Tracks for ATV

I’m looking for comments from experience with tracks for an ATV. I see several used sets for sale. Is that because they are not the best thing since sliced bread? Or do they wear out quite fast.

After using a ranger with tracks I don’t know that I would want to run tracks on anything without a cab. Lots of snow flying and slush is even worse. If you weren’t making any long runs or planned on taking it slow it would not be as bad but at any amount of speed in soft snow the wipers were always going. They are pretty amazing on what they will go through until you get one stuck.

they use a lot more fuel

From my limited experience…

3 negatives. Get the biggest engine model, they require horsepower, they eat fuel so be prepared to haul extra fuel for long trips and last, if you don’t have a fully enclosed cab you’ll be going slow or you better be wearing scuba gear. You WILL be drenched by day’s end. That is, IF, your engine can turn them….

Best advise I can offer is to figure out some way to try them before you buy.

Good luck

Ive been looking at tracks too for a trip to Canada this year and I was also told to check out Jwheelz? anyone have any experience with these?

Brady Valberg wrote:

Ive been looking at tracks too for a trip to Canada this year and I was also told to check out Jwheelz? anyone have any experience with these?

I was going to ask exactly the same thing. Anybody running Jwheelz? Obviously they are probably a step down from tracks in terms of overall PSI on the ground contact area, but are they 75% as good at 25% of the cost?

Grouse

A guy i work with who fishes the mobridge sd tourny every year said there was a group of guys from canada last year that had them and loved them but id like a few more personal experience reviews first but yes i can justify $600 vs $4000 for a trip or two to canada and i only have a 450 wheeler and from what i heard might b a waste to get tracks

I put a set of camoplast tatou t4s tracks on a 2012 sportsman 400ho last year and the difference is incredible they are geared for the size of your machine by the size of the drive sprockets on the tracks. The ATV has no problem with the tracks and it goes through snow with ease very impressed on what this machine does with tracks, I would highly recommend them

Atv’s with tracks are not a snowmobile. If your only gonna make short runs under a couple miles they are ok. Not the answer for long runs.
Neg: High fuel consumption, slower travel speeds, throw snow everywhere including icing up your undercarriage. I froze my rear brake up on my grizzly on one trip. Lots of steering torque. They don’t go thru soft snow deeper than what your ground clearance is and they don’t like slush pockets.
My preference is to have the ATV with oversized tires and a long track sled.
That way you are covered for most situations.

I put tracks on Polaris 570 Sportsman SP last year when I bought them, the snow has been marginal but when I do find something worth while the are awesome. The SP has EPS steering so that helps. It cuts the speed down to a little over half of the tire equipped speed. But 25 to 30 is pretty good pulling all my gear.

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I have an 850 Polaris touring ( 2 up model) and have the Camoplast T4S model tracks for it. I only used them one time and am selling them but for that one time, because I was in powder snow, I didn’t get soaked and my undercarriage, that is the tracks themselves, didn’t get plugged up with snow. The other guy I was riding with who was on an 800 Can Am and had a different brand of tracks didn’t have any trouble either. We rode for 2 days and went through only a little more fuel than if we were riding with tires and bucking a foot to 15″ of snow. But we were able to go pretty much any where we wanted to go. The snow was probably 6′ deep with 1 1/2′ of powder. We had a blast. We went back to camp at the end of each day but other than gas them up, we didn’t do anything to prepare for the next days outing.

Comoplast (now camso, I think) work very well. Better than your average snowmobile in deep powder. The ones I used were on a 700 UTV without power steering. While my buddies were getting stuck with long track 500 cc sleds, the side by side floated right over the top of 3’ of snow. I tried to get it stuck and couldn’t.

Cons, they throw a LOT of snow. It’s almost comical. My striker suit weighed 30 lbs as the snow would melt from the engine heat after it landed on me.

Steering wasn’t very difficult.

They do burn more fuel and as mentioned your speed will be cut in half.

Lake Slush scares me. Get it stuck and good luck as they are heavy!

Overall I think they’re a better option than a high HP long track sled as it is one less machine to maintain, license, etc.

And snowmobiles don’t have winches!

I think J Wheelz is out of business. They never really got any traction (pun intended) seen a used set on Craigslist the other day. I have a 900 XP Ranger with fully enclosed cab so it would be a excellent candidate for tracks but I just can’t justify the cost. I have over sized mud tires on it and they will get me through stuff I want to get through. If there’s 3′ of snow on the ice and 6″ of slush underneath it I don’t want to stand and fish in that anyhow.

http://j-wheelz.com/product_information.html

I wouldn’t mind having tracks on my Mule Pro MX with a cab but the camso website says there is permanent interference and nobody says what that exactly is. I would likely need an extension for my snowplow so the tracks wouldn’t contact it when angled

I have tracks on a 700 kodiak haven’t had any problems yet and have hit a lot of snow and slush

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John Timm wrote:

And snowmobiles don’t have winches![/quote Oh yes they do!

What, 1 in 10000 have a winch!?

Great, now I’ve got another project. Put winch on sled.

Oh yes they do!!! See a Ski Doo Skandic or Expedition utility sled with 20/24″ track. 2,500# winch and towing capacity of 1,500#

I have yet to ever see a sled with a winch, let alone hear of one. From what you guys say there is a couple out there.

Just was out on the lake with the S x S, full windshield, netting doors, just tires and chains, no tracks. Fricken covered with snow, everywhere! Can’t imanage
what kind of powder tracks would kick up.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Just was out on the lake with the S x S, full windshield, netting doors, just tires and chains, no tracks. Fricken covered with snow, everywhere! Can’t imanage
what kind of powder tracks would kick up.

Picture please!!

I had a set of Camoplast tracks on a 2014 570 Polaris Sportsman. Probably put around 800 miles on them with no issues. Most of those miles were on lake Winnipeg. Yes, they use more gas than tires and they are slower, but I never came close to running out of gas running all over lake Winnipeg in a day. I had bad luck with snowmobiles so I got rid of the headache and got the tracks. I had a few issues with the Polaris, so I just traded it in on a new 520 Honda Rubicon and put a set of new Camso tracks on it. I’ve had it out a couple of times and very happy with it so far.