field tested for 10 years.”
He said Fargo Products contract out the casting for its own designs on the drive wheel, rollers, bogies, idlers, hubs and locating links.
Goodyear 16-inch belt
Because the new system is designed to put a positive drive, narrow track on the market, there was no possibility of buying an existing belt. The Fargo Track requires its own unique belt, with five-inch drive lugs.
Goodyear was able to meet the requirement with a custom built belt similar to the QuadTrack belt and with the same internal steel cable. However, the QuadTrack belt is not interchangeable with the Fargo belt.
The Fargo belt has the same 252-inch diameter, but because it’s produced in small quantities, each belt is cured in four sections rather than as one continuous belt.
“Once we have enough pro-duction so Goodyear can build a continuous mould for us, our costs will come down and our selling price to the farmer will come down,” Breker said.
“But it’s a million to a million and a half dollars to build the mould, so we’re still dealing with the higher cost of custom-built tracks.”
The company’s first experimental tracks had 25 percent lug surface and 75 percent open area.
These small lugs put too much weight on the rubber and generated too much heat. The final design that goes into the production belt has 50 percent lug surface and 50 percent open area.
“The killer for any rubber track is heat generated in highway transit,” Breker said. “Keeping the highway temperature down is a big concern. On the Magnum, our track has a 10 percent smaller diameter than the rear tires it replaces.”
He said the Magnum’s normal highway speed of 39 to 40 km-h has been reduced to 32 to 34 km-h with the tracks.
“So, slowing it down a little helps keep the tracks cooler.”
The smaller diameter track does create a slight problem if a Magnum operator expects to use front wheel assist on hard surfaces with good traction. The original front tires must be replaced with tires that are 10 percent smaller in diameter so the front and rear final drive ratios match. If a tire trade can’t be arranged, this could add $2,000 to the overall cost. On the STX, of course, when all four corners get the identical tracks, diameter is not an issue.
The system is designed to quickly switch back and forth between tires and tracks, providing operators with the option of going back to the original tires when they think that’s more appropriate.
Installation of the Fargo Track requires no welding, cutting, drilling, tapping or machining. It’s almost as easy as changing tires, but with a little more wrench work for the extra brackets and braces.
The kit employs a special bolt-on housing to support the big drive wheel. It includes a reinforcing brace for the side axle housing along with structural framework that fastens to existing bolt holes on the tractor. Kits are different for the Magnum and STX.
“Between 65 and 70 percent of the weight is carried directly on the tractor frame, not on the axle housing,” said Breker, adding that the weight transfer is just one aspect of what makes the system perform so well in slippage tests.
The primary reason for the high degree of torque transfer from the tractor to the soil is the precise location of the pivot point below the axle.
As with any such technological advancement, a thorough knowledge of previous technology is an asset. In this case, the engineer on the Fargo Track project is Pete Peterson, the engineer who did much of the design work on the Case QuadTrack.
“That exact location of that pivot affects so many things,” Breker said. “Pete has it located so that no matter how much torque we apply, the rubber track pulls itself flat. We don’t get that heel-back effect you get with twin tracks. With a conventional twin track, you have less than eight feet of rubber on the soil and they’re almost never flat on the ground. They experience heel back and they don’t conform to the contour. Now, if you set up an STX with four of these tracks, you get 11 feet of rubber on the ground and it’s divided into four independent surfaces that are continuously searching for a way to be flat on the ground.”
On the Magnum tractors, the contact patch is shorter than the twin track John Deere or Cat, but heel back has been eliminated.
“Plus, if the going really gets tough, the operator still has the option of engaging the front wheel assist.”
Breker said his company has had no problem borrowing existing technology. Fargo Products has been working with Case Tractor because more uses for the STX and Magnum mean more potential tractor sales.
“We’re not building an alternative to the QuadTrack. This is a totally different market that we’re opening. We have a common interest with Case Tractor. In fact, Case will still provide full warranty on tractors with the Fargo Tracks. As for previous knowledge, without a doubt we’re leveraging off knowledge from Case. Technology continues to advance, only because engineers are able to feed off what has already been developed. We actually do have a number of new patents that are unique to our system. But you know, most of what you see in the world is a new application of previous technology.”
Breker said the unusual combination of tracks at the back and tires at the front on the Magnum conversions seems to have created an effect the company had not anticipated.
“The front tires seem to dampen out much of the bucking commonly associated with rubber tracked tractors. Plus we’re not getting any of the tire hop or tire wobble from those front tires. The rear tracks seem to provide a very stable platform. You can sip tea while you’re spraying at 14 mph (23 km-h).”
Fargo Track is also developing a non-driven rubber track undercarriage for sprayers using the same belt.
